Quotables is a (hopefully) weekly feature aggregating all the quotes from post game press conferences in a PLL weekend. The goal is to have this available as soon as possible, and as soon as transcription is available in the event games aren't covered in person.
PLL week five quotables features feedback on veteran leadership, team adjustments, stand out players from the week, and more. It's broken out by team.
WHIPSNAKES
Whipsnakes goalie Brian Phipps on the game…
It’s not how we drew it up, it’s not Whipsnakes lacrosse that we play, and we got away from a lot of things that coach preaches. We just have to be better on each aspect of the game.
Whipsnakes Coach Jim Stagnitta after the game..
A little decimated, lineup wise. We’re counting on some guys to carry us that is a little bit unexpected. 16 goals is a lot of goals to give up, and it’s tough to win games when you give up that many. For parts of the game, we executed the way we wanted to. At 12-10, giving up that two, was a big difference maker. Zed was terrific today, Keegan stepped up and played well, Kennedy too for his first time out there, Phipper having to step in, we had some good efforts. But inconsistent, but hopefully we can get healthy and get a little deeper over the break.
Stags on the Kyle and Matt injuries…
Matt dinged his hand. I don’t know about Kyle, we didn’t get any reports during the game. But if Kyle’s going to leave it’s probably not good.
(EDITOR NOTE: Bernlohr will have further testing this week, and the hope is that his elbow injury is not season ending. He could return for the end of the regular season.)
Stagnitta on the culture of being ready to step up…
I’ve said all along, I like the talent on this team and the depth of talent. Some of that depth of talent is young. With that, comes some growing pains. But I don’t think we had a whole lot of choice in the second half except to keep going to Zed and Keegan. They were the two guys who were able to create for us. They did a good job pushing out on Tucker, but Tucker was still able to create some opportunities. Again, there’s some depth, but our consistency in execution is lacking. That’s not all young guys.
WATERDOGS
Waterdogs Coach Andy Copelan on the story of the game…
Really the tale of two halves. I didn’t think we played particularly great in the 1st half and we flipped it around in second. Even once they got some momentum, they went up by two, I don’t remember what the exact timing was, but I thought once we recalibrated and settled down, we played well down the stretch. The Whips are super tough. I can see it in Coach Stags face. They’re just a little bit snake bit with some injuries, sometimes that a tough thing to swallow, but those guys play us hard over and over and over again. We’re fortunate to be 4-1 right now heading into a little bit of a break, and we’ll try to be at our best the back half of the year, that’s the goal.
Jack Hannah post game...
It was a good game. Hard fought battle through four quarters. Definitely came out a little slow on the offensive end but the defense played well and kept us in it, Wardo played great between the pipes. We were able to get a win, just grind it out, Dogs lacrosse.
Copelan on having Hannah back…
[Hannah] is the best. He had an awesome rookie campaign, he had an awesome indoor season, he was up for Rookie of the Year. Obviously we felt his absence. Once we got the official word that he would have the green light medically to oplay, it was a no brainer on my end. You see him screaming out of the box and the defense kind of gets on their heels, and they have to account for him. I could tell yesterday at practice he was chomping at the bit so it was awesome to have him back, hopefully CK is not too far behind him.
Jack on returning the lineup…
It was fantastic. You’re sitting at home on the couch watching these games, I was itching to get back out here and play some lacrosse with the ‘Dogs. So out of the gate it was just excitement for me, happy to be out here getting the opportunity to play again. On top of that, it’s a great group of teammates to play offense with. Makes my job easy. Guys are getting open, guys are getting me the ball. Team effort, everyone did a great job and it was fun to be back out there.
Copelan on returning to Fairfield U…
I love the school. I love the institution. It’s always great being back. I took my family to a hoops game this winter. There are so many great memories and meaningful relationships with people who are still part of this community. I love Fairfield University and to see the marriage between them and the PLL is awesome. At one point today I had to look around and take it all in. This was a packed setting, we got lucky with the weather, so the environment was awesome, Fairfield County showed up, and it certainly feels great to get a win. But beyond that, it’s cool. All my worlds were sort of colliding. Yesterday the Waterdogs practiced at Greenwich Country Day School (NOTE: Copelan is also head coach at GCD), Fairfield U, PLL, they are all intertwined which is a funny little thing but it’s an awesome thing at the same time.
