Twelve-point-eight seconds.
That’s all that was left in the game between the California Redwoods and Boston Cannons.
After outscoring the Cannons 7-3 in the third quarter and taking a 16-12 lead in a game that was win-and-in the playoffs for both teams, the Redwoods seemed to have complete control. Like their games during their five-game losing streak earlier in the season, though, their opponent had stormed all the way back. A sense of deja vu lingered in the air.
Fortunately for California, a magnificent one-handed goal by Ryder Garnsey brought the team back to life and in the lead, 18-17.
Now, goalie Chayse Ierlan just had to hold off the Cannons for 12.8 seconds. It was not a lot of time. It was shorter than the amount of time he lasted trying wrestling as a kid.
And as TD Ierlan, Chayse’s brother and Redwoods teammate, tells the story, that experience didn’t last very long at all.
“He said he was claustrophobic,” TD said. “My dad was so excited Chayse was wrestling, so he called every person he knew, his friends, on the road, like, ‘Going to my sons’ wrestling practice,’ emphasizing the point we were both doing it, and Chayse made it 10 minutes into a two-hour practice.”
“I wish I could,” Chayse added. “Those guys (wrestlers) are different.”
While Chayse Ierlan may not have wanted to wrestle like his brother, he did watch him very closely.
Whether TD was wrestling, facing off or playing in the backyard with Chayse, the younger brother watched how he competed and prepared. Chayse saw TD go to the field every day to get reps in. He watched how he went to the gym every day to lift.
Chayse said it took him a few years to realize it, but he eventually came to the conclusion that the reason TD was so successful was because of the work he put into his craft, and it inspired him.
“His greatest asset as a faceoff guy and a top guy in the league is just how hard he competes and goes to work every day. He gets his workouts in regardless. It could be snowing outside, it could be raining,” Chayse said. “Just to have that as a big brother, he never made excuses.”
Chayse and TD seemed to always be playing lacrosse at the field in their hometown of Victor, N.Y., and their dad coached them both. Around the fifth grade, Chayse played up in age to be on the same team as TD, making practice schedules a little easier on their parents.
In addition to playing lacrosse, the two loved going to Rochester Rattlers games. Chayse loved to watch Rattlers goalie John Galloway, but his favorite player was Blaze Riorden. Much like he looked up to his older brother, Chayse also looked up to Riorden.
Riorden grew up in Fairport, N.Y., 10 miles north of Victor. The Ierlans’ father coached football at Fairport High School, where Riorden went. TD called Riorden “the mayor of Rochester,” and he believed that seeing someone who lived so close to them have success in college and reach the pros made Chayse realize it was a possible path for him, as well.
Chayse Ierlan also modeled his game after Riorden’s.
“I knew him a little [from] going to camps when he was coaching there,” Ierlan said. “He was a bigger guy with the quickest, slickest hands. I was never the most athletic kid, but I saw him and said, ‘He catches everything and tracks the ball so well, and he has a great love of the game.’”
Nine-point-seven seconds.
It came as no surprise to anyone on the Redwoods when Cannons midfielder Coulter Mackesy set a pick at the top of the two-point arc for Matt Campbell, who was sweeping from his left to the middle of the field with the ball.
Chayse Ierlan said during the timeout, California defensive coordinator Chris Collins told him that Campbell would probably start with the ball and to expect a pick or other off-ball action to free up Marcus Holman, whom Ierlan said was the “best in the world” as a stretch-outside shooter.
Jared Conners was covering Campbell, and even though Mackesy set a pick on the Redwoods long-stick midfielder, Ierlan saw Conners fight through the pick well enough that Campbell didn’t get totally free. Even when Campbell got leverage on Conners, Ierlan said a slide from defender Chris Fake acted as enough of a deterrent to Campbell to take some power away from his shot and make him shoot quicker than he wanted to.
There was a lot of action in front of Ierlan, but he was observant of everyone around him – on offense and defense – and what they were doing.
The year prior, there was one person Ierlan observed more than anyone else: Jack Kelly.
In high school, Ierlan watched highlight videos of Kelly at Brown on YouTube. When Ierlan was drafted with the fifth pick in the fourth round of the 2024 College Draft, it was surreal for him to be teammates with Kelly, who was the team’s incumbent starter.
