Minnesota will be playing an away match against the Kansas City Power.

On June 5^th the Freeze had their first big test of the season, taking on the Kansas City Power in an away match at Kansas City. The Freeze were beaten by the Power in both of their matchups last season and were eager to prove that they were more than capable of beating their Division II opponent this time around and also prove that they deserve to be a Division II side at Nationals.

The Freeze brought strong numbers on the trip, fielding a squad of 24 players, comparable to the numbers the Power brought despite a much shorter travel distance. The Freeze players assembled at the field after vastly different travels; 10 players came together in a rented van driven by Chris Gabiou and Brent Mergen, others drove their own cars, and Coach Scott Johnson pulled up to the field showing off his rented Ford Mustang.

The playing field was surrounded by trees and showed no signs of civilization despite being only a short drive south of the city, but it offered plenty of space to mark out a footy field. The Freeze won the toss and started the match with both the wind and a slight downhill gradient working to their advantage. However, the Power quickly seized the momentum and took a quick lead.

“We were ready to go, we were enthusiastic and definitely pumped, they came out of the blocks a lot quicker than expected and caught us by surprise and put us on the back foot early, and it was all about catch-up from that point,” Johnson said.

The Power continued to hold momentum throughout the second quarter as well, winning the majority of contested marks and often taking marks in space and playing on with much success. The Freeze didn’t convert on most of their goal opportunities, leaving the score lop sided in favor of Kansas City at the half.

However, the Freeze were able to take control of the game in the third quarter and make it a much closer contest.

“To our credit, at half time we looked out of it but we were able to rally and find some belief, the guys inside and said ‘what was I not doing to help this team?’ and in the third quarter they were able to find the next level,” Johnson said.

Johnson compared the team’s third quarter energy level to used up flashlight batteries – even though the energy was drained in the first half, after the half time break the energy was switched back on and there was enough juice left to power the team through the third quarter.

The Freeze were unlucky on a couple of occasions, twice hitting the post for behinds, but at three quarter time the team was in a good position to steal the game from the Power. The Power’s Brice Cameron admitted his side was left thoroughly worried after being outplayed in the third quarter and felt insecure despite maintaining the lead.

However, with the Power gaining the advantage of the downhill gradient in the fourth quarter they scored two early goals and wrested back the momentum, sealing a Power victory by a score of 8.9.57 to 3.9.27. The goal scorers for the Freeze were Steve Fashant, Danny Hansen and Kevin Crane.

The game included the return to footy of Australian team member Justin Habel after almost two years recovering from back surgery. Habel played well against the player that was eventually named man of the match for the Power, and the backline was led by solid efforts by Matthew Cattell and Crane. At the post game social many teammates cast informal votes for Crane as team MVP for the match.

Throughout the game the Freeze were subjected to intense heat and questionable calls by the referee, but Johnson let it be known that the team would be using no excuses for the defeat. The team will build on the positives for the match will be ready to face the Power again when they come to Minnesota on August 21^st.

“It was a good learning lesson… we were beat by a better team on the day, but we’re looking forward to playing them again because it will be vastly different,” Johnson said.

Away from the game, team members were able to enjoy the experiences of Kansas City, including authentic southern barbecue at a restaurant called Gates, where every other customer could tell the Freeze members were not from around here, post game socializing at the Flea Market, an eatery serving what has been voted Kansas City’s best burgers for the past 22 years straight, and a Kansas City Royals baseball game at Kaufman stadium.

The Freeze return to action this Saturday, June 12^th, at home against the Milwaukee Bombers at Lake Nokomis. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.