With less than two minutes left in the first half of Sunday’s U.S. Bank Championship, New York Atlas star attackman Xander Dickson suffered a left leg injury and had to be carted off the field at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
New York’s players knew then that they were playing not just for themselves, but for an injured teammate who gave everything for their cause of winning a PLL championship.
“He’s been a guy who has been such a heartbeat of our team, and it’s tough for us to bounce back from that,” Atlas co-captain Trevor Baptiste said. “How much it means to get back in and stay in the fight when an injury like that happens.”
After Dickson’s exit from the game, head coach Mike Pressler inserted midfielder Matt Traynor as the third attackman, and the rookie shined. Traynor notched two important goals shortly after his position switch and the game-tying goal early in the fourth quarter.
Two late tallies by midfielder Bryan Costabile secured a 14-13 victory over the Denver Outlaws and the Atlas’ first league title.
“[Traynor is] so versatile. That’s one of the reasons why we drafted him,” Pressler said. “When you only play 19 guys, you need to have great versatility and guys that can do everything well. Matt has been so consistent for us. We ran him on the first midfield on Day 1, put him on extra man. … We’re so proud of him.”
After losing his best off-ball offensive player, Pressler was immensely proud of the adjustments the Atlas made within their system to find a way to get the ball in the back of the net.
Jim Brown MVP Connor Shellenberger and Championship MVP Jeff Teat combined for five goals and 10 points in the win, but New York’s secondary scorers carried the load after halftime. The Atlas’ six goals after Dickson’s injury came from Traynor, Costabile and midfielder Reid Bowering.
“Once we adjusted after Xander went down and found what we were going to do and who we were going to attack, we were much better offensively the rest of the game,” Pressler said. “That credit goes to Jeff, Shelly and [offensive coordinator Steven Brooks].”
Winning in Dickson’s absence was especially meaningful for Shellenberger, his longtime teammate. The duo also won an NCAA championship together at Virginia in 2021.
“Our leadership did a great job regrouping the guys,” Shellenberger said. “Anytime you see an injury like that, and it’s a guy that we love so much. Personally, I have such a history with him. Selfishly, him and I talked about this moment a lot. We wanted to win this championship together and finish the job. … Obviously, it sucks that he is not here, but we are all thinking about him.”
