Quotables is a 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 two quotables features feedback on veteran leadership, team adjustments, stand out players from the week, and more. It's broken out by team
Redwoods
Garrett Epple on the win over Waterdogs...
We spotted them six points, which usually isn’t good if you’re trying to win. But we showed some resiliency which aws huge. A couple plays that were really huge, ground ball from this guy (player), Ryan Kennedy, RK had a big turnover in the middle of the field that went the other way, and that really changed the tide. AT the end of the day it was Jack Kelly. That guy is absolutely unbelievable. He made every stop he could make and single handedly probably kept us in the game. But gritty win for sure. That’s a really good team with some talented players. From a defensive standpoint, all you can do is and contain those guys. We made some fantastic players and in the end, came up big a couple stops.
Cole Kirst on the win over Waterdogs
For me it was an awesome environment to play in. In a game like that, back and forth, up and down, you really have to rely on veteran leadership like Garrett Epple, Jack Kelly, and many more, and the coaches, to fight back and continue to claw. I think a lot of us relied on veterans in the locker room to provide a spark and make plays out there.
Cole Kirst veteran leadership and guidance...
It started in training camp. I think one of the best moments was in the locker room, day one, in Albany, just hearing voices of guys you’ve looked up to your entire life speak for the first time. When you’re in the locker room as teammates with them, it’s extra special. This is an incredible environment to be a part of, and I’m so grateful to be in the position I’m in. I’m just thankful to have guys like Garrett and the rest of the veterans in our locker room to rely on in times when it’s up and down. Training camp was a long week and there were a lot of ups and downs for myself, but to be able to learn from these guys and to grow as a unit, I’m just extremely grateful.
Garrett Epple on the play of Jack Kelly...
It’s everything. Bottom line, when it comes to the game of lacrosse, you can play the best defense in the world and if you don't get stops, it doesn’t matter. Same thing in basketball. Guy dribbles to the rim, Steph Curry shoots a fadeaway, impossible shot, if it goes in it goes in. People are going to score. But to play defense knowing the guy behind you is going to, in almost all certainty, stop the ball, gives you the ability to play with more freedom. If a guy gets a step on you, you don’t have to chase him around. We’re giving up, or trying to give up, looks to Jack that we think he can save. We made that adjustment in the second quarter and the shots they were taking, for the most part, were savable shots. And Jack just absolutely lit it up tonight.
Kirst on adjusting to the PLL in his debut...
I think skill. Everyone throws a pass on the ear at an incredible fast rate. Being able to take a shot with just a little separation is what really blew my mind on day one. When you’re growing up watching ESPNU college lacrosse adn you see players lik Rob Pannell, Myles Jones, Sergio Perkovic, and youre practicing the same shots in the back yard, it’s pretty special to suit up alongside them. Defensively, you see Garrett Epple, Eddy Glazener, Arden Cohen continuing to make stop, Nakeie Montgomery, IDA, TD, everyone down the line. It’s just such a special environment to be part of.
Epple on switching onto the decision to switch him onto Sowers and the impact it made...
I think the world of Arden. Fantastic player, went to Notre Dame and I watched him throughout his career there. I think still trying to get used to the pro game a little bit, and at the end of the day, we are all professionals trying to compete and win games. So if you have to make an adjustment to win, we have a culture in our locker room where guys don’t take that personally. We move on and handle it the right way. In terms of the switch itself, I think as a team we were more successful. I’m not going to sit here and say I locked up Sowers. It’s pretty hard to do. But at this point in my career, you learn to play angles a bit more as a defenseman and try to just contain him. Because if you try to cover everything he’s just too good, he’s too fast, and I’m not going to try and match feet with him at the end line because he’ll burn me every time. But if I can get him going one way, maybe to his weak hand, at least that limits his potential, and that’s my mentality when I’m guarding him out there. He still had six points or something like that, he’s a fantastic player, he’s going to crush it for Team USA this year. It’s a pleasure to compete against him. But ultimately I think the switch was good and threw him off guard a bit. We held them to three goals in three quarters, that’s pretty fantastic.
Epple on going down early and Nat leading them through it...
