By RICHIE HALL
The Indianapolis AlleyCats made some history Saturday night at the Grand Park Events Center.
The AlleyCats, Indy’s ultimate disc team, beat the Chicago Wildfire 26-22. With the victory, the AlleyCats improved to a franchise record 7-1 for the season and puts them firmly in control of their playoff destiny. The AlleyCats are on top of the AUDL (American Ultimate Disc League) Midwest standings, moving ahead of the Madison Radicals.
“We don’t want to stop here,” said AlleyCats player Kip Curtis. “Nothing’s guaranteed as of right now, so we want to keep going.”
The AlleyCats never trailed in the game, and the contest was only tied four times. The latest tie was at 6-6 early in the second quarter, but Indianapolis scored three consecutive goals to go ahead 9-6 and seize the momentum.
Rick Gross started the run with an assist to Levi Jacobs. Then came the big one: Keegan North hurled a pass about three-quarters of the length of the field and Cameron Brock caught it in the end zone, this after a back-and-forth between the two teams that lasted over three minutes. The AlleyCats scored their third goal less than a minute later, with Conner Henderson passing to Aaron Schwartz.
Indianapolis went on another three-goal tear in the third quarter. Keenan Plew assisted to Brock, Jon Wenger sent a goal pass to Henderson, and Spencer Loscar threw to Travis Carpenter, who made a spectacular diving catch for the goal, and that put the AlleyCats up 16-11.
Even with that lead, the AlleyCats continued to play at a high level of intensity for the remainder of the game.
“Five points is pretty comfortable, yeah, but it’s definitely within striking distance, even within one quarter,” said AlleyCats coach Eric Leonard. “Teams can go on runs of five, six, seven, eight goals or more. We didn’t want to get more comfortable near the end. I was certainly nervous the whole time.”
Both teams played well defensively. There were several times when they played what would be analogous to a basketball man-to-man defense, guarding within inches of each other. But patient and crisp passing allowed the AlleyCats to handle the defense.
“I think we did a good job of playing contained ‘D,’ said Curtis. “We followed our game plan. We didn’t want to give them big shots. We kept those to a minimum, made them get multiple passes up the line and then that gave us a good chance to get breaks throughout the game.
“We utilized our match-ups well. We put the right people on the right guys and then that basically allowed us to play physical if we need to or play off our guys if we need to.”
“Our defense plays with so much intensity, so much heart,” said Leonard. “Playing indoors, it’s always really tough to get a block and they work their butt off to get those blocks. Tonight we converted at a pretty good rate, so I was pretty happy.”
Rick Gross led the AlleyCats offense by scoring seven goals, with Carpenter getting four goals. North made seven assists, while Plew had four assists. Nick Hutton made two Ds, or defensive plays.
The AlleyCats next play at the Minnesota Wind Chill on Saturday, then return to Grand Park on Sunday, June 17 to take on the Madison Radicals – the only team that’s beaten them this season.
Cameron Brock (3) makes a catch during the Indianapolis AlleyCats’ Saturday evening game with the Chicago Wildfire at the Grand Park Events Center. The AlleyCats beat the Wildfire 26-22 to improve to a franchise record 7-1. (Mike Gross)
Travis Carpenter makes a diving catch in the end zone. (Mike Gross)