Photo by Matt Messina
Written By: Ryan Baker, Journalist
The Minnesota Wind Chill continued their dominance at their rivals’ home field, Breese Stevens Field, after a 22-16 win against the Madison Radicals this past Friday night. This gives them their seventh consecutive win against Madison, now claiming 12 of the last 13 games against their friends to the east.
Minnesota’s defense has continually been the backbone of the team through their first six games of the season. They were able to put 11 breaks and 14 blocks throughout the game, and most notably broke the game wide open with four straight breaks in the third quarter.
“It's been a changing of the guard. Madison is a storied franchise in the UFA, and when I came in, they were the team to beat. It's been a slow come-up. We took our licks in the beginning, but we have flipped the script,” said Bryan Vohnoutka.
The first half for the reigning champs was a bit rocky. On the first point, Paul Krenik dropped the disc that led to a Madison break out of the gate. Luckily, on the next point, after an errant throw from Will Brandt, Madison gave the disc right back, allowing Minnesota to get a dirty hold.
After the first quarter, Minnesota saw themselves up one in a game that was going to be a grind. Three of the nine points played in the first were longer than two minutes. This is where the depth for the wind Chill started to kick in.
Photo by Matt Messina
The second quarter was a bit more fluid, but the Wind Chill’s offense still hadn’t found their groove. Minnesota knew that they had to turn up the dial to push this game out of reach. After a switch of Tristan Van de Moortele to O-line and Leo Sovell-Fernandez to D-line, they found more success.
“We clearly have some things we need to work on, as far as conversion. Our break percentage is really solid, but just giving the disc back, and the ill-advised decisions. Fortunately, these guys can afford to do that when they’re playing defense the way they are and still help us get the right result…” said head coach Ben Feldman.
A Sovell-Fernandez hand block led to an absolute 52-yard laser from Sam Berglund to Blake Krapfl. Just a few points later, Josh Klane sent up a prayer at the end of the first half that James Pollard ended up snatching out of the air to go up 11-9.
Photo by Matt Messina
After the break and some words at halftime from Feldman and his staff, the game was turned on its head. A dropped huck from Klane to Brandt on the first point out of half had fans wondering how the rest of this game was going to turn out, but Minnesota quickly put everything to bed.
“All it was, was that it wasn’t enough. We know we have the legs on this team. We know we have the depth defensively to continue to push, grind, and get the turns. It's just, can we punch in the breaks? When we start to do that, we can be an avalanche and be tough to work against,” said Vohnoutka.
A five-point run with four breaks, multiple layout blocks, and mistakes by Madison, resulted in the Wind Chill running up the score to a six-point lead at the end of the third quarter. The Wind Chill took the life out of Breese Stevens and drained the Madison squad.
“We knew we had a lot more in the tank. I think it was a mental shift and halftime speech that made us turn it on. We started executing a little bit better, valuing the disc more in that third quarter, and we saw what happened,” said Gordon Larson.
They just needed to ride out the lead the rest of the game, and that is exactly what they did. The fourth quarter was fairly even, with both teams putting five points apiece.
“Once again, it feels like our defense absolutely carries us through games. It feels like we have the best defense in the league, but we've got a lot of things to figure out on my end of the ball,” said Brandt.
Photo by Matt Messina
Individually, it was a master class performance from Vohnoutka, continuing his success against Madison. He walked away with five goals, two assists, one block, and a perfect 24/24 completion rate that led to 368 total yards.
Van de Moortele and Larson both had stellar games as well, combining for seven assists, three goals, three blocks, and more than 750 total yards. Meanwhile, Justin Burnett has continued to validate the hype around his defensive play, getting two blocks in his debut at Breese Stevens Field.
“The crowd was really loud. They were heckling throughout the first half, and then I just didn't hear a peep out of them from the third quarter on. It was fantastic to have that atmosphere, and just feel the change in the crowd,” said Burnett.
The win puts Minnesota at 5-1 at the halfway point in their season, but they still sit behind an undefeated Chicago Union team. Feldman and company will look to secure another win against the Indianapolis AlleyCats this upcoming weekend, then have some time off before a doubleheader Fourth of July weekend.
