Denver Outlaws 13, Utah Archers 10
Topher Adams: The Jared Bernhardt Experience is here
Through almost three quarters Sunday in Baltimore, Denver looked sloppy, slow and more of the same from its first three games of the season. The Outlaws struggled to hit shots and looked disjointed offensively.
Then Jared Bernhardt found himself.
In his third professional game, Bernhardt finally looked like the 2021 Tewaaraton Award winner who rewrote the Maryland lacrosse record book. Denver added a new wrinkle to its offense, flexing Bernhardt at attack and moving Brennan O’Neill to midfield.
Bernhardt immediately toasted 2021 Defensive Player of the Year Graeme Hossack — who’d held O’Neill scoreless to that point — for a goal. Utah has a bevy of elite defensemen, but nobody could stay in front of Bernhardt with a head of steam.
He scored the first two goals in the fourth quarter and added his first pro assist as the Outlaws exploded out in front for the first time in the second half. Bernhardt finished with a team-high five points (4G, 1A) as Denver rallied to win after trailing 10-5 in the third quarter.
Bernhardt’s breakout added fuel to Denver’s other rapidly forming foundations.
Rookie Logan McNaney continues to be the real deal, finishing with 16 saves at 61.5% to shut the door on the Archers. As the Outlaws struggled to find their offense in the first half, it was McNaney’s magic in the crease that kept Denver in the game.
While Bernhardt was understandably the top story from Sunday’s win, it’s really McNaney and the defense that closed the door. From the 7:55 mark in the third quarter on, Denver held the Archers without a goal to allow for the eight-goal swing in the last quarter and a half.
Up next for Denver: Friday, June 27 vs. California Redwoods (9 p.m. ET)
Zach Carey: Archers’ offensive woes continue to limit the reigning champs
The Archers are scoring a league-low 9.5 points per game through four weeks, and the offense has come up short in both of the team’s losses so far this season.
Utah’s defense carried the team to two wins in the first three weeks, allowing eight, nine and 11 scores against. When the defense finally succumbed to the pressure Denver’s offense posed, Utah’s offense had no answers, going scoreless for the final 19:55 of the game.
“To be up 10-5 and lose 13-10, we can’t be happy, even a little bit,” head coach Chris Bates said after the loss. “We didn’t play well enough.”
Championship teams can win in different ways. The Archers have thrived doing just that in their two title runs, banking on being able to rely on both their offense and defense to win games. That hasn’t been the case this season.
“If I’m pointing to one thing for us, at the beginning of the year, we’re not shooting the ball well,” Bates said. “We’ve got to be better.”
Utah has shot 26.4% this season after making 29.5% of their looks last year. That shooting mark is fourth in the league, yet on the fewest shots per game (35.0).
“We’re just not generating enough shots right now,” Bates said.
One noticeable difference between Utah’s 2024 offensive success and some of its struggles in 2025 has been Grant Ament’s production. Ament has two points and zero goals so far this season after notching nine points and seven goals through three games in 2024. He’s been nursing a hamstring injury since tweaking it in the season opener. Bates said the key to unlocking the first-team All-Pro midfielder is to create space for him.
“He’s healthy, he’s got burst,” Bates said. “It’s just [about] trying to get him a little bit more patient to get space and then just to use it and trust his legs.”
The talent is there for the Archers – it’s hardly time to panic. But the offense needs to find itself if the club is going to peak at the right time like it has the past two years.
Up next for Utah: Friday, June 27 vs. New York Atlas (11:30 p.m. ET)
Maryland Whipsnakes 20, Carolina Chaos 6
Miles Jordan: Maryland balances out its offense in blowout win
The Whipsnakes closed out their Homecoming Weekend in style, dominating the Chaos and picking up their second win of the season in what felt like a must-win game after Saturday’s loss to the Boston Cannons.
“This may be the pivotal game in our season,” Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta said. “It was critical for us, and we knew it. And I thought it looked like we played like that.”
