The 2024 Premier Lacrosse League season kicked off Memorial Day Weekend. Since then it’s been training camp, ten regular season games, an all star contest, all for the first time in an Eastern and Western conference structure. The rollercoaster of a season culminated in the Championship Game, held once again at Subaru Park in Philadelphia. The Utah Archers, looking to defend their championship win from a year ago, took on the Maryland Whipsnakes, seeking their third title as a team in their fourth title game appearance in six years.
One of the hardest things to do in sports is repeat, and the Archers reached the mountaintop twice.
"We got a lot of people's best punches during the regular season. It's extremely hard to repeat, you don't want to look in the crystal ball back to last time we won and think it's going to be exactly the same. But you're going to face a lot of adversity, and I think it's about how you overcome it as a team. I think that's based on the culture we have in the locker room, we were able to grow and find a way," said Dobson.
Only one team could continue building a dynasty, and in 2024, it was Utah. They captured their 2nd title in as many years with a 12-8 victory, led by a red hot Brett Dobson who was named the Championship MVP. Dobson finished with 17 saves, going 68% in net, earning the game MVP honors for the second straight year.
"That's Brett Dobson being Brett Dobson in playoffs," said Archers midfielder Grant Ament.
In 2023, the game came down to the final seconds, with Archers netminder making a last second save following a late goal from Tom Schreiber, giving the Archers their first title. In 2024, the Archers once again relied heavily on their goaltender for a game winning performance.
It was all Whipsnakes early. From the opening whistle, they jumped on the Archers, scoring their first goal just 26 seconds in. Philly native Matt Rambo dodged on his first touch, getting topside and scoring lefty, setting the crowd into an early frenzy. The Whipsnakes made one play after another from there, with Matt Dunn causing a turnover on Connor Fields, and Ryan Conrad getting his first goal on an invert look minutes later. The Archers looked to break through with their first on a Mac O’Keefe goal, but a coach’s challenge revealed a crease violation and the goal was called back. Adam Poitras scored his first after being overplayed near the sub box and running to the middle of the field, giving the Whipsnakes a 3-0 lead. Brett Dobson made six first quarter saves, keeping the Archers in the game early. At one point, the Archers had six turnovers to just two shots as they struggled to find any rhythm. The Archers finally broke through on a goal from Matt Moore, who beat his man in early offense and scored with 49 seconds left in the first quarter to make it 3-1 Whipsnakes.
"We had some great opportunities," said Whipsnakes Coach Jim Stagnitta, "we could have been up four, five, six, and we either missed, hit a pipe, or Dobson made a save. We gave them some life, Krebs made a save and we were wide open, and they were able to knock down the outlet pass and get a goal of that. I thought that could have given us a bit of separation."
In the second quarter, the defending champs finally found their footing. After a Poitras goal made it 4-1 Whips, Mason Woodward made the juice play that the Archers needed, and it changed the course of the game. He caused a turnover near midfield, won the ground ball, and then raced forward and fired a shot from about 17 yards that beat Krebs and brought the Archers back within a goal. From there, the Archers energy only grew.
"We thought it was 2-1 with Mac's goal. We felt okay, we've not played well yet and we're within a goal. They take that goal back, [Whipsnakes] get another one, it's 4-1. Then Mase comes down and just sticks it. We've designed some plays to try to get him some looks but it felt like okay, we're only behind a goal here, and we've not played great lacrosse," said Archers Coach Chris Bates.
Tre Leclaire scored his first shortly after, as the Archers erased a three goal deficit in just 36 seconds. Grant Ament got in the board after the Whips slid early to him, and then he redodged the pole that slide to get topside from the low lefty wing and scored from a tight angle, giving the Archers their first lead at 5-4. The 4-0 took less than two minutes, as the Archers jolted themselves right back into the game. It looked like the Whipsnakes had the answer with an Alex Mazzone two point goal, but the goal was taken off the board because the head of Mazzone’s stick came off when he shot it. By rule, once that happens, the stick is ruled illegal, and an illegal stick cannot score a goal. So the Whips went from up 6-5 to down 5-4 again. Maryland continued to generate looks, but Dobson was up to the task for all of them. He had 10 saves at halftime. The Archers ran into a lot of the same, as Whips netminder Brendan Krebs made seven first half saves of his own. Krebs had started slow in some playoff games, but he made an early excellent save on the doorstep against Fields, and was excellent from the opening whistle. After a Malone feed through the crease bounced to Conrad for his second, the game was tied at five at the half.
