Saturday August 15 saw the Freeze make the return leg of the Milwaukee home and away series.
Both teams have been struggling of late with injuries and players on international travel, and a good indication of that was seen when Milwaukee's "Plugger" and Minnesota's "Diesel" both started in the center square, effectively lifting the average age of each team to 75. Not a good sign for any team.
Under overcast but hot conditions, Milwaukee won the toss and elected to kick downhill and with the breeze to start the first quarter.
Just as the Freeze coach Becker warned; the always busy Ross Siegel and the new Aussie import Jamie Anderson were in control of the game for the Bombers from the start. Solid defense by the Bombers, and costly turnovers and mental errors by the Freeze, saw the ball rarely travel past the Minnesota half forward line for most of the quarter. The Freeze backline, with Driscoll standing out, was under intense pressure but couldn't get effective clearances which often saw the ball come back in as quickly as it went out. Still, the game was tight, and with two goals to zero the teams went into the first break closer than Milwaukee probably wanted. Min 0.0.00 to Mil 2.2.14.
Kicking to the scoring end, the Freeze yet again made errors with too many turnovers in transition. Milwaukee capitalized on those, and definitely looked the more experienced team with Rob Humphrys, Anderson and Plugger O'Keefe starting to influence the game. When the Bombers scored early in the quarter against the wind it looked like a route was on. Sheer hard work by Minnesota's Hansen to break free of his tagger Cory Malchow and set up a Johnson goal gave the Freeze their first score, but the quarter definitely belonged to the Bombers again. Min 1.1.7 to Mil 3.5.23.
At the long break The Freeze remained confident that they were still in the game, and with some positional moves went out knowing that the championship quarter was there to be had.
For the Freeze; the much improved Driscoll continued dominating in defense and marked everything that came his way. Weaver was busy all over the ground, and a shift of McLuen to the half forward line provided a much needed target for the Freeze. Big Jim Chapple's goal, and a clever major by goalsneak Johnson brought the Freeze right back into game. As always coach Becker's work rate around the ground was setting the example for his team mates. Still, Milwaukee managed a couple of goals which set up for an exciting last quarter. Min 4.2.26 to Mil 5.6.36.
Up until this stage the Freeze's Hanson had been well checked all day by Milwaukee Malchow, but the final quarter started to see him put his stamp on the game. A second and third effort by Curry pulled the Freeze within a kick of the bombers, but Milwaukee wouldn't lay down and with a clever goal by young Bomber Chris Franzen made the job even harder for the Freeze. Chapple snagged another, followed shortly by a strong mark and long goal by Hansen to put the Freeze in front for the first time at the 13 minute mark. From there it was a back and forth struggle between each teams mid-field with one last Milwaukee effort in the final minutes being turned away to see the Freeze hold on for a hard fought come from behind victory.
Min 7.4.46
Mil 6.6.42
GOALS
MN: Chapple, Johnson 2, Curry, McLuen, Hansen 1.
MKE: Anderson 3, C.Franzen 2, O'Keefe
BEST
MN: Driscoll, Weaver, King, Hansen, Curry.
MKE: Humphries, Anderson, Sheehan, Siegel, Malchow
Field Umpires: Chris Bellman, Gary Hill.
Write up courtesy of MN Freeze.