Last year, game two, we got blown out by Chrome. It was a completely different game, but they went up early and it was a completely different result. This go around I think our team has a lot more confidence. In terms of poise, that’s when you need team leadership in sports and life when crazy stuff happens. You need a calm voice and the rest of the team will follow. That’s something Nat does extremely well. Calling a timeout, that timeout in the first quarter, was a fantastic decision to slow everything down. At the end of the day we know this year we are a completely different team. The rest of the league I don’t think has figured that out yet, but we know that we at least can compete with everyone and should win every game we play. At least, that’s our mentality. When we come out here we know we can win, we know we can score goals, and we know we can get stops. Lacrosse is a game of runs, six up. It sucks as a player because you don’t know what’s going to happen, but all you can do is try and make the next play. Something ugys are saying in the huddle, in that situation, it takes one play to turn the game around. One check, one loose ball, one goal, one ground ball. And that’s what happened. We started getting some juice and momentum and it ended up bouncing our way.
Kirst on the tying goal and playing with Rob Pannell...
Coach John Grant Jr did an awesome job of drawing up a scheme allowing us to have space and go out there and dodge hard to try and make a play. Once you try to draw a rotation, that’s when slides happen. In that moment a slide didn’t come, so I was able to have my hands free and take a shot. But coaches put all the confidence in all the midfielders to go otu there, dodge hard, try to make something happen, try to make a play and create a rotation and if the off ball movement wasn’t working as well as it was, I wound’t have had that space to get my hands free. That’s guys like Wes Berg, Ryder, working extremely hard allowing me to have an opportunity with it.
(Epple adds) - They bullied guys going to the net today by the way, that’s how you dodge hard.
To play with Rob Pannell, to be a roommate with him in training camp and on this trip, it’s been awesome to get to know each other off the field. And to be alongside him on the field, he just has a calming presence throghout the entire game. He provides motivation, provide a spark, and no matter how high or how low we are, he’s always calming presence to allow us to go make a play.
(Epple again) - Speaking of plays that turned the tide of the game, Rob probably had three of them. Just will plays to win. That’s what you need out of your leadership and your veteran guys. He stepped up big time. That was a statement from him for this time. I’m super proud of him and super proud of Cole. Going to the net hard, that’s how you do it, any young kids run that tape back. But we have guys all over the field making plays toady and that’s what it takes to win.
Epple on why this team has more confidence this year...
In the offseason, we recognized internally why last season didn’t go the way we planned. We have a lot more buy in from the team this year, some new faces as well. EVeryone that we brought in from a culture standpoint has only added value to our team. That means the world, first and foremost. But, run it back to training camp last week. Seeing that new team and all these pieces come together, and see our potential, guys know this is a good shot for us at the end of the day. And we feel good.
Head Coach Nat St Laurent on the win...
Gritty win. We got down I think a touchdown and our guys battled back. We were able to really settle in, veterans led the way. Then the rookie came in, Cole did a great job making some hustle plays, and we kind of got going from there. But overally proud of our coaches, proud of our guys, a couple adjustments and they responded really well.
On Cole Kirst, being criticized for drafting him, and his play...
You just never know. We did take a lot of criticism for him but we felt extremely good about picking him. We knew the young man we were getting. You could see how much this team loves him at training camp. High energy, does all the tough stuff, and we saw it tonight. We saw from him tonight is what we saw all week at practice. He’s selfless, he does the tough stuff, he loves playing the game, and he’s truly grateful for being here. He didn’t expect to be in the lineup, and when he was in the lineup he was grateful for it, adn you just love to see that in a young guy to do well.
On playing another tight game…
It goes back to us having a room where guys are really seeing what we are capable of doing. They are playing for one another. They are understanding the overall mission. It’s been fun to see them grow and come together, I think that’s what it’s boiling down to. The locker room is a great locker room, and guys are excited each week to come back and play. That’s the biggest thing. We know we’re never out of it - nobody is every out of it in any game in this league - so, they’re both one goal games and we’re going to get better, but we’ll take any W you can get in this league.
On switching Epple to Sowers, and having Wes Berg back in the offense...
We knew going all the way back to last year, late in the game we put Garrett on Michael. Michael is a tough cover, but we wanted to go back to Arden. But we had that in our back pocket so we knew we make the change. We hoped it would go well when we made the change and I think Garrett did an incredible job on him.
Wes Berg is a winner. 2019 we traded for him because he’s a winner. He has brought so much experience and veteran leadership to this team. Its really helped this locker stay calm in those big moments.
