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Top takeaways as Whipsnakes, Archers punch tickets to Cash App Championship

By PLL Beat Writers | Sep 7, 2024

Maryland Whipsnakes 12, New York Atlas 11 (OT)

Adam Lamberti: Whipsnakes advance to championship in overtime thriller

I’d be remiss to not start by saying this might be one of the best PLL games I’ve ever seen. I might be biased based on the outcome, but how many PLL semifinal matchups have you seen not just go to overtime, but have multiple possessions for both teams back and forth in overtime? 

Both head coaches mentioned in the post-game press conference that it was one of the best games they’ve ever been a part of.

Because teams didn’t have timeouts in the extra period, there was a flurry of nonstop action on both sides. Each team had great opportunities to end it. The tension watching the game was palpable; I can’t imagine what the players and coaches were feeling. 

On every pass, every shot, every ground ball, you were just holding your breath thinking that this play could end the game.

Someone had to end the game, however, and it was rookie Levi Anderson who was the hero with an individual effort on a strong underneath move. 

It was the first time the Whipsnakes led all game.

I could write a whole story about the overtime itself because so much happened. I honestly don’t even remember anything, just that I was holding my breath the whole time.

Here’s what I do know, though: This Whipsnakes team is a gritty bunch. And now they’re heading to the Cash App Championship Game.

Admittedly, it did not look good early for Maryland. The Atlas had all the momentum early after Trevor Baptiste scored back-to-back goals off faceoff wins. It felt like the Atlas could pull away, which I think a lot of us were expecting to happen.

But like they have all season, the Whipsnakes went to work on a comeback.

After being down three goals at the half, they owned the third quarter. They won the period 3-0 as Ryan Boyle mentioned on the broadcast that “the story of the third quarter is Brendan Krebs.”

And it was.

Ending with 17 saves, Krebs made his best stops in the third quarter to allow zero scores in the frame. This was likely Krebs' best game as a pro, especially considering how big the moment was. He was lights-out Saturday night.

Offensively, Matt Rambo, Colin Heacock and TJ Malone all tallied goals in the third quarter to level the score.

After giving up a two-pointer to Bryan Costabile to start the fourth quarter and then a Jeff Teat strike, the Whipsnakes went to an invert for Ryan Conrad to cut it to two. While on review, Conrad’s foot was in the crease, Atlas head coach Mike Pressler did not get his challenge off in time before the subsequent faceoff, leaving the goal on the board for the Whipsnakes.

The Conrad invert worked again for the Whipsnakes as he fed Heacock for a goal to pull within one. Then, like he has his whole career, playoff Rambo came out to play as he had a strong effort to level the game with three minutes left.

The Atlas had a chance to score in regulation after a timeout, but a strong defensive stand from the Whipsnakes took the game into overtime, and we all know how that ended, with Anderson the hero.

The defensive effort we saw out there from the Whipsnakes can't be overlooked. They held the highest-scoring offense in the PLL to just 11 goals. Matt Dunn was exceptional on Teat, Tim Muller was outstanding on Xander Dickson and Ajax Zappitello scooped up two massive ground balls in the overtime frame to get the offense the ball back -- maybe the two most overlooked plays of the night.

I also want to mention a clutch performance from Heacock, his best game as a Whipsnake, with a hat trick in a massive effort.

All season, we’ve been saying that you can’t keep the Whipsnakes in games like this because of their tendency to make late comebacks. And they did that in the biggest game of the year.

It was not the prettiest game for the Whipsnakes by any means. But they did what they needed to do to get the win, including Malone having four or more points and Conrad being an X-factor -- two of my playoff keys for Maryland.

Now they just have one more game to complete a storybook season.

Lauren Merola: Atlas have yet to reach championship stage despite stellar play, talent all season

Earlier this week, Atlas midfielder Myles Jones said the team jokes taht success in the PLL “is not about the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.” Or for the Atlas, it’s about the Jeff Teats.

Teat’s lack of touches manifested in a scattered offense and a near 17-minute scoring drought in the second half of Saturday's semifinal. Teat had 40 touches and finished with two goals. In Week 1, when he had 64 touches, Teat posted 11 points.

Dickson, the insidious scorer of the offense, had no points and only 14 touches. Connor Shellenberger had one goal with 39 touches.

The lackluster performance on offense, however, was only the tale of the second half. The Atlas started the game strong, almost overcoming their bye-week bias, with eight goals to the Whipsnakes’ five, seven caused turnovers to the Whips’ three and nine faceoff wins to the Whips’ five. It seemed a gift to Maryland to only be down three goals at half. But the Whips peaked at the right time this game (and this season), and the defense locked in while Rambo, Heacock and Malone showed out in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Atlas added just three goals, one caused turnover and three faceoff wins in the final two frames. Their fall coupled with the Whipsnakes’ rise meant overtime -- and perhaps the craziest overtime in the history of the PLL at that.