Copelan on early impressions of McConvey…
He’s the man. He’s a cool cucumber, doesn’t get rattled, he can play in big moments, he doesn’t try to do too much, plays very well within the system. He is awesome in the pick game, we have a number of lefties you can pair him up with. He and Zach have clearly begun to develop some chemistry. I give Currier so much credit there. We have a call to dump the ball into the corner to set up your ride and get your defensive personnel on. We’re making that call, and this I think is just a little Canadian connection or whatever you want to call it, but Zach jammed the ball to him inside and it was a huge goal for us when we needed it. TMac is going to be a great one.
Copelan on playing through injuries…
It’s like Bill Parcells said, you are what your record says you are. 4-1 is 4-1, and we will take it all day long. Goal number one is to secure a playoff spot, goal number two for us is to continue getting better and peak at the right time in the postseason. Four wins puts us at a decent place, but I want to keep getting better. I’m walking off the field with Kieran today, we’re talking about how it feels great, but there is part of us that feels like haven’t put together a full game. We’ve done the ebbs and flows thing, seen some good stuff and some not so good stuff, and I feel like if we can get healthy and play a complete game we can be pretty dangerous.
Copelan on getting their rings in Fairfield…
I think the Chaos when they won I think their ring ceremony was at Fairfield so it just kind of worked out that way. But it’s fun. You’re getting a ring, staring into Rafferty Stadium, I kind of had my hand in that whole thing getting to know the Rafferty family a bit. It’s a very cool full circle moment. I love the PLL, I love the Waterdogs, I love our roster, and I love Fairfield U, so a cool moment.
ARCHERS:
Mac O’Keefe on the team performance…
When your goalie is playing like that, your defense is playing like that, it makes your offense feel that much more confident. So [Dobson] getting us going, the defense holding it down, they were strong all game so hats off to them.
Brett Dobson on the defensive effort…
The defense played outstanding today. I’m not sure they scored a goal after the first quarter. Any time you can do that it’s pretty special. We understand that the more we get the ball to the offense, the easier our job gets. It takes a lot of stress of us. Offense did their job today, defense did as well, and Siss did a great job at the X. So all around a great effort by this team.
Dobson on only giving up 3 goals and the D…
I think anytime you put Graeme Hossack on someone’s best player, someone who’s been playing really really well, it’s an opportunity to shut them down. Garnsey is an MVP candidate this year, but you put Graeme on him and he comes back down a bit although he did have one. I thought Warren Jeffrey does a hell of a job down low. He may not pass the eye test on foot speed some of the time, but he’s a hell of a player, he can throw guys off their games. Matt McMahon did a great job communicating out there on Wesley Berg. You look at our rope unit with LSMs, they’re dogs, our D-middies with Piper Bond, Connor Maher, and can’t forget about Treezy. Those guys do a great job. It’s just on me, it’s on all them because they give up the shots I want to see. And if they get beat I try to bail them out, sometimes you can’t do that, overall though great team effort. But going through our minds, Coach Resch, we had ice cream on our minds. Under 9, it’s ice cream for the boys.
O'Keefe on playing a defense that shuffling matchups and defense that likes to switch..
I think [the switching] benefitted our game. We noticed it pretty early. The way we were able to move the ball to guys we have offensively, that plays to our game. Picking up on it early and spreading the wealth helped us on through the game.
O'Keefe on Matt Moore going out with injury…
I didn’t see what happened exactly. But it’s good to have this week to get healthy, we have some guys banged up. The time off will help those guys get back to it. But having some guys back, Grant Ament obviously. He’s been out for a couple weeks, and it’s been tough on him. You know how much it means to him. So it’s good to have him back in the lineup, but really the weapons we have all over the field. It can be any guys day any day of the week. You have to worry about so many guys.
Coach Bates on the game outcome…
Good to get a win going into the break. Defensively, that’s a pretty special effort to give up just three goals. I thought Dobber stood tall in the cage and team defensively we were really good. We stymied them and did a really good job in our one on one matchups. Offensively I didn’t think it was pretty but we did enough to get the ball in the net 10 times. Siss gave us the ball and I thought that was helpful for us. We got a bit of rhythm there. At the end of the day we going into the break feeling good, but still feel like we got a lot of room to improve. But that’s a good team, and that’s a good win for us.
Bates on winning matchups…
I thought were really physically. I thought we engaged them. Coach Resch and Coach Kav did a great job challenging our guys in a positive way to not let them get runs. When we slid and stay on the double team we were able to put the ball on the ground a little bit. But we were physical. That’s a good offensive team, with weapons. Brett was good. A couple times they got looks he made some critical saves. But in the third quarter, we really didn’t have the ball. We played a lot of defense on a hot night, so I give those guys credit, from Coach Resch on down through everybody.
