It was my first time at Homewood Field and I must say it was a good venue to watch lacrosse. The bleacher style seating is a bit uncomfortable, but it allows you with a lot of leg room and you can easily see above someone sitting in front of you. The stairs were a bit steep, but they did not sell beer at the stadium, so they were not a problem for the fans. I also discovered a local beer called National Bohemian, or as the locals call it, Natty Bo. This beer was a great tasting and cheap and gained a fan for life, but what really made my trip down to Homewood worth it was the great games I got to see. Lets dive in!
Whipsnakes vs Atlas
We had a great game on Friday Night with the Whipsnakes defeating the Atlas 12-11 in overtime. The Atlas won the opening face off, but the physicality was set from the opening draw. I was excited to watch Jeff Teat play and he did not disappoint as he attempted a BTB for his first ever PLL shot. The first quarter was a back and forth battle with 3 different lead changes. The Atlas scored first with a Bryan Costabile step down. The Whips responded with Zed Williams shooting right over his defenders shoulder for a nice bounce shot goal followed by Matt Rambo scoring after turning the corner and shooting with his left. Whips up 2-1. Next the Atlas would score an easy one when the Whips leave Eric Law unguarded and then Jake Carraway would score a delicious jump shot/twister/floater goal. Atlas up 3-2.
The Whips would go on to score a power play goal to tie it at 3 at the end of the first. The Atlas would go on the score the next three with Costabile scoring twice with a nice twister shot on the run and scoring with 1 second left on the shot clock to give him a first half hat trick. Atlas up 6-3. The Whips swing back with Jay Carlson cutting through the middle and scoring on Concannon 1 on 1 and Matt Rambo getting top side and having his shot squeak by to bring it within 1. The Atlas would get the last goal of the second quarter and make it a 2 pointer from Jake Carraway. Atlas up 8-5 at half. The Whips would respond with a 2 pointer of their own from Michael Ehrhardt bringing them within 1. Next Teat would force the ball to the middle, but it would find its way to Carraway who again rips it into the net for his third of the day. Atlas up 9-7. The Whips would tie it up with Jake Bernhardt and Brad Smith scoring before the end of the third. Tied 9-9. The Whips would take a 2 goal lead with 5:50 left after goals from John Haus and Chris Aslanian. Whips up 11-9. Eric Law scores again off a missed shot with 3:40 left to play and Mark Cockerton would tie the game up in the last minute with a filthy inside toe drag to avoid his defender and inside shot with a low shot clock.
We go into OT 11-11, make a wish. The Atlas would get a chance to win the game with an offensive possession, and Teat almost scored the game winner with a BTB. The Atlas end up turning the ball over and give the Whipsnakes a chance to win the game. The Atlas failed to remember rule #1 when it comes to playing the Whipsnakes in OT, and that is do NOT let Rambo get top side. This is exactly what happened after the Whipsnakes would ride back for an extra opportunity and the Atlas D was unsettled. Rambo saw the space, lowered his shoulder and got to the middle for the game winner. Whipsnakes remain undefeated and win 12-11. Even though the Atlas lost on the scoreboard, they won Friday night. The Whipsnakes lost a couple players in this game due to injury and the Atlas offense looked great with Teat, Carraway and Costabile all playing like young All Stars.
Redwoods vs Chaos
All eyes were on Kyle Harrison in this game as he announced that this will be his last year earlier in the season making this his last game playing on Homewood Field. Although the stands were filled with K18 shirts, he did not happen to make it on the scorecard and sadly the Redwoods lost the second week in a row. The game was a nice back and forth battle that would come down to the final quarter. The Redwoods won the first quarter 4-2, but it was filled with highlight reel goals. The first jaw dropping goal was when Ryder Garnsey dog walked the ball all the way to the front of the net from x and shot around Riorden with one hand.
The next highlight reel goal of the quarter would go to Charlie Bertrand scoring his first goal in the PLL with a nice BTB finish while cutting through the crease.
