Ward’s ascension to the elite ranks in the field game came from hard work and raw talent, but he also employs an arc that you don’t see many – if any – professional goaltenders use.

The All-World goaltender hasn’t always played this way. In fact, Ward explained that he started tinkering with this strategy while he was playing for Canada at the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships in Israel.

“We were playing on this field at night and the lighting was poor and we were using a dark orange ball, so it’s very hard to see,” Ward said. “So my box instinct kind of took over. It was like, ‘I do this in box, I take a step out and cut down angles. Let’s see if I can do this in field.' I tried it against England in our first game and it worked really well.

“I just started doing it against the Iroquois and the U.S. and Australia and it worked. And I’ve kind of implemented it into my game now.”

Standing at 6-foot-5, Ward is one of the bigger bodies you’ll find in a field goal. But apart from his size in the net, his arc is incredibly unique.

For those who aren’t familiar, an arc refers to points within the net where goalies should be set up depending on where a shooter is located on the field. A traditional arc is generally five points within the crease, with the top center, right, and left, and right and left posts being the spots for a goalie to set up.

The idea is to be able to cut down the angle and limit the amount of net a shooter can see from distance. The traditional arc has generally been used by smaller goalies. However, there’s also a flat arc, which bigger goalies tend to implement. This variation keeps the goalie close to their goal line and gives them more time to react to incoming shots as a result.

So you’d figure that being as tall as he is, Ward would stick to the flat arc, right? Well, yes and no. Because of his other goaltending backgrounds – which encourage goalies to step out and cut angles – he plays a hybrid style.

“I’m still trying to figure it out and I don’t know that I’ve mastered it by any sense of the word,” Ward said. “I definitely play a higher arc than most goalies do in the field game. When I was first learning, it was always stay back on your line and hold your ground, see the ball, react to the shot, and make the save.”

On a given possession, Ward could stick to his line and flat arc and cut down shots from the outside with ample time to react, but at times, he’ll also come out to the top and play a high arc to throw a curveball at shooters. He has done this on stepdowns especially. But it’s the unpredictability that gives him an edge.

There’s no situation that will dictate whether or not you’ll see him at the top of the crease.

Ward does enjoy looking at film to get a better idea of some tendencies, however, he added that he starts to guess if he just goes off of that. So he likes to use the flow of the game to pick his spots.

“Now when I’m playing, you can tell when a player is going to shoot the ball or make a pass or dodge. Now, it’s just more or less gauging if I have a chance to take that step out,” Ward said. “For a guy who’s taking a stepdown, I probably will take that step out to try and cut down the angle and try to make them hit a perfect shot rather than just sitting back.

“I kind of gauge it from the feel of the game and feeling like, ‘I know this guy is going to shoot, so I’m going to take that step out.”

Ward’s dominance in the cage helped him make the jump to the PLL last summer, however, he found himself behind reigning Goaltender of the Year Blaze Riorden with Chaos.

Following the 2020 season, Ward asked Towers if there was a chance that he could find him a spot where he could start during the off-season. As the season neared closer, nothing had come to fruition. But Towers gave him a call on April 30 to let him know that Chaos had accepted a deal to send him to the Waterdogs.

The move will allow the 30-year-old to have a starting role for a team that is trending up following an expansion season in 2020.

Connor Kelly, one of the Waterdogs’ brightest stars, hasn’t had the chance to face Ward in the PLL, but he did go head-to-head with him as a rookie on the Atlanta Blaze in 2018.

“I think more so than any other goalie, you have to be aware of him,” Kelly said. “I think he’s very active and it’s kind of unconventional way, but it works for him and it’s really successful. You have to scout it, and you look at a goalie and say he has these different things. But (Dillon) is different than every other goalie I’ve faced. Whenever you have to make the shooter think, that’s when you have the edge over them. And he does a great job with that.”

Kelly explained that when he’s shooting in-game, he’s not trying to think too much about what the goalie is doing. Instead, he’s trying to just react and aim for pipes and those small gaps.

But he added that Ward makes the shooter change their angles and move to create better opportunities for their shots to fall, which could also allow defenders to recover and stop them.

“Just having that confidence that, if we give up shots from a lower angle, he’s pretty much going to pick up the entire net. You’ve got to but the ball in a soup can to beat him from those lower angles, and it gives us a lot of confidence for sure,” Gobrecht said. “There’s usually a bit of banter when the ball goes to the other end like, ‘How did you save that?’ So I think he’s kind of already in a lot of these guys’ heads before the game even starts, which is a huge mental advantage."

Ward only likes to take a few shots in net during warmup ahead of games. During training camp, he and Zach Currier had a routine that originated from their Outlaws days.

Currier would leave the stretching line and take about 10 shots on Ward before practice started. Those shots would range from half speed to up to 75 percent -- Ward would also occasionally ask for Currier to go full tilt on a few. Then, he’d give Currier and nod, and he was ready to roll.

He had a similar routine with Mikie Schlosser back in Denver. He’d take alley shots on Ward to get him warmed up, and it would give him the opportunity to

“When I was running down the alley, I was like, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to put this thing. There’s nothing available.’ Which is nice. Usually that kind of helps because you really have to be precise. If I don’t put this thing on a poster, there’s no chance,” Schlosser said. “He’s going to make a lot of unbelievable saves, and I’m also very fortunate to play with him so much that it’s kind of like you get used to that and where you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s just what he does...nothing really out of the ordinary.”