Teat had a look. Jake Stevens hit the crossbar. The teams exchanged three back-and-forth opportunities before Anderson sent Maryland to the title game, where New York has never been.

“My initial reaction, that was one of the greatest lacrosse games I’ve ever been a part of at any level,” Pressler said. “Two heavyweights slugging it out there. It was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen.

“We had our chances. … If we didn’t, it’s a tougher pill to swallow.”

It’s back to the drawing board for Pressler, though a complete roster overhaul is not necessary like it was last year. He said postgame he’ll focus on continuing to let his offensive and defensive coordinators create schemes and draw plays, while he’ll focus mainly on his role as general manager, acquiring the best talent possible through free agency and the draft.

“Really excited about that formula in ’24 and carrying that over in ’25,” Pressler said.

Utah Archers 10, Carolina Chaos 1

Zach Carey: Archers and Brett Dobson hold Chaos to fewest goals ever en route to Cash App Championship Game

Domination hardly begins to describe the Archers’ handling of the Chaos on Saturday night.

Against an opponent that knocked them out of the postseason in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Archers earned sweet, sweet revenge by holding the Chaos to the fewest goals in professional lacrosse history in a 10-1 thrashing.

Brett Dobson was a brick wall. He made an absurd 18 saves, allowed just one goal and kept Carolina off the board until the final 56 seconds of the game. For the second time this season, he outdueled four-time Oren Lyons Goalie of the Year Blaze Riorden.

In three career Cash App Playoff appearances, Dobson is averaging 18 saves per game, boasts a 72% save rate, has allowed just seven points per game and is 3-0. The 2023 Cash App Championship MVP is at his best in September, and now he’s got an opportunity to win his second title in his second year as Utah’s starter.

Around him, the Archers dominated matchups. Graeme Hossack erased Josh Byrne (with some help from Dobson, of course) while Utah’s short sticks were solid against Carolina’s speedy options on the perimeter. The Archers were far improved on defense relative to the 15 scores they allowed against Carolina in Baltimore.

Midfielder Grant Ament led the offense with one goal and two assists. His energy was evident from the first whistle, stepping up in Tom Schreiber’s absence both as Utah’s leading initiator out of the box and as a leader. After scoring 11 points in two Cash App Playoff games in 2023, he continues to perform in the biggest moments.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Grant,” Archers head coach Chris Bates said. “He’s come so far in so many ways. Watching his game develop is one thing. … But then, as a developing leader, and one of our consistent voices being positive, being competitive, and playing with joy. … He’s been phenomenal.”

While Ament sparked Utah in settled offense, the club found scores in transition as well. Hossack ripped a two-pointer in the first half — his first goal since 2018 — with a beautiful bouncer on the wet turf. It wasn’t a dominant offensive performance with just one goal in the second half. But it was more than enough for the Archers to clinch a trip back to the Cash App Championship.

Now, the Archers head back to Philadelphia for the second consecutive season in eerily similar fashion to 2023. Down one of their best offensive players yet again, still without 2023 Short-Stick Defensive Midfielder of the Year Latrell Harris, and matching up against a proven champion, the Archers will look to go back-to-back.

Hayden Lewis: Shaky Chaos offense finally hit rock bottom

The talk around the Chaos has been centered all season long on the offense. More specifically, the lack of it. That was the one thing that could derail Carolina and its best defense in the league.

The Chaos had four games with fewer than 10 goals in the regular season. During those games, the offense was bad. There were multiple 20-minute goalless stretches and turnover-filled possessions. Then, everything came crashing down in the Cash App Playoff semifinals.

“Obviously today we didn’t find our groove,” head coach and general manager Andy Towers said. “I’m looking forward to training camp already. I’m really excited about the way that our guys stuck together all year long. We could have been a team that, you know, the defense carrying us, pointing the fingers at the offense, that never happened.”

1-of-40 shooting through 48 minutes. The worst offensive performance ever in professional lacrosse. The Achilles heel one final time.

Even with the poor performance on offense, there were positives from the game. Jarrod Neumann won his battle with Connor Fields, which led to an on-par performance from the defense.

Riorden wasn’t his usual spectacular self but gave the team a 10-save (50%) performance. Nick Rowlett was 7-of-13 (53.8%) against Mike Sisselberger after missing two straight games with an injury.

Coach Towers is taking those positives into the offseason. To him, training camp already “can’t come soon enough”.

“I’m very proud of our group. No one expected us to get to the semifinals based on how the season evolved,” Towers said. “Our defense was great all year long. We had a lot of turnover on the offensive end. … We should start next year ahead of where we started this year, seeing that we were 75-80% new on the offensive end.”

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