Madison edges Chicago 14-11 in Central Division grind

Madison did not win with fireworks. The Radicals left ETHS Lazier Field with a 14-11 victory over the Chicago Union on Sunday, June 21, and the score fit the game, a Central Division slog where clean possessions were rare and every break carried outsized weight. In a division that routinely turns into a field-position fight, Madison did just enough on the road to claim the small-margin win.

Ian McCosky was the cleanest operator on the field. The Madison handler finished 52-for-54 throwing and added three assists, the kind of efficiency that keeps a low-total game from tipping the wrong way. Jacob Spiro had already warned that “Three games in seven days will obviously be a huge challenge” and said the Radicals would have to rely on “our conditioning and our depth.” Madison reached Chicago after a 23-19 loss to Salt Lake on Thursday, June 18, while the Union came in off an 18-13 defeat at Indianapolis on Saturday, June 20.

That is why 14-11 reads less like ugly offense than like Central Division identity. Chicago beat Madison 18-16 on June 5, 2026, and the Union had also taken a 21-16 win in their June 8, 2025 meeting, so this rivalry has been living in one- and two-possession territory for a while. Madison finally flipped the script by winning the handful of points that decided the night, which is usually what happens when both teams are willing to grind every offensive rep into a pressure test.

The larger schedule makes the result matter even more. The 2026 UFA regular season is a 132-game race, Championship Weekend is set for August 28-29 at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, and the Radicals, established in 2013 and champions in 2018, know road results like this can shape the division table before the summer tightens. In a season where Madison and Chicago are likely to keep seeing each other, this was the kind of win that travels well.