After a stinging sudden death loss to Los Angeles the week before, the Growlers bested the Seattle Cascades on Seattle’s home field with a commanding 30-25 win. Despite Seattle’s best efforts, the Growlers led the entire way through, and fended off a late game surge to close out the game.
Once the Growlers got going on offense, they were tough to stop. Team captain Travis Dunn continued his season-long campaign of outdueling any and all defenders, either assisting or scoring most of the Growlers early points in the game -- and ending with a 5 goal, 7 assist offensive performance.
It wasn’t just Dunn that caught fire this game. The entire offensive unit played a near perfect game for most of the first half, only missing on one goal opportunity in the first two quarters. “We did a good job of staying calm and collected.” said Dunn. “Offensively we just took the shots we needed but mostly worked the disc downfield well and weren’t overly aggressive.”
Their defense stepped up, too. Six different players earned at least one block against Seattle, helping San Diego to keep building their lead throughout the game.
“We really slowed them down on defense. They struggled to get a throw off and we managed to force them into throwing it to us a couple times.” explained Dunn.
The Growlers took a 16-10 lead at half, but it started slipping away in the 3rd quarter. After having some time to rally in the locker room, Seattle’s defensive unit made a few small adjustments that forced San Diego’s offense to rush a few throws, and allowed the Cascades to narrow the lead.
“We knew they would make a push and try to raise their intensity.” Noted Coach & Team Owner Will Griffin. “We got a little loose with the disc and they capitalized. But this team has been resilient all year. If we get in a lull, it’s really for just a point or two.”
“We were forcing 45-60 second offensive points for [Seattle].” Said Griffin. “Taking that much time to score really eats into the clock and makes it tougher to mount a comeback.” With the defense going all out to stifle Seattle, it gave the offense more time to rest between points. This was a must for the Growlers, as injuries had shortened their roster to just 17 players by the 4th. Luckily, with the extra time to rest, their offensive line converted every time they took the field, and they closed out the game 30-25 to take a 2-1 series lead over Seattle.
Sean Ham and Jonathan Helton continued to be top performers for the Growlers, with Ham earning 6 goals alone and Helton posting a solid 4 goals, 4 assists, and 1 block. Tim Okita was also a rock for San Diego in the backfield, leading the team with 49 completed passes and 0 turnovers, his fifth perfect game of the season.
In a rematch of last night’s game, the Cascades will be traveling to San Diego on the 29th for their final game of the series. The Growlers need just one more win to clinch the 1st seed heading into the playoffs, and with only two games left, it’s a race between them and the Los Angeles Aviators. Seattle has now been knocked out of playoff contention, but still could spoil San Diego’s home-field advantage with a win. This is San Diego’s final home game of the regular season, and will take place at 6:30 PM PDT, at Balboa Stadium downtown. It can also be streamed online at AUDL.tv.
