Sprocket advanced to their first National final with a comprehensive win over BFG
October 27, 2024 by Alex Rubin in Recap with 0 comments
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#12 Lexington Sprocket completed the upset of the tournament with a defensive masterpiece to knock out #1 Seattle BFG in the first mixed division semifinal.
This was the first time these two teams ever faced off and the contrast between the two advantaged BFG on paper. BFG entered the tournament as the top seed after a stellar regular season that featured just a single loss. Since their title in 2021, BFG found their way deep into the bracket every season, losing on double game point to eventual finalist NOISE in 2022 and eventual champion shame. in 2023. With high-impact additions like Lukas Ambrose, Sadie Jezierski, and Aaron Wolf, BFG seemed to only get stronger throughout the season and were considered runaway favorites entering the tournament.
Sprocket only formed as a team in 2021, starting as a collection of young Boston-area talent that sought to serve as a lab for growth and development. The team missed Nationals in the past and never advanced beyond the quarterfinal round in the years they did make Nationals. This offseason, high-volume players like Clara Stewart and Bretton Tan moved on, and the players Sprocket brought on did not have the same big game experience as BFG’s.
And yet, none of that mattered once the first pull went up. Two of those Sprocket additions combined for the first break of the game. Sara Rudolph and Alex Donadio got their names on the stat sheet, but more importantly Sprocket proved they could take the disc away from a practiced BFG offense and score without any crossover players from their O-line. Not a single time in the game did Tannor Johnson-Go, Hazel Ostrowski, Tess Johnson, or Zach Singer play a point that started with a Sprocket pull. BFG meanwhile relied on Ambrose, Conor Belfield, Aaron Wolf, and Gavin Leahy to play both ways. While some of those crossover points were certainly meant to replace the production of Tommy Li, who did not play in the game, it was an admission by BFG as well that they were reliant on that group for a lot of their athletic playmaking.
Felipe Delgado and Taylor Hanson each earned layout blocks as the Sprocket D-line keyed in on the preferred actions BFG take in their possession-oriented system. Sprocket converted both break chances to build a 6-3 lead. “Sprocket has never played BFG before,” Sprocket captain Wilhemina Graff said, “so we had to use a lot of our our ultimate community intel, as well as what we were able to see from their pull plays from their other games that have been filmed.”
On the other side of play, Sprocket’s offense handled everything BFG had to throw at them. Johnson-Go led the way with three goals and four assists, but Shirlee Wohl, Hazel Ostrowski, and Singer each had their moment to shine. Wohl and Singer were rocks in the backfield, able to move the disc in high-pressure moments. Ostrowski did her best work downfield, especially against BFG’s zone; Ostrowski was able to find the soft spots for over-the-top looks more frequently than anyone else on Sprocket. Leo Blooston filled the role of bruiser for the Sprocket offense, earning four blocks to save potential BFG breaks.
Both times Sprocket were broken, they came right back and held the next point. BFG typically can string together multiple breaks in a row with more than two lines of capable defenders and a whole suite of different zone, poach, switch, and matchup looks. They tried plenty of different options, but Sprocket had an answer every time.
By the end of the game, a riled-up crowd1 geared up for a BFG comeback. Last season, BFG found themselves in a similar situation; down a few breaks to shame., they were able to come back and force double game point. This year, BFG were not able to execute in the moments that mattered. Sprocket scored a late break when Belfield needed to slide for a low throw. His footwork and body control are normally precise enough to appear in a how-to video, but in this instance the disc hit his sliding foot just in front of his hand that was reaching down for the catch. Ryan Flamberg, Makk, and Taylor Hanson collaborated on the score to put Sprocket up 13-10 and snuffed out any hope of a BFG comeback.
Though they played without glaring mistakes or inexcusable efforts, BFG just were not as sharp as Sprocket. As the game wound down, Tess Johnson and Singer outread their defenders to catch floating hucks and set up easy scores for an O-line that never looked flustered. Neither huck came at a conventional angle, but the time Sprocket spent building chemistry together paid off in their biggest moment to this point of the season as both receivers positioned themselves in better spots than their defenders despite throws that had enough float for a defender to catch up.
“This is the first year we haven’t been doing the three line system,” Graff said, referring to last season’s more balanced play-time rotation. “It’s been really incredible seeing our chemistry build…I think we just have a lot of components that are really gelling well together.” In previous years, Sprocket divided their roster into three lines and rotated through them without regard to whether a point started on offense or defense. This year they established more specific roles for each player and both the offense and defense groupings played their best games in team history on Saturday afternoon.
Sprocket advance to play #7 Ann Arbor Hybrid in the final. Though nobody expected them to be in this position – including themselves – Sprocket absolutely earned their spot with remarkably consistent and excellent play. BFG meanwhile are left with another semifinal loss. While their patented offensive system and unique zone defense earns plenty of regular season success, other teams were able to scout and game plan for their systems three years in a row now at Nationals, keeping them out of the final each year since they won the title.
“We had some rough performances earlier on,” Graff said, reflecting on Sprocket’s season-long development. “But I think what we were just building, we were growing, learning. Regionals looked better than PEC for sure, and every single game since the first one at Nationals, we’ve been able to build and grow. This is a little bit beyond what I had anticipated for Nationals, but we were just trying to take it one game at a time, and it’s led us here so I’m so unbelievably happy.”
Shout out to fellow Northwest team Montana MOONDOG for their boisterous energy in the stands ↩
