Since 2019, the Carolina Chaos defense has been the slowest to slide in the league. They play strict one-on-one defense — with Jack Rowlett locking down the quickest assignment and Jarrod Neumann covering the most physical assignment. If anyone loses an on-ball matchup, one player is there to clean everything up: Troy Reh.
Reh’s body of work elevates the team defense around him, and he can be the key for Carolina returning to the win column against the Boston Cannons on Saturday Night Lacrosse.
Each player on the defense has a different role, and the unit’s sole goal is to allow Blaze Riorden to see the shots he likes. It’s a simple formula that has led to many deep playoff runs and a championship in 2021.
Together, player by player, the defense stacks brick by brick and guides the team each season. Slowly, the Chaos defense has risen into a castle-like structure that exudes power and authority over the land. Hastily, the beauty and essence are slipping away, and the power and authority aren’t the same.
And like all castles of power, the Chaos defense has been placed under siege by opposing offenses in the 2025 season, allowing a league-high 13.8 scores against average.
In the Carolina Chaos defensive lineup, Reh is the mortar in a centuries-old fortress: quiet and unassuming, but absolutely vital. Just as the special mortar used in Malbork Castle binds together countless bricks to form an impenetrable wall of excellence in medieval times, Reh’s presence glues the defense into a cohesive unit.
And the mortar will be relied on this weekend in a pivotal off-ball matchup.
The two-time All-Star is great at handling an opposing offense’s top midfielder out of the box, but he shines most when tasked with guarding off-ball attackmen.
Throughout the season, Reh will bump down to close defense and will match up with elite off-ball threats like Marcus Holman and Xander Dickson. He’s tasked with making these All-Star weapons non-factors in an opposing offense’s game plan, and he’s exceptionally successful at fulfilling his load-bearing role as the Chaos’ silent anchor.
Dickson has been held goalless five times in his career, twice by the Chaos, most recently in the 2025 season when Reh didn’t give Dickson an inch inside and eliminated his role in the Atlas offense, holding him to 15 touches in 48 minutes (0.3 touches per minute).
At a micro level, erasing Dickson allowed Rowlett to turn the Jeff Teat matchup into a physical battle because of his inability to create offense with precise inside passing. At a macro level, it forced the Atlas to create offense by beating the Chaos’ short-stick defensive midfielders.
And that’s a theme each time Reh moves down low to close defense. He blankets his target. Rowlett and Neumann impose their force by brutally harassing the two next largest threats in physical one-on-one battles, and the rest of the defense builds together to force the remaining offensive targets into taking shots that have a high save percentage for Riorden.
Yet, basic defensive principles don’t dissipate when Reh seals off an attackman. Often, when an offensive player is sealed, it becomes a five-on-five because the sealed player will work himself out of the play to create spacing.
Teams aren’t able to do this against the Chaos because Reh remains a piece in the defensive slide package, and he doesn’t have to be right on top of his attackman because of his incredible stick. Reh is a ballhawk on the defensive end, constantly knocking skips at their apex and picking off passes like a safety. He’s a rare defensive-minded LSM who has full offensive capabilities. He has one of the best sticks of any defensive player, and it flies under the radar on the impressive Chaos defense.
