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Lamberti: Learnings from 2025 Lexus Championship Series openers

By Adam Lamberti | Feb 13, 2025

After one game for each team in the 2025 Lexus Championship Series, here’s the one thing that stands out to me most for each team moving forward.

New York Atlas: Liam Entenmann is a Game Changer

There’s a lot to be optimistic about if you’re a New York fan after Tuesday night’s 25-13 thrashing of the Maryland Whipsnakes. 

The Atlas’ physicality stood out first and foremost. Dylan Molloy led the goal scoring with five goals. His nickname being “Thumper” is all you need to know about his style of play.

The biggest player on the field, Myles Jones (6-foot-5, 250 pounds) had to be tackled by Roman Puglise in order to stop his bull rush towards the net. 

Chet Comizio had a great possession against 2024 Rookie of the Year TJ Malone, using his strength to toss Malone to the turf and then forcing a tough shot.

Another takeaway is what a great job coach Steven Brooks did in preparing his squad, particularly moving from defense to offense. He always seemed to put players in good spots where they are comfortable attacking, and you saw that reflected in the scoreboard with 21 total goals, more than half of which were assisted.

But my biggest takeaway is that Liam Entenmann is an absolute game changer.

After being the fifth goalie ever to be selected in the first round of a college draft, Entenmann was as advertised and more as a rookie, and arguably a top-3 goalie in the PLL last season.

He’s such a well-rounded goalie, but his inside quickness shone in game one of Champ Series, stealing goals away from Maryland, including this one that ended up on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays.

I also loved his command of the defense, waving his teammates away so he could get the ball off the endline and set up the clear.

Entenmann nearly blanked the Whipsnakes in the final frame before Brad Smith scored with less than a minute left in the game. He finished with 15 saves and a whopping 58% save percentage.

Not only was he saving shots and at a crazy clip, but his dominance even had opposing shooters second-guessing where to put the ball.

“He probably had us thinking a little bit,” said Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta in the post game press conference.

So while the Atlas’ physicality and well-executed offensive sets will certainly be key to them winning the whole thing, there’s no gameplan for a special talent in net like Entenmann if you’re an opposing team.

Maryland Whipsnakes: Need to Find Offensive Flow Immediately

Facing a red-hot goalie in Entenmann never helps things, but I’d like to see the Whipsnakes find a flow offensively.

Maryland subs on their stars Malone and Matt Rambo on most offensive possessions, but it felt at times this stifled their ability to get into the flow of their offense immediately, which is even more crucial with a shortened shot clock.

A lot of possessions felt like one-on-one battles, having only three assists on the evening.

“It became a little bit like an NBA All-Star game for us,” Stagnitta said.

I don’t think Maryland needs to shake things up drastically, but they need to find what works for them, and execute it quickly.

“We talked a lot about getting the ball low down to GLE on the opposite side of the box, I think that’s a good place to start offense from,” said midfielder Brad Smith. “You suck the defense down closer to the cage and it starts to open everything up.”

With the Atlas pressing out a little bit as the Whipsnakes were substituting, it felt like the Whipsnakes didn’t utilize all the space in the offensive end.

There’s no reason to panic, but the urgency for the Whipsnakes needs to ramp up in terms of substituting quickly, getting the ball to where they want to initiate offensively, and go from there.

Get Malone or Rambo the ball on the left side, or Smith and Ryan Conrad on the right side, work a two-man game, and if nothing is there, swing it quickly.

Utah Archers: Skilled Defensive Players Elevate Offense

I could talk about Matt Moore, Mac O’Keefe or Ryan Aughavin filling up the back of the net, or Ryan Ambler dishing out four assists and leading the offense, but that was more or less expected.

How about Mason Woodward, Beau Pederson, Piper Bond and Connor Maher combining for 11 points en route to a big win?

Not only that, but it was the way that they did it that was most impressive.

Bond and Woodward both had beautiful BTB assists. As an SSDM and long pole!

Then, Woodward scored on an underneath move looking like an offensive midfielder while Bond and Pederson handled passes on the crease and finished their chances.

Bates recruited Pederson as an offensive midfielder at Princeton, so it shouldn’t be a shock Pederson tallied four points.

But what’s unfair is when you have an SSDM tally four points and then throw a guy to the turf like this.

In 2023 and 2024, a lot of Champ Series rosters had strictly offensive and defensive players that would substitute to play strictly one side of the ball. But when you look at the Archers roster construction for this Champ Series, it seems like they are confident in playing offense or defense with the guys they have out there, and it’s working so far.  

Boston Cannons: Lack of Two-Point Looks

Boston played a really good Utah team last night, and while they didn’t play poorly, their lack of two-point chances was the difference in this game.

The Cannons only scored two two-pointers on five two-point shots while the Archers converted five two-pointers on 12 two-point shots.

I’d like to see the Cannons initiate more two-man games with Asher Nolting and Marcus Holman from the righty side. Their chemistry can cause confusion for defenses and lead to easy step downs for Holman or Nolting.

On the lefty side, Chris Aslanian and Matt Campbell can bring it as well, yet only had one two-point shot between the two of them.

The Archers certainly prepared to take away these shooters, but I also think the Cannons can be a little more aggressive off-ball in freeing up Campbell.

While Holman and Nolting are working the two-man game on the righty side, Campbell and Aslanian need to be working equally as hard on the lefty side off-ball to free up a look for one of them from range.

As they face up with the other 0-1 team in the Maryland Whipsnakes tonight, the Cannons need to turn it on from two to avoid going 0-2.

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