California Redwoods 14, Maryland Whipsnakes 13
Phil Shore: Molloy delivers in fourth quarter again, Danenza gets comfortable and the defense shuts the door
After busting through his cleats last week, Dylan Molloy got an assist from head coach Anthony Kelly. Kelly told Molloy he might have some cleats he’d like and to text him his size, but he didn’t wait for a text. He sent Molloy a video of some of the cleats, including the cleats Kelly used in the 2014 MLL All-Star Game, and then overnighted them to the team’s equipment manager.
Molloy was planning on using the new cleats he used last weekend. After some urging from Kelly, though, Molloy put them on during the morning practice and decided to wear them on gameday. Kelly said the cleats were special to him, and now, after scoring five goals, two of which came in the fourth quarter, including the game-winner, they’re special to Molloy, as well.
“They felt so good,” Molloy said. “I was obviously a little self-conscious, but the guys liked them, so I was like, ‘Screw it, I’ll wear them.’ I don’t think I’ll ever take them off now.”
With the score tied at 13 coming out of a timeout, Chris Kavanagh started with the ball and swept to his right and shot; it was off-target, but Molloy had the shot backed up. Off the restart, Molloy dodged to his right at Matt Dunn. Aidan Danenza set a pick on-ball, and the Whipsnakes switched, leaving short-stick defensive midfielder Christian Mazur on the All-Star. Molloy got to the center of the field and past the rookie before scoring the game-winner.
“It’s something we didn’t execute well all night,” Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta said. “You see the back of his helmet, we were supposed to slide. We missed a slide on that one. We missed a slide on a few of those, or we were late, and they took advantage of them.”
Danenza not only played a key role in the game-winning goal, but he also scored a career-high two goals and was inserted into the power play. Since moving to the 19-man roster three games ago when Sam English was ruled out before the game against the New York Atlas, Danenza has scored four goals.
Kelly credited him for his lacrosse IQ and said he believes the midfielder will be a star in the league one day.
“He had a few weeks of not playing and came back and answered the bell,” Kelly said. “What he brings is a positive attitude. He’s an extremely smart, savvy lacrosse player. He understands where to be, when to move, when to set picks. You watch his game, he works really hard off-ball.”
For the second game in a row, the Redwoods outscored the opposition in the fourth quarter. The team got a massive late lift from the defense. After allowing six scores in the first quarter, the team allowed only seven scores for the remainder of the game, including zero in the fourth quarter.
Chayse Ierlan made 13 saves and had his fourth straight game with a 50% or better save percentage. Redwoods players were credited with six caused turnovers, including two from Cole Kastner.
“Our defense was freaking unbelievable,” Molloy said. “Chayse was doing a great job. We were just happy on the offensive end we could step up, and we obviously came back at the end. It was a huge team win.”
With 9:22 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Whipsnakes had a 97.84% win probability. Ask anybody on the Redwoods, however, and they’ll tell you that not only do they not know that number during the game, even if they did, they wouldn’t care.
“I literally had on the board today, ‘We’re never out of the fight,’” Kelly said. “We’re scrapping. Numbers don’t matter until the clock hits.”
Up next for California: Friday, Aug. 8 vs. Boston Cannons (6:30 p.m. ET)
Miles Jordan: Whipsnakes fall flat in fourth quarter to allow Redwoods comeback
Jack McDonald scored the first two goals of his professional career to put the Whipsnakes up 2-1 in the first quarter.
“One of the things that we like about him is that he does give us some transition from defense to offense,” Stagnitta said. “He did a lot of that in college, and it’s something that we haven’t had a lot of. We got it early in the game.”
The rookie was traded from the Carolina Chaos back in June for Whipsnakes’ draft pick, Scott Smith, and played in just his third pro game against the Redwoods.
Moments later, Levi Anderson fired a ridiculous backhanded shot past Chayse Ierlan. Then Joe Nardella scored his first goal of the season six seconds later to extend Maryland’s lead to 4-2.
Jake Bernhardt capped off the quarter with his first goal of the season on a high bouncer from two to push the Whipsnakes’ lead to four after the opening 12 minutes.
Rob Pannell, the former Redwood, scored both of Maryland’s second-quarter goals on just three first-half shots, shooting 66.7% compared to his season average of 10.3%.
Maryland’s three leading scorers, TJ Malone (14G, 13A), Matt Brandau (19G, 2A) and Aidan Carroll (16G, 7A) combined for 71 points entering the game, but were all scoreless at the half.
Brandau finished the game scoreless for just the third time all season, but Carroll finally found the cage in the first minute of the second half with an acrobatic finish past Ierlan off an assist from Malone. Then Malone scored his first goal of the game to stop a 2-0 Redwoods run.
Malone’s assist was the singular assist for the Whipsnakes on the night; 12 of Maryland’s 13 goals were unassisted.
Carroll (3G) and Malone (2G, 1A) traded goals again midway through the third quarter, and then Carroll notched his third for a hat trick with 38 seconds left in the quarter.
“Be more aggressive and a little bit more patient in their dodges and in their setups, and just the way they’re going about offense,” Stagnitta said. “I thought we were for that period of time. Unfortunately, we didn’t sustain it through the rest of the game.”
After Carroll’s final goal, the Whipsnakes went scoreless for the final 12:38 minutes of the game. Maryland gave up four consecutive goals from the Woods to allow California to take a 14-13 lead thanks to a Molloy goal with 41 seconds left in the game.
Carroll had the ball in his stick on the Whips’ final possession of the game but couldn’t put the ball past Ierlan to tie the game with 20 seconds left.
The biggest shock of the game was Joe Nardella’s battle with TD Ierlan at the stripe. Nardella entered the game leading the league in faceoff percentage (63%) but went a surprising 34.6% from the stripe – his first game under 50% since Week 2 of 2024.
Up next for Maryland: Saturday, Aug. 9 vs. Boston Cannons (7 p.m. ET)