Coach Bates on staying composed and ice cream for the boys…
(laughing) That’s a Coach Resch deal. I’ll let those guys enjoy their vanilla, or whatever it is. But it did get a little chippy at times. We reminded our guys to be even keeled, let some stuff pass. That was a strength of ours. By not getting into that mix, we settled ourselves in, and I thought we gained confidence out of it. We have a vet group and good leadership, and we understood how we thought that game might go, and we did a nice job just stemming the tide.
Coach Bates getting Grant Ament back...
Grant wants to play. He wants to compete, he wants to help. He’s a team first guy. For him to sit drives him nuts. And best layed plans, Matt Moore goes down early. We had a plan, Matt’s been playing great, hopefully that’s a short term thing. We brought Grant from the box and thought that would give us a bit of a different look. Matt goes down, Grant is back at playing down low. So we’re excited to get him in the flow. It’s another tool for us. He can come at you a bunch of different ways, we thought up top would be a little bit unique. Hopefully we get Matt back and we can get everyone together. We have some depth, we share it well enough. Again I thought we were a little sloppy offensively, but we’ll take it.
Coach Bates on Sisselberger adapting quickly…
I thoguht tonight would be a good test for [Sisselberger]. I have all the respect in the world for TD. He’s a world team faceoff guy. Siss rose to the challenge. And again, I said this last week as there’s a lot of debate about the value of faceoff, we’ve got a good one. We’ve got one that competes and gives us the ball. I thought we had good wing play tonight, Jared Conners had some big ground balls. But Siss, he’s a fighter. He’s competitive. He gives you a look and that helps set the tone for us. When you get tough wing play, even when don’t win it clean and you make it a dog fight, we get energy out that. It’s been a big difference so I give Siss and the wing guys a lot of credit for that.
REDWOODS:
Coach Nat St Laurent on the game outcome…
Obviously disappointed. I think we played extremely well defensively, I was really pleased with that. There were certain things we did throughout the field at times which were great, but disappointed. There isn’t any other way to put it.
Eddy Glazener on the outcome…
I mean we got fucking bullied out there. We didn’t respond the way I thought we would have. Close-ish game at half, we didn’t play well at all in the first half. And we proceeded to not play well in the second half either. You’re not going to win games that way unfortunately. So we’ve got to respond after the All Star break and start over.
Coach on the Archers D…
First and foremost you have to tip your hat to them. They played a great game, they out hustled us. They played with more of a sense of urgency than we did. We didn’t have a great practice the night before, I think that kind of carried over. Guys still figuring some things out. At the end of the day, they wanted it more than we did. They played harder. We’ve got to step back and evaluate it. We’ve got good players, great coaches, and we have to soak this one. It sucks. It’s frustrating as you can tell. We’ve got to figure out our identity, particularly on that side of the ball. This is two games in a row where we’ve asked our defense to just play way too much defense. We didn’t give them much on that side of the ball. Changes certainly need to be made. It doesn’t necessarily mean personnel, just attitude and approach, guys communicating better and getting on the same page. I didn’t think we had any flow tonight whatsoever, and credit to the Archers for that.
Coach on the midfield and possible changes…
We’re going to look everything. We can’t pinpoint an area, we’re going to look at it all. We’ll assess what’s going on and move forward.
Coach on getting guys back into team offense and away from too much isolation...
Rhythm. We have to get in rhythm. Everyone has to touch the ball. One of the things you run into in this league, these guys are all superstars. They’ve all been in big moments, they’re all trying to make a play. It’s a good group of humans and great lacrosse players, but what you run into is, if things aren’t going your way and you can’t get into a flow, guys want to step up and make a play, and sometimes that hurts you more than it helps you.
Glazener on how the offense can take pressure off the defense...
Defensively we’ve been doing a really good job of keeping each other and almost inviting other team’s offenses. Coming into huddles and saying we’re going to buckle down, get stop and stop, and hopefully convert those into goals. We saw something similar in the Chaos game where we had a spell of 20, 22 minutes where we didn’t score but we continued to get stops. We just need to continue with that attitude. I don’t think we beat each other up, point fingers, anything like that. If we did, certainly need to change that on our end. But we’ve had a good attitude as a defensive group and continue to invite it and enjoy playing defense. We want to get stops, we want to carry the team, we want to have an identity as a group that it starts with us. We’ve been saying that since the team formed in 2019. So it needs to start with us.
