Seattle Cascades Drop First Game of 2025 to Oakland Spiders, 21-22
By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - In the opening game of their 2025 campaign, our Seattle Cascades put up an impressive, late-game comeback, but were unable to catch up to an early deficit and lost on a buzzer-beating goal. Although the Cascades start the season with a 21-22 loss, their exciting matchup with the Spiders showed the teams high potential. Impact players in this game included hybrid player Zeppelin Raunig with ten goals, hybrid player Garrett Martin with five assists and two goals, and handler Aaron Wolf with five assists, one goal, and one block.
(Photo by Jonathan Red provided by the Seattle Cascades)
First quarter: 5-7
The first quarter showed very few mistakes from either team. With patient offense and lockdown defense on both sides, the first turnover didn’t come until halfway through the quarter, when a Cascades drop close to their own endzone led to a quick Oakland goal. In the Cascades offense, players like Raunig, handler Tommy Li, cutter Mikey O’Brien, and hybrid player Garrett Martin led the charge to move the disc quickly up the field. The team’s defense worked through Martin, cutter Jack Brown, and cutter Lukas Ambrose to force turnovers and use quick transitions to their advantage. After trading points, the Cascades were down two goals as the buzzer went off to end the quarter.
Second quarter: 7-11
Beginning with a five-minute opening point that included multiple turnovers from both teams, the first point of the second quarter belonged to the Cascades. Martin and Wolf found another gear and worked quickly up the field with back-and-forth passing that landed in Martin’s hands for the goal. The Spiders responded with three points in a row after Cascades turnovers, but the Cascades were able to get one back with a huge deep throw from hybrid player Derek Mourad to handler Conor Belfield to set up the offense. Handler Tony Goss found Belfield in the endzone for the goal with more quick handler movement. To close out the first half, Oakland continued to utilize their fast offensive movement to beat Cascades defenders deep.
(Photo by Jonathan Red provided by the Seattle Cascades)
Third quarter: 12-17
To start the second half, Oakland scored first, but the Cascades responded with a huge grab by Belfield over multiple defenders. Belfield received it right back from Li in the endzone to score. With another quarter of trading points, big defensive plays by cutter Dom Jacobs, Raunig, and Belfield led to impressive offensive sets from Martin, Wolf, and cutter Asher Lantz. With each Cascades goal, the Spiders were able to get one back, which led to the biggest deficit of the game for Seattle heading into the fourth quarter.
Fourth quarter: 21-22
The Cascades began chipping away at the lead as the quarter progressed, with some of their best offensive work all game. They scored three points in a row, first with Martin finding a wide open Goss in the front of the endzone, then with a huge defensive stop by Brown to secure a goal, and next with another important defensive play by O’Brien who eventually found Raunig over multiple defenders for the goal. As the clock continued to wind down, the big plays kept coming. Raunig secured a layout block and got it right back in the endzone for a goal, and blocks from Brown and Goss found cutter Tommy Lin for a massive layout goal.
Within one, although the Spiders fought back, the Cascades continued their impressive run. A full-field throw from Lee to Raunig brought Oakland’s lead back to one, and a block from Belfield set up another Martin and Raunig connection to tie the game with 37 seconds left. With the game in Oakland’s hands, they worked it up the field with efficient clock management to score at the buzzer and defeat the Cascades’ comeback hopes in a heartbreaking loss for Seattle.
Stat of the game:
In the first week of the season, Cascades player Zeppelin Raunig leads the Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) in goals with ten, all of which were scored in one game. With a dynamic start to the 2025 season, Seattle will hope to continue targeting Raunig and adding to his scoring consistency.
What’s next?
Following this opening game loss to Oakland, our Seattle Cascades will have two games next weekend. That two game stretch starts an away rematch against the Spiders on May 9th at 6PM PDT, and a first look at the Vegas Bighorns on May 10th at 7PM PDT. The Bighorns are coming off a big loss of their own, and will also be looking to get their team into the win column, while the Spiders will try to build off their recent win over the Cascades. Fans looking to catch the action can watch Friday’s game for free on the UFA YouTube channel, with Saturday’s game streaming on Watch UFA TV.
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Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports BlueSky: @circlingseasports.bsky.social 〰️
Check out our previous Seattle Cascades articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing for CSS by Becca Weinberg here, and her work with Lookout Landing here.
Cover photo by Jonathan Red, provided by the Seattle Cascades.
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