There’s a reason we traded for Rob a couple years ago too. It’s great to have him on our side.
On Jack Kelly's big night...
Jack Kelly is great. The whole story going back to Israel and all that coming full circle. His leadership, his presence, he’s been outstanding. And Timmy Troutneris ready to go too. Those two guys, watching them work each day in training camp and watching them support one another has been awesome. Jack playing the way he’s playing is outstanding.
On taking an early timeout...
Sometimes you just have to calm down. We were trying to play fast, that’s something we’ve been preaching is fast fast fast. We just got a little out of control, we were a little sloppy, they were beating us to ground balls. It was a quick timeout just to regroup, recenter, refocus, then go back out there and chip away. We got a little tight and tried scoring like every shot was supposed to tie it up. We had to take a deep breath and realize it’s one play at a time. That’s what we refer to as jab after jab after jab throughout a heavyweight fight and that’s what tonight was.
On Ryder Garnsey's highlight goal to tie the game at 9...
When it comes to Ryder Garnsey and the way he scores, I’m kind of out of reactions. There’s nothing that makes me go oh wow anymore. My thing is that I just love the maturation process of him. He’s a gamer, he loves the game and he makes great decisions. I told him there have been times I wanted to call the timeout when the ball was in his stick, but now we just let it ride, no pun intended. Or maybe there is. But nothing amazes me with what he does, he’s a special player.
WATERDOGS
Michael Sowers on the loss..
They did a great job adjusting. Stings to let 6-0 slip away.
Sowers on having Epple switched onto him...
He’s good, he plays his angles well. Overall they are a solid team defense. We don’t really change what we do based on what individual matchups are. But they did a great job adjusting and obviously he was great down the stretch so credit to them.
Waterdogs Head Coach Andy Copelan on James Reilly...
I thought James was great. He obviously gave us a real spark initially, he’s a warrior and a competitor. He’s composed for a rookie. You kind of know what you’re going to get from him. He’s a great stick handler, he set a great pick for Michael on our opening goal. James does more than just take faceoffs. But I think he has pretty bright future here. We’ve got to go back and look at the film before we decide what the future of the faceoff position ultimately looks like, but we’ve got a lot of faith in James for sure
On Dillon Ward back with the team, on the sideline...
Copelan - It’s great. He’s the best. You can’t put a price on the impact that he has, whether he’s in cage or on the sideline. He’s a three time all world goalie and champion at pretty much every level, and that’s not coincidence. He’s awesome
Sowers - having his presence back in the locker room, off the field, on the field, he’s great. He’s everything you could want from a vet as a younger guy. I think having him back is great.
Copelan on attacking Arden Cohen early...
It wasn’t an Arden Cohen thing as much as it was a Michael Sowers thing. We kind of go as he goes, we’re better off when the ball is in his stick and he’s being aggressive, putting pressure on a defense. It had everything to do with that and nothing to do with Arden.
Copelan on trying to spark the offense...
We got blanked in the second quarter, but that felt more like a Jack Kelly thing than an us thing. He was seeing the ball great. We put a lot of our shots right at his feet and we talked about trying to adjust our levels some. But really the message was stay the course because we had a little more possession time and gotten into a little more of a rhythm offensively. At the end of the day, it’s two games where we haven’t gotten to 10. That’s eating at me pretty good. Once we get the offensive side of the ball clicking a little bit I think this team can continue to be great, but right now we’re a work in progress. But it’s also only week 2, so some perspective there as well.
ARCHERS
Brett Dobson on the win...
Good win. I thought the team played really well. I thought there were a couple instances in the end of the game where we could have been better. Overall it was a good team win from faceoffs, transition play, defense, offense. When we play like that this team can be a lot of fun and can be dangerous, but I still think we have a lot of things to clean up heading into next week.
Tom Schreiber on the win...
That’s a group in Chrome we have a lot of respect for. They are top to bottom a really strong team, they play a tough brand of lacrosse, so I’m proud of our effort. We scored 12 in the offensive end but I thought we were little sloppy and we could have done better. These guys, Dobber included, and the defense included were the difference tonight. But we’re happy with the win and like Dobber said we’re just trying to get better every week and keep it rolling.
Dobson on being in the zone...