CANNONS:
Colin Kirst on the game…
Overall a great team effort. Every play, guys were giving their best energy and best effort. Defensively I thought we played really selfless. We slid to where we needed to and recovered efficiently. I thought it was a great effort overall.
Asher Nolting on the offense…
I thought we were playing unselfish. That first quarter we were humming, kind of went on a little lull there for a little bit, but overall a great team effort on both sides of the ball.
Nolting on preparing for a matchup with JT Giles Harris…
With film preparation with stuff like that. Watching how he likes to guard and certain tendencies he has. With him, he’s arguably the best defender in the world and he doesn’t need a lot of help a lot of the time, so being aggressive with my 1v1 matchup and looking to score than looking to feed.
Nolting on playing looser this year vs last year…
I think we are a lot closer as a unit. Last year, one of the things, me and [Kirst] were there every week, but we had a lot of changing and rotating lockers last season. This season we are a tighter group with the same core guys. I think it’s translating on the field. We’re having a lot of fun playing together, and that’s as simple as we can make it.
Nolting on the physicality of the game…
You have to be aggressive regardless. I knew they were going to be physical after how last game went. I finally got a call from Matty, so I’m going to thank Matty for that. I thanked him after the game so I think we’re good there.
Kirst on his relationship with Ghitelman this year…
It’s been honestly a dream come true. He’s someone that I looked up all throughout middle school. I remember watching his Final Four, a bunch of Virginia games, and his communication really stood out to me. I wanted to model my game after him. So coming into training camp, when we first acquired him, my eyes lit up. It’s been awesome to learn from him. He’s given me some life advice and some goalie advice, and he’s my roommate so that’s been great.
Kirst on the Cannons winning streak coinciding with his opportunity to start..
It’s been great. I think, like I said before, we are a very selfless unity defensively, no matter who is in the cage or who is on the field. The guys are going to be supporting each other. The past three weeks have been great, and the whole season has been awesome.
Coach Brian Holman on the game…
Just grateful for another week with these guys and I thought their effort was outstanding. I try not to really get nervous ahead of these things because there’s os much out of your control as a coach. You control what you can control, hopefully your guys are prepared. This one, Chrome has an incredible coaching staff, they have incredible players. Seeing them twice in three weeks, it makes you wonder how that was going to unfold. So we were very prepared, coaches did another unbelievable job getting our guys focused. Our captains had a bigger impact this week than they’ve had. They always have a big impact on our team, but they were a little more hands on this week getting everybody dialed in. I think we handled it the way I was hoping we would handle it, it’s just the next game. We weren’t trying to make too much of it being the Chrome, it’s just the next game. All in all, great effort on both sides of the ball and on to the next one.
Holman on Drenner getting better every week…
So proud of him. He’s an awesome human. Ryan is an incredibly hard worker. I don’t think he gets credit either. He’s someone that wants to master is craft. He’s a wonderful dad, he has a five year old that is the joy of his life. We spend a lot of time talking about that. I go back to Coach Mitchell. It’s taking the pieces we have, and getting them to the spots to let them do what they do really well. Ryan is a great dodger, he’s a very good feeder, he’s an excellent shooter with two hands, so put him in spots where he can be multiple threats. If you slide to him, he’s probably going to feed the ball, if you don’t slide to him, he’ll shoot the ball. He’s a weapon for sure.
Holman on no faceoff specialist and his personnel…
I thought they played pretty well. I’m not going to make too much out of this thing, I think a lot of people have been talking about it. At the end of the day, each team has to do what’s right for them. We thought this week, watching the Waterdogs game, it would be a good situation for us to put poles out there. We got Hartzy back off the PUP List, it would be hard for me to sit him on the bench. He’s a 16 year pro that’s got a lot of juice left in him as you saw tonight. He’s got a lot of lacrosse left to play. I thought it was going to be hot, which it was, so we had four poles and four short sticks. They can bring a lot of juice for four quarters. I think our defense played well becuase we were fresh going down the stretch rotating all those guys in. So that’s something we’ll look at going forward. But I don’t know what we’ll do in a couple weeks. We’re going to see what that matchup looks like, and do what is best for our team to put us in the best chance to win.
Holman on Ethan Rall’s play and his knocking the ball around to close the game out with a flag down…
I’m glad you brought that up. That might have been one of the most unique and incredible plays, I’ve been watching lacrosse a long time. Let’s say we were up by a goal and that play happened. You guys would be writing about this as a historical type of play. But to be that smart, and that athletic, it was incredible. He makes plays all over the field. He was a hidden gem in this whole draft thing. And to boot, he’s another one who just wants to master his craft. He is a hard working kid. I’m glad he’s on our side.
