Tom Schreiber joins 400-point, 200-assist club with vintage performance vs. Redwoods
By Zach Carey | Jul 22, 2024
There are very few boxes Tom Schreiber hasn’t checked off in his lacrosse career.
In Saturday’s win over the California Redwoods, he eclipsed 400 career points and 200 career assists. He’s just the fifth player to do so, joining Paul Rabil, John Grant Jr., Ryan Boyle and Rob Pannell.
“He’s an all-timer, without a doubt,” Utah Archers head coach Chris Bates said postgame. “His play speaks for itself. That’s 400 points as a midfielder. Everybody knows – he still gets poled, he still makes us go. … He’s such a phenomenal leader for us. That’s what makes our team go, that’s what’s made our organization go.”
By his standards, Schreiber had a relatively quiet first half of the season. He was still an All-Star starter and the West’s captain with 13 points through five games. But his 18.2% shooting percentage would’ve been a career low across an entire season while his 2.6 points per game would be his lowest since his rookie season.
In the Archers’ 15-8 win over the Woods, Schreiber took it upon himself to consistently initiate offense from the midfield. His nine shots were the most he’d taken since the fourth game of 2023. That volume of opportunities paid off for the Archers.
When Schreiber is dialed as a passer, there’s very little defenses can do to contain him. Off a Piper Bond pick that drew a switch, he spun away from Romar Dennis and flipped a gorgeous no-look, lefty underhand pass to Connor Fields on the crease. In typical Fields fashion, he nailed the behind-the-back shot past Jack Kelly.
Watch Fields as Schreiber spun to his left. He stunted to the back pipe and left his defender in the dust when he cut upfield. The moment Schreiber saw Fields plant his right foot to fool his defender, he whipped the ball where he knew Mr. SportsCenter was going while looking away to confuse the defense.
That’s what the Utah offense looks like when Schreiber is playing his best lacrosse.
“I’m having a great time just watching everything,” Matt Moore said of his teammates postgame. “Ball’s slinging around. Tom’s no-look to Fieldsy’s behind-the-back. I’m just like, ‘This is my dream’. It’s just awesome. The creativity of this game, you don’t really see it until this level. Everyone’s just very dynamic, and it’s interesting the way the ball can go in the back of the net these days. It’s awesome to see.”
That no-look feed to Fields wasn’t Schreiber’s only jaw-dropping play of the evening. For his 200th career assist, he threw another lefty underhand feed, this time to Tre Leclaire.
That was an absurd shot for Leclaire to make. Hitting 81 miles per hour on a shot while spinning and ripping off his back foot is special.
But it's Schreiber’s pass that made it possible. With Leclaire holding the stick in his strong right hand, the three-time MVP fed the ball to Leclaire’s left shoulder. By throwing the ball to his off-stick side, it meant that when Leclaire caught the ball, it pulled him away from the defense and into a shooting motion.
Schreiber’s the only player in the world making these feeds with either hand. By now, he’s ambidextrous on the lacrosse field. He’s the Patrick Mahomes of lacrosse. There’s no throw he can’t make, no way he can’t contort his body to fling the ball across the field to the exact spot where it needs to be.
“I’ve always tried to be as dangerous as I can on the field,” Schreiber said. “I want to be able to shoot, I want to be able to feed, go right or go left. I enjoy that part of the game a lot. I don’t reflect on this [record] stuff all that much … but I’m grateful to continue to play and feel good and be around a really fun group to enjoy this thing week to week.”
With Schreiber heating up alongside Moore and the rest of the Utah offense, the reigning champs are rounding into form in the back half of the season. The 4-2 Archers sit first in the West with their bye this coming weekend. If they can pick up where they left off in Fairfield, they’ll be in a great spot to secure favorable seeding for the postseason and make another run at a title.