Just trying to get hit with the thing and keep it in front of me. To be honest, you don’t really worry the ones you just had, focus on the next play and reset. A lot of goalies do a mental reset. For me, I reset at four minute intervals, use the media timeouts and regroup and go from there with positive self talk and reinforcement.
Schreiber on playing with Mac O'Keefe...
He’s a special player. THere’s not too many guys with that sort of skill set. Beyond his ability to shoot the ball he’s a copmetitor. Made a lot of invisible plays out there tonight. Lot of great passes, rode hard, he’s a more complete player than he gets credit for. But that shooting stroke is special and it made a difference for us, he scored a couple huge goals at big parts of the game. So we’re off to ag reat start with Mac and I think he’s just getting started.
On the challenges in preparing for Chrome...
Dobson - Cross had a great week last week. He established himself as a player that maybe nobody knew about, and he was a guy who as at the top of our scout. For us we keyed on him and tried Hossack on him to see if he would test that matchup. I think the other thing that’s really difficult is their offense, Wisnauskas had one goal and a couple assists, Morrill had like five goals. Morrill is a great player, for us, we have to focus on the inside to make things easier.
Schreiber - I respect that defense as much as anyone in the league. Individual matchup wise, they’re stacked. I have a lot of respect for their short stick group which makes a big difference, especially in this league. They’re tough guys, and our guys did a nice job. Their poles down low in Manley, Bernhardt and JT, those guys are really solid. And they have a great goalie in their two. I am proud of our effort, they’ve stymied us in the past so we’re fortunate to have a good performance here and win some of those matchups. That was the challenge adn I think we rose to it. The defense playing as well as it did kind of bailed us out a little bit too.
On playing in Charlotte and as a location for the future...
Dobson - It’s my first time getting to play here, I didn’t get to play here last year because I had some visa issues. The crowd was pretty electric, a lot of kids were there, it’s a great stadium and it a good environment to play lacrosse in. Going forward I think they should keep coming here, it’s a lot of fun to be here and it’s a beautiful city as well.
Schreiber - I agree. One of my favorite parts of playing in this league is being able to interact with fans afterwards a bit. And you do get a sense of the city and the lacrosse community. It was a really appreciative group of fans, kids, adults, everybody. It was a fun environment and it was great interacting with them afterwards. I’ve played this stadium a number of times over what is becoming quietly a pretty long career. This was a blast tonight, it always helps to get a win, this was a great experience for us and I really enjoyed it.
Schreiber on looking for more assisted goals this week without Grant Ament...
I think when you look at a player like Grant Ament it’s never going to be a one for one. His skillset with the ball in his stick and the attention that he commands is not something where we just make one adjustment and it’s replacing him. We’re getting more guys involved offensively, moving the ball was a priority all week as something we looked at on film. Going back to how well Chrome covers the ball individually, we wanted to focus on moving the ball and dodging to get better angles with ball movement. We knew in the middle of the week that we wouldn’t have Grant. We have all the faith in the world in DeSo to step up, he did a good job at attack. I think we did a good job moving the rock a little bit. For me personally, I didn’t really think about trying to move the ball any more than normal because Grant wasn’t in. We have a lot of guys that can be dangerous on offense, we want to get everybody touches in places that they can win their matchup.
Dobson on on the Archers unit not sliding...
A lot of it is just based on the defense understanding the kind of shots I want to see. I think a defense that understands that and knows where to be helps you out a ton. We have a lot of great players and veterans, so for us trusting each other is a big thing. We trust our 1 on 1 matchups and supporting each other. We got burned a couple times, but we’ll go back and look at it on film. But overall, having trust in each other.
Schreiber on getting Matt Moore involved...
The beauty of our offense is we all understanding guys are going to be a little more ball dominant and some won’t be. Matt knew we’d be relying on him a bit more this week. So he didn’t miss a beat after a more quiet performance last week. He was awesome. He’s a matchup problem. He’s so versatile. He can dodge from behind the goal he can dodge from up top, he can shoot on the run, facilitating, he’s a hell of a player. Being able to rely on a guy like that in the big moments is incredible for us. So really happy to see him have the game that he did. Like we said with Mac before, I think the sky is the limit with Matt Moore and his skillset is one that’s really impressive and one that we’ll continue to rely on down the stretch.