Holman on his veteran leaders..
I’m not that smart, ok, but it was part of the plan. Part of the plan to build our organization was, I knew that core group of young guys were really good lacrosse players. You can watch the film, and you can start to dissect. The cool part of all that was, they won their first game a year ago and then I think they lost nine straight or something like that. Just go watch the film of the 8th game and the 9th game. Then you start to see, I want that guy on my team, I want that guy on my team, I don’t want that guy on my team. That core group, what I wanted them to experience was being around a bunch of winners. You bring in a Marcus Holman, Matt Kavanagh, Adam Ghitelman, Kyle Hartzell, those guys resumes stack up with anybody. Jeff Trainor, a winner, a guy that’s going to have your back. I go into a fox hole, Jeff Trainor might be the first guy I call. Hartzell right behind him with his massive hunting rifle (laughs). To your point, that’s something I’m really proud of. Those guys have accepted that role, and they’ve really embraced it. This game is all about giving back. It’s about helping the people coming up the ranks, and they’ve done an incredible job of putting their ego aside and saying what’s best for the team and how can I help these young guys be the best they can be.
Holman on Chris Aslanian developing into a two point threat…
That’s another guy where you take a look at film of the past, Chris is a really good lacrosse player. He’s got incredible IQ, incredibly hard worker, he’s a Princeton coach. Early on it was good to have him because Coach Mitchell coaches offense at Princeton, and he was someone who knew that offense. We kind of leaned on him early to help the guys get their feet set a little bit. I think Chris, and this is something I keep telling him, I think the sky is the limit for him. He’s a big, fast, strong kid that knows the game and can shoot. I think some of his better days are stil out there for sure.
Holman on winning the turnover battle…
Those are crazy numbers. I didn’t think it was close to that. I thought our turnovers were less, but I didn’t think we had 10 caused turnovers. I think some of that comes with the faceoff situation, we’re going to have to see what that looks like. Any time you can gain that many more possessions in a lacrosse game, your odds go way up. I am kind of surprised the score was where it was, they’re a really good team. Sean I thought had a really good game today too. We try not to focus too much on caused turnovers. I think that’s a stat you can’t get too carried away with because then you get more aggressive than you probably would be, but we do focus on us being able to control what we can. I think we are making the little plays, big plays. Be consistent with what we’re doing and try not to make those home run passes. It goes a long way to winning a lacrosse game, that’s for sure.
Holman on how special a confident Asher Nolting is in the offense..
You guys are watching him every week (laughing). Shit, it’s everything. Confidence is everything. It’s everything in life, it’s everything with athletes. That’s my job. My job is get these guys to believe in themselves and to believe in each other and trust the process. You gusy have heard that a million times from coaches, but it’s the truth. We’ll continue to foster that relationship, continue to watch film because that’s the other piece. It’s not all about confidence. It’s knowing your opponent. Asher is another one where I think the sky is the limit. You are only seeing a little bit of what Ahser Nolting can look like as a lacrosse player. His IQ is starting to match up with his physical ability, that’s why you’re seeing his turnover numbers go down. He understands where slides are coming from, he’s starting to have a better vision of what defenses look like. Last year it was kinda of ‘be Asher” and then pot luck and see what happens. That’s not the way we are going to be anymore. Because he wants to be grea.t At the day as a coach you can implore, you can push, cajole, and build confidence. But if a player doesn’t want to be great, they’re going to hit a ceiling. Asher Nolting wants it. He loves this game, and that’s what we want in our organization. Guys that truly enjoy this game and love it and each other, and I think we’re starting to cultivate some of that.
CHROME:
Coach Soudan on the result…
We just turned the ball over way too much to win a game tonight. We talked about some changes at half time, and we still turned the ball over a ton. I don’t know if we’re gripping it too tight or what it is, but we’re certainly going to have to figure it out. As a whole, I think our team is pretty cohesive. We have a two week break to have some conversations and figure out where the issues lie. But at the end of the day, you just can’t go out and have nearly 30 turnovers and win a game.
Mike Manley on the result…
For me, I don’t think we came off the bus again. We let up three easy ones defensively. As coach said, turnovers have been killing it, and we’re just not playing good enough right now to win.
