New York Empire rout Philadelphia 28-17 to reach 7-2

New York did more than leave Philadelphia with a win. The Empire walked out of Neumann University turf field on Wednesday night with a 28-17 road result, a 7-2 record, and another data point that says this is no longer just a talented East Division roster. It was the kind of clean, convincing away performance that turns a good club into a problem for everyone else in the bracket.

The margin came from repeatable stuff, not one lucky burst. New York finished with 98 percent completions, a 79 percent hold rate, 71 percent O-line conversion, 43 percent break percentage, and a perfect 100 percent in the red zone. Philadelphia posted respectable numbers in spots, but the Phoenix were buried by the turnover battle, 20 giveaways to New York’s 7, and by a defense that piled up 16 blocks. That is how a game becomes one-sided in Ultimate: the Empire kept converting cleanly and kept Philadelphia from ever settling in.

Daan De Marrée led the way with six goals for New York, the most eye-catching individual line in the game and a fitting one for a night when the Empire’s offense never needed to force anything. Andrew Atkins added a team-best plus-minus of +7, a sign that New York’s best points were coming from players who were helping on both sides of the disc. Philadelphia had bright spots of its own, with Eric Beidler-Shenk and Nate DiGiorgio each scoring three goals and Oliver Erdman finishing at a team-best +5, but the Phoenix never matched New York’s pace or pressure.

That matters because the East has been framed all season as the league’s toughest division, and New York was singled out in the preseason as a team that had won the offseason with splashy additions. This game looked like the next step in turning that paper status into week-to-week control. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has been cast as a team good enough to ambush contenders, which is why a home date in Philadelphia should have been a test. Instead, it became a measuring stick that New York passed comfortably.

The road win also fit the recent pattern between these teams. The Empire beat the Phoenix 24-16 in New York in a 2025 Week 12 meeting, and this latest result was even more decisive. New York’s schedule now turns to Chicago on July 10 and Toronto on July 12, while Philadelphia hosted DC on July 3, leaving both sides in the middle of a dense East Division stretch that will keep sorting out who is actually in control.