This is immediately followed up by a crafty back hand from the poutine prince Chris Cloutier.
All these goals happened in the first quarter, but the craziest thing is that all of these aren't even the best goal of the game (according to sportscenter). After a highlight filled first quarter we would go on to only see two goals in the second and both would be scored by the Chaos. One coming off Cloutier forcing the middle and Ryan Smith making a nice catch and finish in close and the other coming off a Cloutier shot that was saved by Troutner but bounced right to Dhane Smith who hits a heavy pump fake and finish that would lead to a little scuffle between teams. We go into half tied 4-4. Mac O'Keefe would open up the scoring in the third with a crisp low to high rip. The Redwoods respond with a 5-1 run. Myles Jones would score twice and his second goal was a nice Tomahawk shot right over his head. Pannell, Henningburgh and Perkovic would also score in the 5-1 run. Redwoods up 9-6. The Chaos would end the Wood's run with Kyle Jackson handling a backhand feed from Dhane Smith with one hand and scoring.
This Sportscenter top 10 goal would spark a 5 goal run for the Chaos. Josh Byrne would score the next two to tie it up and Mac O'Keefe would end up taking the lead late in the forth quarter with a 2 pointer. The Redwoods failed to score in the final quarter and the Chaos win 11-9. The Chaos have been getting better every game and now the Redwoods have lost 2 in a row. Rookie TD Irelan is still dominating at the stripe and won 77% of face offs in this game for the Woods, but the extra possession doesn't mean much if you can't convert.
Archers vs Waterdogs
The Archers continue their dominance in the 2021 season and defeated the Waterdogs 17-8 on Saturday night. The Waterdogs kept the game competitive for about seven minutes when it was 3-2 Archers and then Captain America, Tom Schreiber scored an around the world BTB goal off a rebounded shot to really get the Archers hot. The Archers offense is so unselfish and move the ball around so fast that it leads to great opportunities. I can only compare it to Super Mario Strikers, like when you start getting consecutive passes back and forth and the ball itself would start to heat up and make a nice ringing sound just begging to go into the back of the net. The Archer offense is so talented and the energy that they play with is so contagious, once they get rolling it is hard to stop them. One of the best examples of this energy is this play by Goalie Adam Ghitelman.
After this 2 pointer from LSM Scott Ratliff assisted by goalie Adam Ghitelman, I knew it was over. The only other notable thing in this game was as time was winding down, Ghitelamn was wasting some time behind his own cage and the Waterdogs goalie had left the net. Ghitelman hucked the ball the length of the field and scored. Originally the referees said that the gaol was not good, but after reviewing the play, they determined that the goal would stand. Adam Ghitelman would end the day with 1 assist, 2 goals, and 9 saves. What a stat line.
Cannons vs Atlas
The Sunday games started with high scoring back and forth battle between the Cannons and the Atlas. The Atlas would end up winning the game 18-17, but the Cannons fought until the last whistle. Paul Rabil would score the first goal in this game, making his former team pay for trading him in the offseason. Then Lyle Thompson spun out of a double team and found Andrew Kew on the crease to bring the Cannons up 2-0. The Atlas defense was extremely physical with Lyle Thompson and held him to only 2 assists on the game. The Atlas would go on a 4-1 run in the first quarter with Jeff Teat scoring twice, including a perfect swim dodge on Cannons SSDM Zach Goodrich. Rookie Jake Carraway and LSM Craig Chick would also score for the Atlas and Tilt Daddy Drenner scored the other goal for the Cannons. Atlas up 4-3 after the first.