Coach Soudan on going up against a team without a faceoff man two weeks in a row…
If you noticed tonight, we did kind of experiment with a couple guys that we think can take the draws for us. We’ll have to evaluate what that looked like based on watching film and see what we do moving forward. But again, a lot of the issues weren’t necessarily faceoff related. It was more like getting our personnel on in time to actually be effective. And then to not just turn the ball over in bad situations in bad areas of the field. I think the first couple turnovers we had were up by the arc, and then it’s off to the races. So right there, those types of turnovers that they go down and score on give them so much momentum. And this is a team that’s playing hot right now anyway. So for us, to give some of those early goals, it was difficult to come back. I thought we would have an opportunity in the second half to tighten it up, but every time we scored, we would make a mistake and they would go down and score. So we just have to clean some things up.
Manley on the message in the locker room during the break…
Hit the reset button, back to the drawing board. We just have to put the work in. Like I said, we haven’t been playing well enough to win, and I take some ownership of that, being a leader on the team and a captain of the team. Like I said, we haven't really gotten off the bus the last couple games and that really hurt us. For us, we’re going to stick together. We have a great group, a great locker room, and I love every one of those guys, that’s not a problem. Right now, how we feel for each other in the locker room, that love we show, we’re trying to translate it to the field and we just have to work out some kinks right now.
Soudan on Handley’s best game as a pro...
I had a nice conversation with Sam during the week. This was his first week that he actually started his new career. Which is incredible. A lot of late nights, different things, a time change, bad travel to get here, and everything but he came out and played really well. I just tried to pick out a couple points that I thought were important for him to understand. How to change what he was doing the first couple games to be more effective. You put him in the play, and he’s great. You sense that he wanted to take the game over. Some early turnovers, it always comes back to turnovers, but we have to get him on the field a little more in some of those short clock situations and let him create, because he’s a handful.
Coach Soudan on hesitancy to shoot or passing up looks on offense…
That’s one of the questions we’ve been having in all our practices and our conversations during the week. You can’t play hesitant in this league. I don’t think you can be successful in lacrosse without just going out and letting it fly. If you make a mistake, we’re going to talk to you about it, but it’s going to be forgotten. I don’t know what kind of pressures some of the guys are feeling we are putting on them, but that’s a great question we have to figure out. One of the things we are going talk with captains, it’s just about confidence and being sure of yourself. If you see something, throw it through. I think, especially when we are turning the ball over, there are some guys who would throw it normally who think ‘I don’t want to throw this ball away right now’.
Coach on Jesse and Dylan in the midfield…
I don’t know that they got on the field a lot for meaningful possessions early in the game. But as the game went on I thought there were some really possessions. I really like Jesse King on man up. I think the combination of Dylan with Handley out there, with good hard dodges and then moving the ball ahead of them, worked really well. There was a possession where Dylan dodged really hard, moved it ahead, the ball ended up in Morrill’s stick and he came around. The ball got saved, but it was a really good possession for us, he just makes this happen. As far as Jesse King goes, I thought he was great. I thought he was great in practice. There’s a couple mistakes along the way but it’s his first field game in three years or so and we expected that. His niftiness and his ability to help other guys get open, his pick and roll game was great, and that’s going to get better. I was happy with both those guys.
ATLAS
Chris Gray on the game result…
Obviously a tough loss. You never want to come out of a game losing. I thought we fought hard until the end, but obviously a lot clean up and a lot to work on moving forward. We just have to regroup, stay together, and move on.
Coach Mike Pressler on the game…
Overall I thought we were better. We were better than we were last week, but obviously that’s not good enough. We were better in the goal, we were better defensively. There’s just something missing with us right now, and we’re trying to address the 32 second shot clock with this incredible player. The MVP of the league continues to dominate this entire league at that spot. We were better there in the 32, but certainly not good enough. Hats off to the Chaos, they made the plays. The game for us was kind of lost in that first four minutes of the second half. We’re up 7-6, we get three good takes, Blaze Riorden, who was incredible in the second half, he makes a save, they go down and score. Faceoff, we shoot it, he makes a save, they go down and score. 7-6 goes to 9-7, and then it was an uphill battle after that. They won that four minute period in the third quarter than changed the entire momentum of the game.
Coach Pressler on the move to Drake Porter...
Jack is a proven veteran in this league. Done a lot in the league in the past five years at a high level. But he just wasn’t on his game, he just wasn’t. It’s no fault of his own, it happens in the goal. I’ve seen first team all americans in college go through this before. We made the change after last week, and Drake rose to the occasion. I thought he played really well, stole a few, he was seeing the ball, and did a great job in the clearing game. So there was no thought in the game to make a decision again. Our issues were not in the gaol today. Our issues were in different spots, and some in the same spots. We’ve got two weeks with the All Star break to figure this out and get ready for Dallas and the Chrome.