The two-time champion, 2016 MLL Rookie of the Year and 2017 Goalie of the Year retained that role in training camp and through the season, relegating Ierlan to backup duty and appearances in only two games.
Ierlan said it would have been easy for Kelly to be “hands off” with the rookie competing in training camp for his spot, but instead, Kelly provided a wealth of information to him. While Ierlan said every goalie wants to play, he recognized only one played at the position and wanted to make the most of having such an accomplished player whose brain he could pick.
“He’s seen everybody. He’s played against everybody and stopped everybody,” Ierlan said. “[What was better], getting shots earlier in the week, maybe Monday and Tuesday, giving your body time to rest, or was it getting shots a lot Thursday and Friday, right before you play? Going through that routine and bouncing ideas off of Jack, learning from him and how he did it because he had done it for so long.”
Though he wasn’t playing, Ierlan said that if he sat around and moped about his role, then when he did get a chance at playing time, he wouldn’t be ready for it. He believed if he continued to push himself to improve while also using the time to learn the ins and outs of pro lacrosse, like how to take care of his body or to prepare for a game when his flight was late the night prior, then it would help him be able to apply what he learned and be successful.
He looked at Riorden – who sat behind Galloway for three seasons – as well as Utah Archers goalie Brett Dobson, who was Adam Ghitelman’s backup for one season, as examples of understudies who were ready to seize the opportunity when it presented itself.
“Eventually, your time will come,” Ierlan said. “You have to be in the position physically but also mentally ready to get in there and perform well enough to help your team win and give yourself a chance of starting.”
Six-point-one seconds.
That was the time remaining in the game when Campbell got his shot off.
For the previous 11 minutes and 53.9 seconds, Ierlan had not made a single save. The Redwoods went into the fourth quarter with a 16-12 lead, and Andrew McAdorey’s goal at the 11:26 mark made it 17-12, but Boston – with the home crowd behind it – came back with a vengeance.
Prior to Campbell’s shot, the Cannons took eight shots. Five of them went in while three others missed the mark. None were saved by Ierlan.
It wasn’t the only time this season when Ierlan’s statistics were subpar. After earning the starting goalie position out of training camp, beating out fellow second-year goalie Matt Knote, Ierlan had an inconsistent start to the year. In three of California’s first five games, Ierlan had a save percentage of less than 50%.
“Playing goalie is the hardest position in the PLL,” TD Ierlan said. “Don’t worry, we heard about, what seemed like five weeks, the announcers felt free to let us know that Chayse was the only goalie under 50%, which is tough as a brother to hear.”
Despite the statistics, Redwoods head coach Anthony Kelly didn’t consider removing him from the role.
“Ultimately, we were a young group as a whole, especially in the goal,” he said. “We decided on riding Chayse to start. It was one of those things where, how do you get experience without getting some experience? We knew there were going to be growing pains there, but it would be that way with anybody at this level. In a goalie position or a faceoff position, it just gets highlighted that much more because people are strictly looking at the stats as your outcome from what you’re getting.
“The way we looked at it, he was getting better every week. He was improving regardless of how the numbers were shaking out.”
Ierlan posted back-to-back games of 50% save percentage coming out of the All-Star break before having what Kelly said was his breakout game, making 14 saves and posting a 66.7% save percentage in California’s victory over the Archers.
“I draw on my experiences through high school, through college, and through my first two years of pro lacrosse,” Ierlan said. “I’ve learned ways when you’re under fire and when it seems like you can’t stop a ball and everything’s just bouncing the wrong way, it’s honestly a lot of trial and error. … I’ve learned a lot of ways of what not to do and stay in the funk, and I’ve learned a lot of ways to go to the next problem and the next shot and that next save mentality.”
During training camp, Collins said two of the traits Ierlan possessed that the team liked were his ability to play big in the goal as well as his experience playing in big games and in big moments during his time in college with Cornell and Johns Hopkins.
In the game against Boston, when Campbell got a potential game-tying shot off in the middle of the field from five yards away, Ierlan said all he tried to do was “stay big and square and patient as possible until I tracked it the whole way, as best as I could.” He got his stick on the ball, made the point-blank save and sent the ball downfield to secure the victory and California’s spot in the playoffs.
