Wind Chill seeking their second franchise championship in today's final.
August 28, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Recap
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MADISON, Wisc. – For the third straight year, the Minnesota Wind Chill won their semifinal and advanced to the UFA championship game, this time with a 28-24 win over the Austin Sol.
Throughout the game, Minnesota exuded calm and confidence while Austin attempted to insert whatever chaos they could into the contest. With Kyle Henke uncorking monster hammers and Evan Swiatek blading flick hucks around defenders, the Sol used every tool in their kit to disrupt favored Minnesota. Despite the Sol’s best efforts, the Wind Chill very simply handled everything Austin could throw at them with the poise of a team who has been there and done that.
Minnesota calmly held to open the game, completing 21 uncontested throws for a patient hold that set the tone for the game: the Wind Chill were just going to go out on the field and take care of business. After Dylan DeClerck swatted down an early Austin throw to set up a quick break and the Wind Chill successfully got the disc back on the first throw after a turnover of their own, the tone was set. Minnesota played the part of juggernaut favorite while Austin’s scrappy underdog could hang close but wouldn’t threaten the team playing in their fourth straight Championship Weekend.
The Wind Chill rode a wave of defensive pressure to a 10-6 lead which ultimately proved to be the final margin, but the Sol gave their visiting fans some moments to cheer about. Not content to let the game be taken from them, Austin fought back in the second quarter. “Our handler pressure was good,” Armour said, describing the 6-2 run that brought Austin back in the game. “So much of UFA defense is winning the war of attrition and if you can get them going backwards, losing 20 yards, losing 10 yards, going sideways, just the break chances really start opening up, and that’s when we were doing our best job of that, funneling them backwards.”
Taking advantage of two execution errors from Will Brandt, Austin converted the chances they were given and did tie the game at 11-11, with an emphatic George Gust sky over DeClerck. But the Sol never led in the game.
“We know that a good team that has made it all the way to Championship Weekend is going to punch us back,” Hanson said. “We experienced it in the AlleyCats game in the divisional championship when we came out to a big lead and ended up tied. It never felt like we were losing control. It felt like all the mistakes we were making were in our control and it just takes one punch back to start a new run for us.”
As quickly as Austin tied it, Minnesota built another advantage and this time they would not let up. Wind Chill newcomers Nate De Morgan (3A/3G) and Noah Coolman (3A/1G) settled the offense to keep Minnesota in the lead, and it was Kyle Suelflow’s hustle down on the pull with just a few seconds left before halftime that sent Minnesota into the break with momentum. Moments after Brandt gave Minnesota a 13-12 lead, Suelflow burst down on the pull and laid out to block Austin’s centering pass. A quick timeout allowed Brandt and the rest of the O-line to sub back on and double their lead to 14-12. That would be all the Wind Chill needed.
The second half settled into a pattern of holds as the Sol could not disrupt the consistent Wind Chill offense. Even after Brandt left the game with a knee injury on the first point of the third quarter, Minnesota didn’t miss a beat. Gordon Larson stepped up to control the offense in Brandt’s absence. “We were already pretty motivated,” Larson said during his postgame interview, “but it pretty quickly became, ‘let’s do this for Will.’”
Finishing with eight assists and 726 throwing yards, the fifth year pro set career highs in both categories. “We knew we could do it without him,” Larson added, “and it was fun for everybody to step up into a bigger role, and I feel like a lot of guys killed it and accepted that role really well.”
Rookie Zach Morton’s seven goals paced the team. His ascension since switching over to the O-line midway through the season invigorated the Wind Chill attack; his five goals per game since making the line change would lead the league.
The only big personnel adjustment that Minnesota chose to make after Brandt went out was to give Micah Davis more minutes on the O-line, where he had played earlier this season. “We brought over Micah Davis who is one of the best offensive players who we’re just fortunate to have on our D-line,” Hanson explained. “I wouldn’t say any one person stepped up in a huge way, just collectively we filled that space with someone else and did a good job at trusting the next person up to run our normal offense.”
Even as the Wind Chill’s lead stretched to five, the game felt closely contested and Austin had some fun moments. “These chances are few and the margins are small,” Armour said. “You gotta leave it all out there, which we did–we lost by four, it felt a little closer.” Kyle Henke connected with Mark Henke on five goals including a wild line drive hammer.1 Gust’s sky over DeClerck should threaten to make SportsCenter Top 10 Plays. Brandon Dial’s late game block to set up the Sol’s sole second half break gave the team plenty of hope even in the waning moments of the game.
Though the Sol gave their best efforts, the offensive execution from Minnesota (7/9 huck completion, 20/20 red zone conversion, just 9 turnovers) was too great for Austin to overcome. Minnesota also played their best in the most important moments. The Wind Chill closed out the first three quarters of the game by scoring last in end-of-quarter situations, and they were able to just hold onto the disc to close out the fourth quarter given their multi-goal lead.
Pretty quickly after the game ended, the Wind Chill players were already focusing on Friday’s final. “In the big picture,” Hanson said, “the adrenaline of feeling like we can win this game and then once we do we know that there’s another step after this…pretty much as soon as the game finished we knew we had to shift to tomorrow to recovery and game planning.”
Friday’s final will be another test for the Wind Chill when they’ll face off against an Oakland Spiders team that demolished the New York Empire in their own semifinal. “That Oakland defense is pretty good,” Larson said. “They put a lot of pressure on the resets, so it’s going to take a lot of legs from me and Klane and Leo [Sovell-Fernandez] to fight for those resets. And we have to be able to hit deep shots, make them scared of everything.”
Minnesota already beat Oakland in Oakland earlier this season, but the Spiders were missing a few key players due to injury at the time. “I’m confident,” Larson added. “We played them and won earlier this year, but I think they’re going to look pretty different tomorrow with Ritthaler and other guys who are going to be active. I’m expecting it to be probably twice as hard as when we played them during the season.”
Of course, the final game of the UFA season will be a challenge for both teams. “You can’t fake the energy and nerves that a championship game brings,” Hanson said. “And the crowd that’s gonna come for us tomorrow I expect to be huge and super loud and we just have to use that to our advantage and our experience being in the UFA final before. We’ve won this before.”
“We have respect for everyone’s risk tolerance,” Armour said. “We’ve played with Kyle for so many years; we know those hammers are coming and they’re coming accurately.” ↩