Coach Pressler on Koby Smith in the lineup and moving Makar to close defense…
Adjustments I think worked to a point. We brought Chet Comizio in as a short stick defensive middie. Koby gives you an offensive threat. He had an incredible two hit the pipe early in the game to get us going. He’s an offensive player with a long pole. That was our thought process there, a better transition player at LSM in the middle of the field. Bringing Chet Comizio in as another defensive middie was certainly a big boost I thought he played well today. And then Brett Makar, putting the two pups down there, our draft picks, to play their two best attackmen. And Rex comes in, as a second LSM, and two games in a row he scores. He told me he hasn’t scored since high school. So two huge goals for him. Kudos to our effort today, we fought, we battled, we were highly competitive. That third quarter spurt proved to be the difference in the game.
Coach Pressler on the learning curve for rookies being mental or physical…
It’s more mental. The speed of the game. The off ball play. It’s one thing that I’ve learned here as a rookie head coach. It’s not covering the ball in this league, it’s covering the guys without it. They have to be open a foot, and the ball is on their ear. That doesn’t happen in the division one level as much. I think that’s a huge learning curve for our guys to playing without it. Because those great defenseman in college are always matched up against great offensive players, and they win their matchup. That’s obviously a different case in the PLL. But we love them. We are five games in and the future is very bright with Makar and Adler. We’re going to continue to play those guys and grow as they grow.
Coach Pressler on playing in CT…
I grew up a half an hour from here back in the 70s. Starting playing lacrosse with a wooden stick, that’s how old I am. It was great. A lot of friends from Wilton CT, Fairfield county, and some great years in Wilton High School learning to play this great game. It was fun to see a lot of folks I haven’t seen in a long time. My wife is here, my youngest daughter is here, so we enjoyed being back home.
Gray on the mentality of the team during the break…
It’s pretty obvious we have to be better, I think everyone knows that. But like I said earlier, the most important thing is just sticking together and continuing to work. There’s a lot of season left and a lot of games to be played. It’s all about watching the film, getting better, learning from the losses, and hopefully changing it down the road, but just sticking together.
Coach Pressler on the swing from Costabile hitting the pipe on a two that the Chaos took the other way…
There was a conscious effort to be better in the two. Romar, Costabile, certainly Koby Smith. Koby hits a pipe early, that’s the game of lacrosse. I’ve been around this game for a long time, it’s such a momentum switch. It caroms off, goes right to their guy, and they come down and score. You can’t say anything about it. I’ve had that go our way, I’ve it go against us, and it just is what it is.
Gray on the Chaos defensive unit and what they showed tonight..
Every defense is really good in this league. The Chaos are a pretty sound unit, and Blaze is a really good goalie. So if you get past the defense you really have to think about where you’re shooting the ball. I think we did a good job adjusting to whatever kind of schemes they threw out whether it was a shorty on E-Law or the double poles up top, I thought we did a good job handling. But down the stretch we have to shoot better and make better decisions, and we have another opportunity to do that in two weeks.
CHAOS
Towers on the team effort…
I’m just really proud of our entire roster of 25 guys. We’ve gotten everybody through into a live game within the first four weeks of the season, we’re 2-2 going into this game. We made a lot of roster changes; guys have come out of the lineup who have been playing really well. But in the spirit of being able to verbally defend every gameday roster spot of 19, we’ve got to be able to watch everybody play. I’m just really humbled to be around a group of men that see the value of getting live evaluations of everybody. Due to their respective role of sacrificing, by coming out of the lineup they don’t get a game check, it’s obviously a weekend away from the team. These guys have handled that news in a first class way. We’re talking about some of the very best players in the world coming out of the lineup. Their just supportive of whatever is going to help out team be in a position to ultimately make the playoffs and hopefully win a championship.
Brian Minicus on the game…
Overall it was a lot of fun. We blended well out there. Our offense did well, our defense is always great, every week. We have the best goalie in the world in between the pipes. And Nick did great at the X. So everyone was sort of compounding wins throughout the field and it helped us out a little bit.