Drenner would open up the scoring in the second off a nice feed from Tyson Bell in transition to tie the game up for the Cannons. The Atlas then go on a 3 goal run with Teat picking up his third and assisting another. The other goal was a picture perfect split doge jump shot from range by Romar Dennis. Everyone has agreed that he clearly was past the arc and it should have counted as a 2, but it only went down as a 1. The Cannons would stop the run by a loose ball bouncing to Drenner on the doorstep and the Maryland native gets his third of the day. Next the Connor Buczek would catch a tight pass on the crease and finish to bring the Cannons within 1. The Atlas respond again with a 3 goal run to end the half. Bryan Costabile, John Crawley and Daniel Bucaro all score for the Atlas. Atlas up 10-6 at half. The Cannons open up the scoring in the second half with Connor Buczek getting his second goal of the game after absolving some body checks in the middle. The Atlas continued to move the ball around well and some extra passes led to another Teat goal on the doorstep. Jake Carraway would score next for Atlas giving them a 5 goal lead. At this point I thought the game was over, but Paul Rabil wouldn't let the Cannons quit with a nice goal on the run from deep. This sparked a 4 goal run for the Cannons with Buczek getting his third of the day and Connor Kew getting his second and third goal to bring the Cannons within 1. Just as the Cannons were gaining some momentum Drew Simoneau won a face off cleanly but passes it right to Jeff Teat who scores his fifth goal of the day. Then Atlas defenseman Cade Van Raaphorst cleared the ball to a wide open Teat with time and room from the lefty wing for another easy goal. Atlas up 14-11 at the end of the third. The Cannons would try and get some momentum going with a door step save by Marrocco and a nice outlet pass to defenseman Jake Pulver who would take it the length of the field and score a goal on the run. The Atlas answered quickly again finding Teat in close who scores his SEVENTH goal of the day. Ryan Drenner would score next for the Cannons after his shot was originally saved but it ended up bouncing cross the goal line after giving him 4 on the day. Then Rabil would score a 2 pointer on a power play to tie the game up at 15 with 6:24 left in the game. Van Raaphorst would get a clean takeaway and pass it to the lightning fast Brent Adams who takes it down the field and scores. Romar Dennis would get his second of the day late in the game, and it was a picture perfect ally dodge jump shot again. Stephen Rehfuss would score his first of the day again bringing the Cannons within 1. Mark Cockerton would hit a nice inside roll and finish to bring the Atlas lead back to 2 with 1:21 to play. The Cannons would fight hard looking for a 2 pointer goal, but eventually settle for an 1 with Rehfuss getting his second of the day with 20 seconds left. The Atlas would win the face off, but end up throwing the ball away giving the Cannons one last chance with 6 seconds left. They heaveed the ball down field where Lyle caught the ball, but the Atlas defense would wrestle him to the ground not giving him an inch to shoot. Atlas hold on and beat the Cannons 18-17. The Cannons had 4 players with hat tricks with Drenner, Buczek, Kew, and Rabil where the Atlas had 10 different goal scorers and Teat going off with 7 goals in his second PLL game.
Chrome vs Whipsnakes
The Whipsnakes 672 day win streak was snapped on Sunday when the Chrome upset them 16-6. I did not watch much of this game, but from what I did watch, the Chrome were outplaying the Whips in every aspect of the game. Goalie John Galloway was seeing the ball extremely well and was hitting quick outlet passes to give the Chrome some transition opportunities. He also ended the day with 21 saves and a save percentage of 78%. Rookie Jackson Morrill also balled out for the Chrome with 4 goals and 2 assists. I have to give credit to the Chrome here as they battled through injuries and a lot of new faces in the past couple of weeks. The Whips were dealing with injuries of their own and were without Zed Williams due to an injury caused on Friday. Matt Rambo was attempting to play through some pain in the first half, but was not able to finish the game. Some are saying that the Whips were a little banged up on Sunday due to Saturday night shenanigans and thought that the game would be a cake walk. This should serve as a wake up call to the Whips that they need to take every team seriously in this league because there is too much talent to ignore. This is also a huge win for the Chrome and helped move their score differential in their favor.
What' Next?
The PLL is headed to Long Island in week 4 and PLL betting odds have been added to the Barstool Sportsbook. I look forward to writing about all 5 games in week 4 and will be attempting to get Barstool to have some prop bets. Stay Tuned.