Scheriber on lefties playing the right side and vice versa...
Part of that is just Coach Bates' mastermind offensive scheme (chuckles). We do want to be able to flow within the game and have guys play in different positions. I won’t say we spoke a lot about guys being on other sides of the field, but one of the things we did want to stress this week was just not getting too caught up on where the pole was or where the short sticks are. It’s really more a credit to their short sticks and guys like Terefenko or Will Haus, Smith, Messenger, those guys are tough to beat. We didn’t want to stop the flow of our offense to find those matchups the way you might against another opponent. Those guys who are more left handed like Fieldsy and Mac being able to operate all over the field opens up some lanes for us and that goes for everybody. So we want guys to be comfortable behind the goal, right, left, up top, whatever and the focus is more so on the right spacing rather than specifically somewhere on the field.
Coach Chris Bates on the win...
You have to start on the defensive end. To hold that team to 7 goals, I give Coach Resch and our defensive personnel a ton of credit. Those two shorties, along with Lattrell, those guys playing their first year had some tough matchups. Brett played a great game, Dobber looked comfortable from the start. Plus Graeme and Matt, Warren was back, Warren did a nice job too. For us, that’s a workman’s like game really. It’s a physical game and on the offensive end we did enough to stay resilient. They did a nice job defensively on us. We made some big plays in big moments and it’s a good win for us for sure.
On Dobson as a leader...
He’s a goalie. So he’s got that personality where he’s unflappable. He does a nice job of owning that end of the field in terms of taking responsibility. We’re pretty quiet on that end of the field to be honest. Graeme is not the most talkative guy in the world, Warren is not, Matt McMahon a little bit, but I think Brett’s voice gives guys a sense of confidence. When he’s making saves and makes it look easy, it just gets us in a little bit of a flow. For a young dude, Dobber has been impressive just in terms of how he commands a defense and has a presence about him. He doesn’t feel like a second year guy, he feels like he’s been around a little bit which is a credit to him.
On playing in Charlotte...
It’s a great place to play. The stadium itself has a great vibe to it, the fans are into it, they’re on top of you so yu can hear them. Personally I look forward to playing here, and I think our guys do, it’s a good setting. The fans are into it, you can hear kids yelling, you can hear people involved, so credit to charlotte, I thought they showed well and it’s fun to play in front of that crowd.
On Connor Maher's play...
I’ll give him a grief because after he scored last week, I told him a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally. He scored today and he started chirping me as he’s running off the field. He’s got a great personality and a love of the game. You can tell he loves being out there. And he’s played at a high level. He played at Carolina for Coach Breschi. The moment doesn’t seem to big for him so I give him a lot of credit. We’ve relied on those two guys, Piper as well. Lattrell is Lattrell, he’s as good as it gets, but to rely on two rookies in the toughest position in the game aside from goalie, that’s been a real revelation. Not shying from the moment at all and really embracing his responsibility.
On the contact level and phsyicality of the game...
This was a notch above. That’s a big team, that’s a physical team. I think we’re beat up a little bit and hopefully they're beat up a little bit too. IF you just look at the size of the athletes on the field, playing this game right now, couple that with the competitiveness, I thought it was a very physical game. I think there’s a lot of ice baths and recovery this week. It was a tough up and down game. It was as physical as it gets. The faceoff stuff, it’s a little bit of the wild west out there with the faceoffs, a little bit by design, but those are big men going after each other.
On the main reasons for the victory...
Resilience. I didn’t think everything was as smooth as we’d like it but we executed our game plan. Our half field defense and our goalie. And I thought we shot the ball well. Sconone is a solid goaltender and I thought we picked spots and put balls in the back of the net. As they crept back, I thought we were able to get our hands free and get some good shots and kind of keep them at bay and that was, for us, a difference.
On Mac O'Keefe shooting from two...
For him, he stretches the field. You have to account for it defensively. If he’s pulling guys away form the cage, it can open up room for other things to happen, other seems,, flash cuts. But I said to Mac even throughout the week in our film work, if your hands are free, I’m never going to tell you not to shoot. And I’m going to stick by that. It’s not a savable shot more times than not. He know the role, and he finds space, and if he’s behind the two point arc and his hands are free we are definitely going to try to find him, that’s for sure.
On the faceoffs...
