It is one thing to find yourself with the disc in the end zone, but equally important is the throw that got the disc to you. Unlike in soccer and hockey, each and every goal scored in the AUDL also gets an offensive assist…. well, at least 99+ percent of the time — there is that rare Callahan when the opposing team gets the dreaded defensive ‘assist.’
With one Callahan in the 2017 season, the DC Breeze threw 391 assists on their 392 goals. The top five assist leaders tallied at least 30 assists each, accounting for 176 of the 391, or 45% of the total. And those players did a lot of throwing in general, with each touching the disc over 200 times in the season.
RELATED: TOP 10 GOAL SCORERS FROM 2017
Leading the charge was DC’s breakout player of the year, Tyler Monroe. Monroe distributed 46 assists to his teammates in 11 games, enough for a 4.18 assists per game average. The recent George Washington University graduate was the primary cutter for the majority of the season. When he wasn’t cutting deep and scoring goals himself (30 in 2017), he was clearly not shy about distributing to his teammates beyond the goal line. More often than not, it was his buddy Max Cassell streaking to the end zone after an undercut from the 6’1″ hybrid. But the first Breeze goal of 2017 from Monroe to Alan Kolick was a play for the ages…
46 assists is second most in a single season for the Breeze in addition to being a career-high for Monroe. Daniel ‘White Hat’ Selwyn set the franchise mark at 67 during the inaugural 2013 season.
Following Monroe was defensive handler Rowan McDonnell, who had 35 assists in his 14 games (2.5 assists per game). On the defensive line, McDonnell was the typical guy to send the disc deep. Additionally, the second-year player played the most points on the roster (328). When the O-line was low on numbers during road trips, McDonnell and this throwing ability were immediately switched over to the offense. The 35 assists were also a career-high for McDonnell, who was occasionally scoring breakaway goals and dunking on photographers when he wasn’t distributing the disc to his teammates:
Rookie Lloyd Blake dished out 33 assists in a consistent manner throughout the year. Alongside him Kolick had 32, surpassing his 28 from the 2016 season. Goals leader Cassell rounded out the top five with 30 assists.
2017 Assists Leader Board:
- Tyler Monroe, 46
- Matthew ‘Rowan’ McDonnell, 35
- Lloyd Blake, 33
- Alan Kolick, 32
- Max Cassell, 30
- David Bloodgood, 21
- Jeff Wodatch, 21
- Jonathan Neeley, 18
- Austin Bartenstein, 15
- Markham Shofner, 14
italicized denotes AUDL Rookie