"[Krebs] came out of the box ready. He had great practices. And he's going to continue to learn. There are some things today that they did, that he was able to get away with during the year. They put some pressure in teh clearing game and were able to turn that into some goals. So there's some things he learned from today," said Stagnitta, who also highlighted the mentorship that Krebs has received.
"The other you have to recognize is the's got Kyle Bernlohr there who is a great resource, and was a great teammate and provided us with so much this year. It's not easy to go from where he went to where he was, but certainly he had an impact on Krebs. Our expectation is, [Krebs] is going to eget better and better, because you know there's going to continue to be competition," Stagnitta said.
The second half had a rough start for the Whipsnakes. After they won the faceoff, they immediately turned the ball over, giving the Archers a full 52 seconds of offense to work with. The Whips defense held twice, but the failed clears and ridebacks kept the ball with the Archers, extending the possession and wearing down the Whipsnakes. O’Keefe would ultimately get to the middle off the field via a pick exchange up top and score, giving the Archers a 6-5 lead. The Whips shook the mistake off with a goal of their own, as Malone found Conrad for a quick stick as the shot clock expired, tying the game again as Conrad completed his hat trick. Sisselberger won the following faceoff, and Matt Moore again scored in early offense to put the Archers back up 7-6. Sisselberger again won the following faceoff, and drew a push sending the Archers to the power play. The Whips forced a turnover to kill the penalty, drawing a penalty during their clear to go to the power play themselves. The Whips couldn’t convert, as Dobson seemingly ready for every shot they took. Through three quarters, the Archers netminder had 15 saves and was at 71.4% in goal. Archers got a buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter from Dyson Williams, who scored with 0.8 seconds left to give the Archers an 8-6 lead after the third.
Archers kept seizing momentum and made it 9-6, their biggest lead of the day, less than a minute into the 4th quarter on a two man game between Moore and Leclaire that left the latter open for a time and room score. Sisselberger would win the following faceoff, and the Archers would use the full 32 before O’Keefe cut through the middle and beat Krebs with a series of fakes to make it 10-6. Teams traded possessions without scoring for the next several minutes, which was just fine by the Archers, who continued to use full shot clocks and lean on their all world netminder. After over 12 scoreless minutes, the Whipsnakes finally broke through with a goal from Zed Williams that made it 10-7 with 6:01 to play. The Archers would answer though, following a frantic sequence around the Whips goal. Krebs came out to hit an uncovered Moore, and the ball bounced towards the Whips net. Krebs scrambled back into goal, but Fields was able to pick up the ground ball and put it by him before he could get set to push the Archers lead back up to four.
Maryland called timeout with 3:34 to go, needing goals in a hurry. A well executed designed play resulted in Malone assisting a Mike Chanenchuk crease dive goal to bring Maryland back within three goals. The Archers won the following faceoff, and took the full 32 seconds off the clock. The Whips shooters could not find a way to get one past Dobson the rest of the way. Archers took another full 52 seconds of time off on the ir next possession, and the Archers fans started the celebration. Ryan Ambler drew a flag, then O’Keefe scored to make it 12-8 with 49 seconds to play. Then O’Keefe called started the party. The Archers ran down the rest of the clock, sealing the win and second straight title.
"If you define success simply by wins and losses, you're going to be disappointed. In my career I've won games, I've lost games, I've been a good coach and I've been a shitty coach. If you base it all on that, you may be considered successful about 60% of the time, which isn't great. This season was a success," said Stagnitta.
"We would love to have that game. I'm so proud of the guys, the older veteran guys like Jake, Channy, and then all the rookies that stepped up this year. There's obviously some times where I think we got written off, but our locker room was so in tune and together. For me personally, I thought this was one of the closest locker rooms I've ever been in. I think the locker room has to do such a big part of the culture and everything that goes onto the field, and this group was maybe the tightest group I've seen in a long time," said Rambo.
The title is the first for a PLL team attached to a home market, as the Archers will bring the trophy back to Utah. Dobson's message for the home town fans?
"Let's raise another fuckin banner."
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