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Atlanta Hustle turn Flyers away again. Hustle take regular season series 2-1.
What may prove to be the most influential game in the South Division was all Hustle from the opening whistle. Although Raleigh was able to close the gap and hang around in the third quarter, this game felt like Atlanta’s from start to finish.
Matt Smith again had a HUGE game, finishing with 9 goals and 2 assists, taking the lead in goals scored for the AUDL. The first quarter was dominated by the Hustle; our offense was successfully working the open and break sides of the fields and completing deep shots and short passes at will. Our defense was stifling, with each Hustler on the heels of his man and often getting the block, limiting the high scoring Flyers’ offense to their lowest output all season.
Although we traded easy goals until 3-2 Hustle before our first break, we were still getting D’s and completing passes. Our first break of the game came on a beautiful sky D from Frank Wooten over a pack of Raleigh offenders, allowing the Hustle handlers to work give-and-go’s down the length of the field to go up 4-2. After Raleigh worked the unders to make the game 4-3, Stapleton received the disc on an
up-line cut after the pull was brought down and boosted a pinpoint bomb of a huck to a streaking Matt Smith to go up by two once more, 5-3. 15 seconds left in the first quarter and Raleigh is attempting to again work the unders. Sean Sears come in clutch with a huge D, allowing Dylan Tunnell to boost a
last second huck to a skying Poole to beat the buzzer! The Hustle end the first quarter with a 6-3 lead.
The second quarter is when our offense really started churning! Raleigh came out of half with a rushed hammer, only for Allan Laviolette to pick up the turn and immediately complete a huck to Sears for the 7-3 lead. Raleigh drops an easy pass to the chest around half field, big thanks to our loud and heckling fans, Ben Breault picks up the disc to again punish them immediately with a laser of a backhand huck
to Ryan James, 8-3. The quarter continued developing similarly, with the Hustle offense scoring when and how we wanted to, rounding out the half with a 9-5 score.
The third quarter proved to be more consistent offensively from the Flyers, with the score coming as close as 14-13 at one point. Luckily, Matt Smith thought otherwise and after catching an open side strike cut from Tunnel to make the score 15-13, again caught a huck from Stapleton on the following drive to keep our two point lead, 16-14. Following a Flyers’ score and Hustle turn, Trenton Spinks came up with a huge and timely D on Flyers’ superstar, Justin Allen, by beating him to the spot of the disc on his undercut allowing the Hustle a last minute break involving a long hammer by Blake Hannah and a break side high release backhand from Ryan Archibald to go into the fourth quarter 17-15.
What started as a close fourth quarter with teams answering up until 19-17, developed into a Hustle offensive showcase, in large part to our loud and supportive fans staying late into the night to support us! The Flyers attempted to resort to their usually overwhelmingly successful deep game, but our Hustling defense decided otherwise, with huge D’s from Robert Bradham and Blake Hannah. After a deep huck
from Steven Hicks to Matt Smith who pulled it down with a towering sky to go up 24-19, the Atlanta crowd began to cheer louder and louder, knowing our victory was near, and with it, a first place tie for the South Divisional lead. The game ended with a 24-20 score, but the race for the South’s number one spot is just starting to heat up! Make sure to follow along the action with our social media pages when you cannot attend the games live!
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Thanks for the great crowd!
The Hustle go on the road for 3 weeks before returning on July 4th, a game that will be streamed nationally on ESPN3
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