Seattle Cascades Lose Third Straight Game Versus Oakland Spiders, 16-21
By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Oakland, CA - In their third meeting of the season, the Seattle Cascades were not able to break their losing streak against the Oakland Spiders and fell 16-21. Similar to their first matchups, the Cascades kept within striking range in the first half but were unable to prevent turnovers in the second half. The Spiders capitalized on the Cascades’ mistakes and strung together multiple goals in a row. Impact players in this game included handler Tommy Li with two goals, two assists, and one block, handler Connor Belfield with three goals, three assists, and one block, and hybrid player Garrett Martin with four goals and one assist.
Photo by Ron Sellers
First quarter: 5-5
Both teams traded goals in the first quarter with two from handler Connor Belfield and one each from handler Tommy Li, cutter Brandon Li, and hybrid player Garrett Martin. Two assists from Tommy Li and one each from Brandon Li, handler Aaron Wolf, and Martin utilized the Cascades’ quick deep cutting and seamless handler motion to remain tied at the end of the first quarter. Seattle was able to stay in the game by beating their defenders to the disc on offense and being in the right spaces on defense, including big blocks from Tommy Li and Langley Fitzpatrick.
Second quarter: 7-11
Seattle and Oakland continued with back-and-forth scoring, but multiple Cascades turnovers towards the middle of the quarter widened the Spiders’ lead. Goals by Martin and Belfield through assists from Li and Wolf kept the Cascades in the game, but four goals in a row by Oakland to end the half after multiple Seattle throwing mistakes brought the Spiders’ lead to four.
Third quarter: 12-16
The second half began with two Cascades goals in a row, with the first coming from a floating deep throw from handler Christian Foster to Belfield. The following point included multiple turnovers from both teams, with blocks from hybrid player Zeppelin Raunig and cutter Mikey O’Brien retaining possession for Seattle. Belfield connected with Tommy Li to bring the Cascades back within two. Oakland responded with two goals in a row of their own, but another deep throw from Foster to cutter Jack Brown cut the lead down once again. The Spiders produced another quick response with their late-game ability to keep the disc moving. Foster followed with another, well-placed throw to Raunig for a Seattle goal. Oakland scored two more goals in a row, and Wolf connected with cutter Lukas Ambrose over multiple defenders for the last goal of the quarter.
Fourth quarter: 16-21
While the Spiders only scored one more goal than the Cascades in the fourth quarter, Seattle found themselves facing another late-game deficit that they were unable to claw back from. Goals from Martin, Belfield, handler Tony Goss, and handler Derek Mourad were completed from assists by Wolf, Brown, Belfield, and Goss, but were not enough to secure a win for Seattle.
Stat of the game:
In their sixth game of the season, the Cascades recorded a 79% red zone conversion rate, with 11 out of their 14 scoring opportunities in the red zone completed. Seattle had success using their deep options to set up viable scoring opportunities in front of the endzone, and were able to use quick passing movements to find completions.
What’s next?
The Cascades will return home this weekend to face the Salt Lake Shred on Friday, May 30th, at 7:00 PM under the lights of Memorial Stadium. WIth a very close matchup last weekend against the Shred, Seattle will look to gain on the rest of the West Division and get back into the win column this weekend.
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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 Ron Sellers, provided by the Seattle Cascades.
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