Out in the wild west, Seattle rebounded against Vancouver, taking its first lead at 3-2 and never trailing again in their 26-22 triumph. Seven days after falling to the Riptide 21-20 at home, the win improved the Cascades to 3-1, a half-game behind San Jose (3-0) in the division.

Although five players—Ray Illian (5), Matt Rehder (5), Adam Simon (5), Mario O’Brien (4), and BJ Sefton (3)—combined for 22 of Seattle’s 26 goals, the Cascades leadership touted the defense as being the difference in the game.

"No real changes in the game plan [from last week]," said Captain Reid Koss. "We always want to focus more on us than the other team, but going into this game we really wanted to focus on our defense as a place to improve. I think we accomplished that.

“If you look at our game from last week, our offense was perfect on almost every possession in the second half, scoring without a turn in most opportunities, but our D simply didn’t stop their offense. At practice, we put a big emphasis on our defense to stay tighter downfield so one break of the mark wouldn’t be so damaging in terms of yardage given up, and we did a really good job of accomplishing this. We made them grind a lot more on their offensive possessions this week, didn’t give up continuation throws on the break side, and that gave us enough opportunities with the disc to punch in the breaks we needed."

The Cascades are off this weekend, but rest is required for the daunting challenge ahead. On May 9 and 10, Seattle will host San Diego on Saturday and then play at Los Angeles, over 1,100 miles away, on Sunday. This scheduling quirk creates a test unlike any pro team has seen.

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Ever since he was a teenager, Matt Rehder has been one of Seattle’s most unreal athletes. He was a World Champ at the youth level and a college track & field athlete at The University of La Verne, a Division III school outside of Los Angeles. Around the ultimate community, his athleticism is well documented. But when he still makes plays like this, your jaw drops. I asked Reid Koss if that’s the type of thing he does all the time or was that particular leap of a special nuclear level even for him? Koss replied, "Nah, that’s pretty normal." Another Cascades teammate, Tyler Kinley, opined on Reddit: "This is one of like three catches he had tonight that were just incredible. You can only shake your head."

Originally posted on http://theaudl.com/articles/ata/tuesdaytoss3