It has been a roller-coaster ride for the California Redwoods in 2025, including an offseason that brought about major changes to personnel on the field and the sidelines.
Exciting come-from-behind victories to start the season had fans wondering why so many pundits placed the team so low in their power rankings, only for a midseason swoon to mentally prepare those same fans to debate who the team would select with the top pick in the draft.
Head coach Anthony Kelly has preached to his players all season, however, that they are never out of the fight, and through the magic of Dylan Molloy’s cleats and Ryder Garnsey’s wizard wand of a lacrosse stick, the Redwoods rose from the dead to win their final three games and emphatically claim a berth not just in the playoffs, but in the Championship Series, as well.
California looks to keep the momentum going in the quarterfinals against the Carolina Chaos on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+). The two teams split their regular-season series.
Why they can win it all
After the Redwoods lost to the New York Atlas for their fifth consecutive defeat, general manager Joe Spallina provided an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the season.
“It’s pro lacrosse. You’ve just gotta get in [the playoffs],” Spallina said. “You get hot at the right time, you get healthy, you’ve just gotta get in. I don’t think there’s been one game this season we’ve been outclassed. There’s been a break here or a break there. Things going against us now could be in our favor in three weeks.”
In hindsight, his statement has become prophetic as California, the hottest team in the league, climbed from worst in the Western Conference to the second seed thanks to a three-game winning streak.
It’s not just that the Redwoods are winning games, either; it appears they’ve truly learned from their negative experiences. During their five-game losing streak, the team was outscored in the fourth quarter by a combined margin of 23-9. In the wins over the Utah Archers and Maryland Whipsnakes, however, the Redwoods outscored their opponents 6-1 in the final frame.
Even in the playoff-clinching win over the Cannons, when Boston scored five consecutive goals in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17, California got a clutch goal from Garnsey and a clutch save from Chayse Ierlan, timely plays that didn’t happen in their losses.
Biggest concern
While improved in recent weeks, the offense has had issues being streaky all season. While the obvious examples stem from the fourth quarters during their five-game losing streak, as mentioned previously, it still has been an issue during recent victories, as well.
Against the Archers, the Redwoods went scoreless for 12 minutes and nine seconds between Romar Dennis’s two-pointer in the second quarter and Molloy’s goal in the third quarter. Against the Cannons, the Redwoods went 8:49 between Andrew McAdorey’s goal to start the fourth quarter and Garnsey’s game-winner.
During postgame press conferences, Kelly, Chris Kavanagh and Brian Tevlin would often refer to silly mistakes the team would make that stalled offensive possessions, such as bad passes, shot clock violations and the team going offsides. While Kelly frequently chalked it up to inexperience, long cold stretches could prove particularly harmful against the vaunted Chaos defense and goalie Blaze Riorden, against whom good scoring opportunities are already at a premium.
Most important player
While cases could be made for Kavanagh and Molloy, two of the best goal-scorers in the league this season, the table-setter is McAdorey. Time and again this season, he’s used his speed on offense to score big goals for California, especially at moments in the game when the offense has gone cold and needs a boost.
After scoring five goals in the first two games, opposing defenses showed the rookie the utmost respect by adapting and having a long-stick midfielder cover him. What he’s shown in recent weeks, though, is his ability to draw the attention from the defense only to snap a pass over their shoulder to an open shooter.
This was on full display in the regular season finale against the Cannons. On the first goal of the game, the adjacent defender hedged to the middle of the field as McAdorey dodged from the box, only to leave Kavanagh wide open for a step-down shot from 10 yards out.
