When Carolina Chaos head coach and general manager Andy Towers stepped up to announce his first pick in the 2024 College Draft, he was ecstatic to say Shane Knobloch’s name. 

However, things weren’t great out of the gates for the fourth overall selection. 

Through the first five games of the season, Knobloch had four points (3G, 1A) and couldn’t get anything to work on offense. Knobloch’s failure to produce wasn’t due to a lack of involvement, as he led the midfield room in touches. But he was struggling with taking touches for himself and attacking defenders. 

That changed after Chaos bye week and All-Star break. Knobloch has found his game over Carolina's last two contests, exploding for six points (5G, 1T) against the Maryland Whipsnakes and California Redwoods.

"He delivered in a huge way last week, he delivered again in a huge way this week," Towers said after Sunday's loss in San Diego.

What’s led to Knobloch’s breakout performances? For starters, it has been moments like this that woke up the beast:

This moment gave Shane Knobloch a ton of confidence ahead of San Diego pic.twitter.com/CXNROu9Hpt

— Hayden Lewis (@15haydenlewis) July 30, 2024

This is the version of Knobloch the Chaos needed early in the year. 

Knobloch’s game in college was downhill aggressive dodging that led to high-volume shooting. Instead of playing slow and in the Chaos offense, the 22-year-old midfielder saw a matchup out of the box he liked and attacked it at full speed. 

Once he got to his spot, he used his wrists to mobilize his shooting motion and ripped one for the winner. In shorter terms, Knobloch utilized his strengths to score a game-winning goal in Carolina’s overtime victory over Maryland. 

It led to similar success against the Redwoods in San Diego:

Knobloch has been more confident in his dodging game and it’s paying off pic.twitter.com/IUCqyC8Cxx

— Hayden Lewis (@15haydenlewis) July 30, 2024

Here, Knobloch identified a short-stick defensive midfielder as his matchup and knew he had the green light to get in his bag. One of Knobloch’s favorite moves at Rutgers was split dodging off the hop to work into a roll dodge to free his hands for a shot. He did exactly that in this clip.

In earlier games, Knobloch would still work his dodging packages, but he was struggling to score goals or would elect to pass the ball off to teammates. Aggressive dodging and getting back to the basics is helping Knobloch find success. Jumping into his bag of tricks opened up even more of his game.  

Shane Knobloch’s sidearm/underhand runner is elite pic.twitter.com/ZJEvYFJNWE

— Hayden Lewis (@15haydenlewis) July 30, 2024

Not many guys can sling it on the run and score goals. Knobloch does it with ease. If Knobloch has a lane down the alley, he loves to fire shots with low or medium-level release points to confuse goalies. 

Against the Redwoods, Knobloch had 19 touches, his second-lowest total of the season. However, he put together his best PLL performance yet (3G, 1T). It’s because he finally started to create for himself. 

Knobloch has been able to put together back-to-back solid outings because he’s finally settled into the Chaos offense and is working to create his own offense off the dodge against SSDMs. Playing aggressively and attacking defenders with speed and violence will be important for Knobloch and the rest of the Chaos as they push toward the playoffs.

"I'm really, really happy that he is showing the Premier Lacrosse League just how good of a player he is," Towers said. "That's exactly who we thought he was when we drafted him, and you know, I'm elated for him."

Against the Utah Archers this Sunday in Baltimore, the Chaos will need another big performance from Knobloch to get back into the win column.