Towers on the performance of Brian Minicus, who he’s known since youth lacrosse, and putting the coach role aside to appreciate his play…
I don’t see why I’d be special and wouldn’t feel that way. Just watching him is incredible. We knew it when we drafted him what we were getting. We got heckled a little bit by some people who didn’t think that was an appropriate draft pick. I don’t think there was a greater robbery than him not being in the All Star game. The question is whether or not he’s going to be appropriately considered for First Team All Pro. I don’t know a guy in the league that’s a tougher cover than Brian Minicus. I think he went through three of their defenseman tonight. I don’t know how many goals he had, but I know he could have had five in the first quarter off the dodge. And so he is just scratching the surface of what he can be. Grossly exceeded expectations as a player but as good of a player as he is, he’s as humble as they come. He’s an unbelievable teammate. And he’s a great representative of the culture of our team.
Towers on the consistency of the offense…
You know, we weren’t that consistent last week. We had our opportunities against the Redwoods but credit them they played a great game, their goalie played a great game. We didn’t shoot very well, but that had a lot to do with the way the Redwoods played us. We were more balanced this week than we were last week. We were conscious of trying to get a little more athletic in the midfield. You saw what KJ was able to do, you see what Will Perry brings, Dhane Smith is one of the very best players in the world. I know he was the NLL MVP and he’s been a league All Star, but I still don’t think he gets enough credit as someone who should be in the conversation for the best midfielders on the planet. He showed it tonight, he can kill you in so many ways. The best part about him is that while he’s an unbelievable passer and a great goal scorer and a great dodger, he takes just as much pride in setting a great pick, getting back in the hole on defense, picking up a tough groundball. And you can’t wipe the smile off his face. He’s an easy guy to root for, and we’re just really lucky to have an offensive group that reflects the joy of being out there and being able to compete at the highest level in the game they love.
Towers on Smith back to the midfield, Kurtz at attack, and if they will keep moving between spots…
Everything is week to week. We would certainly be foolish to screw with an offense that produces and shows up on gameday to the tune of 15 goals. While we did that in Columbus, it was because we had guys we had to get into the lineup to see in a real gameday situation. Tye Kurtz looked like he was way more comfortable out there in his position, where he played at Delaware, and where we drafted him. To be able to get Dhane back in the midfield, I think he sees passing lanes a little better up there, it’s a little more natural for him, if he gets a short stick coming out of the box he murders those guys. Nothing is set in stone, we reserve the right to change everything, we’re going to watch the film and identify our areas of opportunity for improvement, and we’ll roster our next game in Dallas accordingly. Film sessions each week are very important for our team, they are essentially practices. Our guys do a great job looking at it that way, and they aren’t looking past anything. We’re really happy with the win tonight but it’s one game, and fortunately the All Star break is coming up. We’ve got some guys that I think could use some rest. We’ll get through the break and get ready for Dallas.
Towers unprompted, after questions…
Ian Mackay should be in the All Star game
Minicus on how his game fits the Chaos…
I think it makes our offense versatile. The Chaos added a couple American guys with myself and Will. I think it compliments the ability to feed it inside to the Canadians who have the best hands on the planet, and hopefully take some load off of Dhane and Josh. I think overall it makes us a little more versatile which is great.
Minicus on his cheering section and the hometown crowd…
It’s great, especially on this field. I was fortunate enough to play a couple high school games on that field so it’s great to play on familiar turf. To have those guys up there was an extra bonus. I knew a few of them were coming. I didn't know the army was coming and they seemed to enjoy themselves.
Minicus on playing with momentum and a lead…
I think the beginning of the second half we pushed transition well. That was great for our offense to have an extra layer of ways to put the ball in the back of the net. The mentality is always, next play. I’ve learned personally that two goals, three goals, it’s really nothing in this league. You can’t look at the scoreboard and say a four goal lead is comfortable, nothing is comfortable in this league with a two pointer. So either don’t look at the scoreboard, or think of it as zero zero. You just put your head down and do what you’re supposed to do, do your job.
Minicus on seeing different looks…
We’re just trying to play our game.They can throw a bunch of different looks at us, as long as we play Chaos ball, I think we’ll have a pretty good chance against most defenses. We had a set tonight that worked well. Obviously matchups matter, but it wasn’t something we really harped on. We knew what we needed to do, where we needed to initiate, and where we were going to find opportunities. So we just focused on ourselves and trying to do what we’re supposed to do.
Minicus on his takeaway form the first five weeks…
Just take advantage of opportunities. This league is hyper competitive. You really have to think each week you’re going to have to prove something. With a lot of turnover in this league, you really have to take those opportunities, don’t take it for granted, try your best, and understand that it can be taken away.
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