By RICHIE HALL
The Indy AlleyCats have made themselves right at home at Grand Park Events Center.
Indianapolis’ ultimate disc team began playing at Grand Park in May, and have won all four of the games that have taken place there. The last two wins were significant, as it helped the AlleyCats finally achieve a sought-after goal.
The AlleyCats are going back to the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) playoffs for the first time in four years. Last Sunday at Grand Park, Indy beat its rival, the Madison Radicals, 21-20 in a game that wasn’t decided until there were 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Travis Carpenter caught a pass from Keegan North to get the deciding score. Rick Gross then deflected away a long pass into the end zone to preserve Indy’s lead.
On Saturday, the AlleyCats returned to Grand Park to host the Detroit Mechanix. Detroit is winless this season, and Indy overcame a slow start to eventually dominate the Mechanix.
The final score was 40-20; the 40 points set a new scoring record for the AlleyCats. It also improved Indy’s record to 9-2 and clinched a playoff berth.
“It feels great,” said AlleyCats coach Eric Leonard. “We haven’t been to the playoffs since 2014. This is my first time as a head coach in the playoffs. I’m excited. We achieved a season-long goal, and so everything from here is just extra.”
The AlleyCats broke out of a 5-5 tie late in the first quarter, eventually leading 9-5 at the end of the period. Indy scored again to open the second quarter before the Mechanix got back-to-back points.
At halftime, the AlleyCats led 17-9. It was a nice advantage, but the players were dissatisfied.
“It’s very easy to come into a game where we’re playing against a team that hasn’t won a single game yet, and we just beat our big rival in Madison here, the week before,” said AlleyCats player John Jones. “It’s hard to not get in the trap of, ‘Oh, we beat them, we deserve to win this game.'”
“I don’t think our focus was quite there,” said Cameron Brock, another AlleyCat player. “We weren’t super-intense. We were even commentating after the first quarter that it was really quiet on our sideline. And last week, we were loud, we were communicating with each other, and this week we just really didn’t have that intensity to start off with.”
Indy came out firing in the second half, scoring four points within the first three minutes. The AlleyCats steadily built their lead from there, with another four straight goals late in the quarter. At the end of the third period, Indy led 30-15.
“We had a pretty sloppy first half by our own standards, and then we picked it up at the second half of the game,” said Jones.
“We stepped it up after the first quarter, much more intense, much more focused, and the score reflects that,” said Brock. “Our other quarters were much better after the first quarter.”
The AlleyCats reached the 40-point mark with 22 seconds left in the game. Colin Ringwood found Alex Henderson in the end zone for the game’s final score.
Jones was the player of the game with five goals, two defensive stops (Ds) and one assist, while Brock scored six goals and made two assists. Spencer Loscar scored four goals and Henderson, all of 18 years old, had four goals, two “Ds” and one assist. Leonard was happy to see the younger players have quality minutes in the game. Seventeen different players scored at least one goal.
“It’s huge for us,” said Leonard. “Someone like Alex Henderson, who’s just 18, coming out and lighting up the stat board, playing really solid defense, really great offense. It doesn’t really help us now, but it helps us in the future. It’s going to be great.”
Travis Carpenter dished out five assists, while Connor Lukas, Peter Carleton and Donovan Triplett each had four. Gross, Aaron Schwartz and Kip Curtis all had three “Ds.”
The AlleyCats will travel to Madison next Saturday (June 30) for a re-match with their rivals, then play at the Chicago Wildfire on July 7. Indy’s final regular-season game will be at Grand Park, against the Minnesota Wind Chill on July 14.
John Jones was the Indy AlleyCats’ Player of the Game Saturday against the Detroit Mechanix. Jones had five goals, two “Ds” and one assist in the AlleyCats’ 40-20 win over Detroit, which clinched them a berth in the AUDL playoffs. (Mike Gross)
Spencer Loscar (right) scored four goals for the AlleyCats. (Mike Gross)