Redwoods Live By the Two-Pointer, Power Past Atlas in Final Group Play Contest

By Marisa Ingemi | Aug 1, 2020

There’s been plenty of excitement the entire PLL Championship Series, but Saturday’s Atlas-Redwoods matinee gave every contest a run for their money.

A back-and-forth affair between two desperate teams resulted in a 11-10 win, behind four two-point tallies.

Both teams entered the game at 1-2 looking to avoid dropping three games in group play, and the Redwoods will finish the round-robin style section at 2-2.

Sergio Perkovic netted two doubles, while Myles Jones and Joe Walters hit one apiece. They won just 25 percent of their faceoffs, but the two-point game led them to victory.

Breakdown

It took 12 seconds for Trevor Baptiste to be disruptive. The faceoff specialist won the opening draw -- his first of 15 -- to put Atlas ahead 1-0.

Sergio Perkovic didn’t let that early serotonin blast go for long, though; the Redwoods midfielder blasted a two-point bomb to propel ahead 2-1. Brent Adams followed up with a goal of his own before Atlas charged back into the ballgame.

Bryan Costabile and a diving tally from Rob Pannell tied things back up at 3-3, but that was far from the final deadlock.

If lacrosse is a game of runs, this was a contest of consistency. Each time one team had a response, the other had an answer.

With the Redwoods down by one, Joe Walters went for a pass early in the third but it found twine for a two-point tally to put them ahead 6-5. Atlas challenged the goal, but it stood.

They simply tied it up a few minutes later.

Connor Buczek used a man advantage to tie things up 6-6 for Atlas, followed by a dramatic two-point blast from Romar Dennis to go ahead by two.

The game never got too far out of reach. 

Ryder Garnsey closed the gap to one for the Redwoods with a diving goal from behind the net with two minutes left in the third and earned a power play while he was at it.

Costabile netted his second goal to go ahead by two early in the fourth quarter, but at the end of a man advantage for the Redwoods, another Perkovic bomb for two knotted it up once more.

The Redwoods two-point nature gave them another late lead following Ryan Brown’s tally to put Atlas up, with a Myles Jones laserbeam to make it 11-10, Redwoods.

Atlas had a chance until the end after the Redwoods ran the clock down to 20 seconds, but Atlas didn’t do anything with their final possession, dropping the game.

Ramifications

At 2-2, the Redwoods finish group play in the middle while 1-3 Atlas are just half a game ahead of the league’s two 0-3 clubs.

Elimination play begins next week.