REDWOODS 9
ARCHERS 8
The Redwoods defeated the Archers 9-8 in a broiling overtime showdown in Washington D.C. on Saturday.
The Archers went up 2-1 in the first quarter that saw a tremendous amount of turnovers from both teams. The Redwoods outscored the Archers 3-2 in the second quarter. The Redwoods came out strong in the third quarter as they outscored their opponents 4-1. The Archers shot back in the fourth quarter shutting out their opponents 3-0 to force the sudden death overtime.
Brent Adams led in goals scored for the Redwoods with a hat trick on the day. Sergio Salcido led in assists for the Redwoods with three. Garrett Epple continued to knock down his opponents with solid play and his co-leading three ground balls with Matt Landis on defense while Matt Kavanagh scooped up three on attack.
The Archers were led by Will Manny on attack. Manny finished the day with four points – two goals and two assists. Four other Archers ended the game with three points. Tom Kelly had 12 ground balls for the Archers.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the afternoon was Tom Schreiber. While he was involved in a fair amount of the plays, he was not finding the back of the net. However, one has to consider the high amount of turnovers that prevented Schreiber from setting up plays and drawing multiple defenders like players have seen in other games this season.
Both goalies seemed to struggle in the heat and back and forth play. Adams ended with 12 saves and nine goals given up for a 57.1 save percentage. Tim Troutner had 14 saves while allowing eight goals. He concluded with a 63.6 save percentage.
It will be an interesting showdown when these two face each other again.
WHIPSNAKES 11
ATLAS 9
The weather tried to control both the Whipsnakes and team Atlas on Saturday night. The night quickly became filled with severe storm warnings, weather delays, swirling winds, jagged lightning and stadium shaking thunder. Although the storms appeared throughout the night, the game was fit in. In the end, the Whipsnakes defeated the Atlas 11-9 in the first weather-delayed game on the PLL.
The Whipsnakes jumped to a commanding 7-3 lead in the first quarter after a significant starting time delay. While Atlas seemed to struggle with the slippery conditions, Whipsnakes slithered into action and scored five straight and netted several quick goals after John Crawley scored the first goal of the game for Atlas, who seemed to come to life at the end of the first and scored two more before the end of the quarter. A lot of turnovers and takeaways meant the middies saw a lot of back and forth action.
The second quarter saw the weather conditions worsen and it appeared that the game would go into another significant weather delay before the end of the half. Players struggled to hold on to their footing, the ball, and mark their men. As a result, there were only two goals scored this quarter. Ryan Drenner scored first for the Whipsnakes and then Eric Law scored with under a minute left in the quarter.
Atlas seemed to be inspired by their halftime talk – or the halftime weather show on the field. They seemed to find their mark in the third quarter by scoring three straight before the Whipsnakes found the back of the net. Again, rain made it challenging for the players to hold on to the ball and find their pace on the field. Paul Rabil appeared to have the easiest time on the field as he launched an absolute rocket past the opposing goalie this quarter.
A soggy quarter number four saw equal amounts of goals from Atlas and Whipsnakes as both netted two. And although the weather wanted to be the center of attention, it was the Whipsnakes who stuck it out and emerged victorious.
Trying to get Atlas back on course were Law and Rabil. Both men had two goals and one assist. Trevor Baptiste had a 54.5 per cent faceoff average. Jack Concannon saved 17 shots while allowing 11 to give him a 60.7%. This percentage was slightly less than his opposing keeper, Kyle Bernlohr, who made 14 saves while allowing nine goals to earn a 60.8.
The Whipnakes had Matt Rambo and Joe Nardella each lead the team with two goals. The difference was that the Whipsnakes appeared to play more as a complete unit and more of their players appeared to be contributing offensively. Another big factor was that the Whipsnakes only had three shot clocks expire as opposed to Atlas who had five. Atlas had 13 turnovers to the 11 the Whipsnakes had. Those numbers are in stark contrast to the three caused turnovers each team had. And one has to wonder if the breaks due to the weather allowed Atlas to regroup themselves. Who knows what would have happened if the game had to be finished the next day or was stopped sooner. Needless to say, the Whipsnakes tightened their lead and again proved that they can win despite various obstacles.
