The Premier Lacrosse League championship takes place on September 15th, once again at Subaru Park in Philadelphia. The matchup features the defending champion Utah Archers, seeking back to back titles, and the Maryland Whipsnakes, a standard for consistent excellence. The Whipsnakes are appearing in their fourth title game in the PLL’s sixth year of operation. While both teams have their share of star performers, it’s taken everyone, really more than everyone, on their current 25 man roster for them to reach this point. Emotions will be high at faceoff on Sunday. The game is the culmination of what has become a full weekend event for the PLL. Friday teams met with media and had walkthroughs, Saturday teams practiced and the PLL held a Street Lacrosse event at Capitolo Playground. Sunday, the third or even fourth day these players have been, the game finally gets played. What will decide the winner? In my eyes, key things.
Defensive Midfield Performance
The Archers have an outstanding SSDM trio with Piper Bond, Connor Maher, and Beau Pederson. Bond and Maher have been trusted to win their matchup, without slide support, since their first season a year ago. Pederson has joined them and quickly earned an equal level of trust this year. This group is critical for a defense every week, but even more so against Maryland. The Whipsnakes have shown a very healthy dose of single inverts, using dodgers like Ryan Conrad, Adam Poitras, and Levi Anderson to beat their short stick defender from behind the goal. Poitras and Anderson are both converted attackman, it’s a natural fit for them. Because the Whips win matchups from the single invert so consistently, they’re able to unsettle defenses and draw slides at will. That means matchup changes, and opportunities to attack a defense that has left itself vulnerable somewhere. Bond, Maher, an d Pederson will likely spend a whole lot of time behind the goal on defense, and if they can win again the Whips middies without a slide, it will force the Whips to adjust. On the other end, the Whipsnakes defensive midfield has a serious task themselves. Midfielder of the Year Tom Schreiber won’t be in the game for the Archers, but they showed last week their still very dangerous without him. Grant Ament will draw the LSM. Typically that means the dodging duties fall more heavily to the other offensive midfielders, but I’m still expecting to see Ament take several runs at the pole. Ament has won Attackman of the Year in the PLL, and is now playing midfield. His understanding of space on the field from above the goal and how to find areas to operate that give him an advantage before he even starts his dodge has grown every week. He can still trigger this offense from the midfield. The Whips shorties will have to be sharp against Tre Leclaire and Ryan Ambler. Leclaire is also a converted attackman, and as a transition and even defense to offense type midfielder, can frequently end up with a favorable matchup. Teams have targeted Whips SSDM Jake Bernhardt in recent weeks as the player to dodge against first, Leclaire could attack that matchup early. The team with the SSDM unit that can win, so the rest of the defense can hold matchups and hold their shape, will have a sizable edge.
Who wants to run?
Both the Archers and Whipsnakes are constructed very well to play in the six on six, in settled situations. With two quality defenses and goaltenders on the field, teams could look to steal a goal or two with transition opportunities. Turning a mistake into a goal scoring chance the other way, and doing it multiple times in a game, can break an opponent in the PLL. The Archers do this without even need to cause a turnover. Netminder Brett Dobson, who gave up just a single goal that came in the final minute of the semifinals, is arguably the best in the world at turning a save into a quick outlet pass to his midfielders. In that sense, a shot that’s telegraphed high and becomes an easy clean save for Dobson is really just a turnover, and one that he’s going to look to punish you with. The Archers can change the game’s tempo off clean saves if they want to try and run. Whips shooters need to make sure that Dobson has to move to save a shot, or make it hard for him to track it so the save isn’t clean. If Dobson is making saves, Whips can prevent transition by making those saves as difficult as possible. The Whipsnakes can control tempo by playing early offense. If teams are choosing to sub to get into settled personnel, there can be opportunities for Whipsnakes dodgers to attack a defense that’s still getting organized. Attackman Zed Williams is excellent as an individual dodger, using power to get to his spot on the field. Williams attacking while subbing is happening can catch the Archers off guard. The same is true of Rookie of the Year TJ Malone, and former MVP Matt Rambo.
Start on time
Managing the emotions of the game from the opening whistle is a must. There has been fanfare and, to be put it plainly, distractions abound for the players all weekend. Depending on the health of Cam Wyers and the availability of Colby Barsz, there could be a total of nine rookies playing in this game. That doesn’t include players like Whipsnakes goalie Brendan Krebs, who is in his first full year as the starter, and other players who are in expanded roles this year. The Whipsnakes coming out of the gate strong is important. They played from behind almost the entire semifinal, and their first lead in that game was the final score, 12-11 in OT. In the quarterfinals, they didn’t hold a lead until 7-6, early in the 3rd quarter. It’s uncomfortable to play from behind an entire game, and even more so when that game is the championship. A key player for the Whips early will be Krebs. In the postseason, he’s started games a bit slow and gotten better as the day goes on. He was a bit shaky early against Atlas, and by overtime he looked like an impenetrable wall in net. The Whips will need him to be sharp early and maintain that high level of play throughout, so that shooters like Mac O’Keefe and Leclaire, and dodgers like Connor Fields and Ament, can’t get themselves going early. The faceoff battle between Mike Sisselberger and Joe Nardella is also going to be a major factor in how these teams start. In their first meeting, Nardella got the better of the matchup percentage wise. However, Sisselberger went on a run of four straight wins that allowed the Archers to pull away and win the regular season meeting. An early faceoff edge, and efficient 32 second offense, can settle a team into the game, and allow them to build an early advantage.
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