Utah Archers midfielder Tom Schreiber will miss the rest of the 2024 season after suffering a fractured clavicle in Friday night’s win over the California Redwoods. 

It’s a major blow for the defending champions who, by winning both games over their Homecoming weekend, earned a bye to the semifinals of the Cash App Playoffs and are just two games away from a repeat. 

“We dedicated that to Tom,” head coach Chris Bates said after Saturday’s win over the Denver Outlaws. “He’s the heart and soul of our franchise. To see him go down and know he’s gonna be down is not easy for us. But he is an all-time Archer and an all-time human being. So we wanted to play for him in his honor.”

Despite Schreiber’s absence for the majority of the weekend, Utah’s offense still scored 13 points in both games and found ways to produce without its best player.

“That was our motivation,” Tre Leclaire said postgame. “We wanted to win for him. He gets injured yesterday, he wasn’t worried about himself. He was worried about us. He was asking how [Jack VanOverbeke] scored in overtime. That just shows how selfless he is, so we wanted to do it for him tonight.”

The rookie VanOverbeke was a major bright spot for the Archers without Schreiber. His four goals and two assists across the two games, including an overtime game-winner on Friday, gave the club a needed boost. But he was far from the only young gun to step up in a big way for the reigning champs. 

Park City native Beau Pederson scored his first career goal on a pick-six play in the third quarter against the Outlaws. Dyson Williams notched a pair of goals on the weekend, including the score that capped off Utah’s win over Denver. Mason Woodward scored his fourth goal in five games while being stout in settled defense all weekend long. 

Even while dealing with a litany of injuries to major contributors, the Archers continue to rebound in the biggest moments.

“It comes from the culture that we’ve built in the locker room that gets guys comfortable,” Bates said. “It’s okay to make mistakes, but we draft guys and believe in guys for a reason. We want them to deliver and we want to put them in an environment where they’re comfortable and confident.” 

In an emotional moment on Saturday afternoon, Schreiber spoke to the team to hand off his captain duties to fellow day-one Archer and close friend Ryan Ambler. In fact, Schreiber delayed his trip to the hospital to do so. 

“It’s obviously an honor,” Ambler commented postgame. “I’ve grown up in this organization. I absolutely love it. … Nothing changes, [though]. We emulate the things [Schreiber] has set forth for us and we move forward. It sucks. I’m absolutely gutted for him, and my heart breaks. He’s going to be there every single second helping us get to the next level, and we’re going to continue to ride on the thing that he’s built here for our culture as Archers.”

With Schreiber out, the Utah offense loses its maestro. Fortunately for the club, however, it still boasts a range of weapons who can take over. Grant Ament, Connor Fields and Leclaire were those guys this past weekend as they each dominated stretches of play against Denver and California. 

Leclaire projects to be the player who receives the bulk of Schreiber’s touches. The big-bodied midfielder has been an extremely efficient player this summer, scoring a career-high 23 points (21G, 2T) while ranking second in the league in goal rate at 12.43%. 

His 11 scores on 32-second possessions have been particularly valuable as his powerful dodging presence out of the box presents issues for opposing defenses. 

“He’s one of the most skilled players in the entire league,” Ambler said. “He’s big, he’s fast, he’s strong, high IQ. When he steps on the field, it’s hair on fire. What we will continue to do is put him in positions where he’s going to continue to thrive. I wouldn’t want to try to guard him coming out of the box with 10 yards of speed barrelling downhill. He’s been incredible this whole year.” 

The Archers will ask Leclaire to keep doing more in Schreiber’s absence while their stable of depth pieces will, ideally, continue to produce as well. 

Still, life gets a lot harder for Utah without professional lacrosse’s only three-time MVP. 

Schreiber was the best player in lacrosse in 2023, scoring the go-ahead goal in last September’s title game to put the cherry on top of an MVP campaign. He remains the most complete midfielder in the game. So the Archers will need to continue to find ways to overcome adversity if they’re going to make it back to the mountaintop next month.