California Redwoods 14, Carolina Chaos 12
Phil Shore: Andrew McAdorey ignites the fuse and Chayse Ierlan slams the door shut
In the third quarter, the Redwoods were losing 10-5 and staring at a 5-0 run by the Chaos. California hadn’t scored in nine minutes – going back to the second quarter – and had one goal in the previous 11:17.
But like he has on so many occasions this season, Redwoods rookie midfielder Andrew McAdorey scored his second goal of the game to stop the team’s scoreless streak.
A minute and a half later, he scored again. Then again, nearly three minutes later, after a Romar Dennis two-point goal, McAdorey scored his third goal of the quarter to bring the Redwoods all the way back and tie the game. That goal swung the win probability from 85.77% in favor of the Chaos (after Shane Knobloch’s goal to make it 10-5) to 50.04% in favor of the Redwoods, who did not trail for the remainder of the game.
“He’s a competitor,” head coach Anthony Kelly said of McAdorey. “He’s a guy that [says], ‘Give me the ball. I’m going to get it done.’ That’s what he does. He does his job, and he does it great. He takes a lot of pride in being the guy to be able to do that. I think it’s incredible for a rookie to be the guy that steps up week in and week out. I’ve been preaching that to the guys. No one is a rookie anymore.”
The Midfielder of the Year finalist led all players with four goals, which was also the most in his PLL career, and he almost added another at the end of the game.
Thanks in part to his super speed, McAdorey was entrusted to run out the clock coming out of a timeout with 21 seconds left. Though he was double-teamed, he was able to blow by both defenders. He saw Blaze Riorden out of the net and sprinted towards the cage, but his left foot hit the crease as he leapt in the air and shot the ball.
The play gave possession back to the Chaos, needing only a two-pointer to tie it, but an errant pass off the restart secured a California win. Kelly said he wished McAdorey would have taken a smarter approach and taken another step upfield, but he wasn’t mad at the rookie for taking the shot.
“It was kind of funny,” the coach said. “I actually had a conversation with Mac today about being in that situation. He was like, ‘Coach, what do you think? Is it ok to shoot the ball?’ I told him, ‘Well, it depends.’ We went through different scenarios. He was outstanding today. There is a reason that guy gets the ball in his stick at the end of the game.”
McAdorey wasn’t the only newcomer to shine. Rookie of the Year finalist Chris Kavanagh scored the team’s first two goals of the game, and his third goal came at the conclusion of the six-goal run in the third quarter and gave the Redwoods their first lead of the game.
Kelly and ESPN broadcaster Ryan Boyle called Kavanagh and McAdorey great competitors, and Ryder Garnsey wasn’t surprised by the impact they’ve had on the team’s fortunes.
“That’s what I expected from Day 1. That’s what they’re capable of,” Garnsey said. “To say that I’m impressed would be a lie. That’s how good they are. They’re some of the best players in this league, and they’re going to be for a long time.”
Chaos defender Jarrod Neumann said the emergence of players like McAdorey and Kavanagh is a sign of the changing of the guard in the PLL.
“There’s a lot of guys who have been here for a long time who, as a defense, you’re very familiar with,” he said. “For the first time [in my career], that changing of the guard is starting to happen where it’s not the familiar faces we are used to, and it’s because these young guys are really skilled, and they’re coming in and making an impact.”
Another Redwood who had a career night was goalie Chayse Ierlan. One game after his big save with 12.8 seconds remaining in the regular season finale that clinched a playoff berth, Ierlan had his best game as a professional, making a career-high 18 saves.
“The positive vibes going into this weekend, having a great opportunity, fighting for more time together, I just felt good and felt happy to be out there playing the game I love,” he said. “As long as we keep that energy as a group and enjoy fighting for more time, I think that’s what’s going to propel us. It was a good night, but we’re going to be ready for the next round.”
The Redwoods will face the top-seeded Denver Outlaws on Labor Day with a trip to the PLL Championship on the line.
Hayden Lewis: Carolina’s season stalls in second half
The Chaos entered the 2025 campaign with a championship-ready defense. Week after week, the dialogue around the team focused on the “Land of Misfit Toys” on offense and whether it would work.
There were ups and downs throughout the season, but the crew slowly gelled and started to show signs of a deep offense with multiple weapons in the form of Owen Hiltz, Jackson Eicher, Ross Scott and Knobloch — a young group ready to potentially peak in the playoffs.
But in Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup against the Redwoods, two major offensive lulls in the second half proved lethal for Carolina’s season.
“I think it came down to a couple of poor decisions that ended up in goals going the other way for them. They didn’t really do anything different,” Knobloch said. “We were getting great looks in the first half, got a lot of good looks in the second half [but] didn’t put as many on cage.”
The Chaos went scoreless for 10 straight minutes in the third quarter, and in that stretch, the Redwoods scored five goals, including a Dennis two-pointer, to swing a six-point run. The second scoreless run lasted 8:17, and the Woods scored two more goals.
It wasn’t just the Carolina offense that stalled; it was the defense, too.
Each week, the benchmark of the Chaos defense is to allow 10 or fewer goals and expect the offense to provide just enough scores to help produce a win. And the team looked to be in a great spot with an 8-5 lead at halftime. But in the second half, the defense gave up four more goals than it wanted to.
“I thought we played really well in the first. We were probably right on that average mark we like to sit on at five,” Neumann said. “If we do our job and we let up five in the second, we win that game.”
Despite the shortcomings on both ends of the field for the Chaos to conclude the 2025 season, it was a year that far exceeded the early expectations set on the squad.
“I think the offense improved a ton, but we’ve still got a long way to go to become a championship team,” head coach Roy Colsey said. “I think all of us are committed to making that happen.”