Rookie attackman Aidan Carroll played the best game of his professional career, leading the Whipsnakes with seven points (5G, 2A) on 83.3% shooting and showcasing why Stagnitta drafted him seventh overall.
Levi Anderson saw the field for the first time since Charlotte, but the two-week abcense didnt seem to affect his game. He finished the game with a hat trick (5G, 1A) and made an immediate impact in place of veteran attackman Matt Rambo, who was left off the gameday roster. Anderson was the definition of efficient: six points on 22 touches.
“[Anderson] and Matt Rambo have have been so professional about these decisions and things you know going forward,” Stagnitta said. “I think Matt’s probably his biggest fan.”
Matt Brandau, who scored four goals against the Cannons, finished his Homecoming Weekend with eight points (7G, 1A).
Even with TJ Malone’s quiet game (1G), his single goal pushed him past Waterdogs attackman Michael Sowers for the league lead in points.
“I’m not sure that everybody does as well as they do today if there isn’t so much attention on TJ,” Stagnitta said.
Maryland played a complete game today from start to finish. Nine different Whipsnakes scored, showcasing the “versatility” and “production” that Stagnitta has been mentioning all season long — something Maryland had lacked in its opening four games.
Rob Pannell (2G, 2A) found the back of the net twice and dished out two more assists after his record-breaking day against Cannons.
Brad Smith, Matt Dunn, Roman Puglise and Colin Heacock each scored one of the Whipsnakes’ 20 goals. Dunn and Puglise scored the first two goals of the game — the first of the season for both players — to get things rolling early.
Emmet Carroll made his second career start in goal and was a major reason why the Whipsnakes were able to open up such a massive scoring gap. The rookie from UPenn tallied 17 saves (73.9%) and only allowed six goals.
“He was the only reason the score looked like at the end of the day,” Stagnitta said of the third-round draft pick. “He made the saves a bunch of times you’re not supposed to.”
Up next for Maryland: Bye week
Hayden Lewis: Justin Inacio shines, but Carolina gets blown out
The last time they took the field, the Chaos gave up 12 unanswered goals between the second and third quarter in a 16-10 loss to the California Redwoods. Against the Whipsnakes, they were on the wrong side of a 10-2 first-half run that broke the game open.
Simply put, in back-to-back games, Carolina’s offense and defense have collapsed at the same time. And it’s been ugly.
“We know that we’ve got some progress to make, [and] I don’t think we came into this season really knowing what we were going to be, but we have to be better on either side of the ball,” Chaos head coach Roy Colsey said.
The lone bright spot on defense was Jack Rowlett holding Malone to one point. Carolina had no answer for the rest of Maryland’s offensive threats, and Blaze Riorden stopped a career-worst 29.6% of the shots he faced in net.
The five-time Oren Lyons Goalie of the Year surrendered 19 scores — his most in a game since 2019 — before giving way to backup Austin Kaut late.
Offensively, the Chaos gained firepower with Shane Knobloch, Owen Hiltz and Sergio Perkovic joining the lineup for the first time this season. However, the additional forces didn’t lead to success.
Carolina outshot Maryland 42-37 and was plus-3 in the turnover battle. However, the Chaos shot 14.3% and had 217 touches compared to the Whipsnakes’ 355, despite Justin Inacio forcing a battle all afternoon at the faceoff stripe with Joe Nardella.
“He’s been buying his time and waiting patiently,” Colsey said of Inacio, who hadn’t appeared in a PLL game since 2022. “… He came out and made the most of it. I already told him that he’s going to start the next game. He wanted a shot here, we gave him the shot, and he earned another opportunity, so my hat goes off to him.”
Inacio was 15-of-28 (53.6%) against the Whipsnakes and solidified himself as Carolina’s No. 1 option at the faceoff position.
If the theme of the offense and defense both failing at the same time continues next weekend against Boston, it will be another ugly game for Carolina.
Up next for Carolina: Saturday, June 28 vs. Boston Cannons (8:30 p.m. ET)