Mike had a great week last week. This is big boy world. Connor Farrell is a big man. I don’t think Siss is used to going against guys that are that physically imposing so I thought he got knocked off the ball a little bit. But as we said after the game, this is big boy world. These are all lessons for him. I was really proud of him. He could have gone away, but instead he has a left hand goal, and he won the last handful which for us gave us possession and show his resolve and maturity. At the end of the day those are big plays for us to win the game. He’s learning , he’s a rookie, but to get a win and have him learn those lessons is a great sign. I give him a lot of credit.
On being 2-0 to next week...
We were sloppy as well between the lines and substitution. We joked that we had to give Coach Kavanagh a sedative because it was just a frenetic box. It was that kind of game. I think as we mature, we get used to those situaitons, and we execute when it’s a little chaotic. But we keep growing offensively, we get guys back hopefully next week Challen will play. We’re excited to see him. He’s a big timer. Getting Warren back this week was good just to get ourselves into a flow, because we have one more week thenwe have ab reak for two weeks. It’s the Worlds and guys attention goes elsewhere. So we just want to keep building momentum, so in that week we like to be 3-0, let the guys do their thing in the world games, then kind of get into the July run here. It’s a hungry group and we realize that each week we get closer. That’s a theme for us, just keep getting better. It’s a mature group that’s competitive so that’s nice to have that in the locker room.
CANNONS
Coach Brian Holman on the effort...
Heck of a game. This is a great league, and a lot these games end up one or two goal games. I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of battling after getting down early. Part of who we are trying to become is being a team that’s not going to let that phase us. Personally, I know the guys aren’t going to want to hear this, but we’re making strides with our program and where we want to be. I thought today was a step forward. Everybody wants to win, I know that, but we hung out in there. That’s an all world team over there, they have five guys that aren't going to go away, they just won an NLL championship. We talked about 48 minutes and I thought we did that. Now we need to add a few minutes to the mix, and we will if it comes to that. Proud of our guys, congratulations to Coach Towers and his group. I thought it was an excellent ball game and we’re on to the next one.
Jack Kielty on the effort...
Certainly very disappointing to lose that one. We’ve lost a lot of tight games. Those always sting. But you come away with some learning lessons and some things we did really well. I thought we showed a lot of poise. We did not start well, but we were resilient, we came back and made that a tight ball game. Tip your hat to the Chaos. That one stings and we’ll get on to the next one.
Holman on wins and learns, and today’s learns.,,
I think the learning part is I’m starting to get a better feel of how this team is how is looking. We got into an overtime game and we didn’t finish that off. We were down early and had to battle back, and we did that. We executed some really nice opportunities late in the game to get us back in the game. Those are the learning experiences. Defensively we played a little different defense today for a short period of time, and that was just to see what it would look like. It really wasn’t planned specifically for the chaos. It’s almost like practice for us, and I don’t say that in a negative tone. But we double poled because haven’t seen that before and we put it in, so we have some film on that, and now we see how we can use that going forward. We learned a lot about Bones Kelly. He had a rough week last week but he’s a pro. We had a great couple talks this week about that confidence and learned that he can battle back from mistakes. And that should be a message to everyone on our team. It’s continuing to push forward. We aren’t going down because we didn’t have a good week or a good game. We are a team, we’re going to stay together as a team, those are things that I learned today besides what I’ll see on the film.
Holman on the play for Matt Campbell’s 2...
All the credit goes to Coach Mitchell, our OC. We’ve got a few eggs in the bucket that we’ve talked about. But yesterday we worked on that specific play in practice. One of the things Coach Mitch was talking about was there’s still a minute, I’m not sure the exact amount, but there was a decent amount of time. We didn’t have to go for at two pointer. So he was very clear in his instructions to the team that if you get a clean look, go ahead and take it. If we don’t we can still play out of it. I think they were confident going out that they had two options, they didn’t have to get that two pointer. So all the credit goes to Coach Mitchell and to the guys. It literally was exactly how it was drawn up. On the board and in practice yesterday, so kudos to them.
Holman on Chris Aslanian's contributions...
Chris is playing great. He’s one of our top four middies. He’s a big presence out there. He’s smart, he knows the game, he works as a coach at Princeton, he understands Coach Mitchell’s offense. He brings us almost a calming presence. He’s been around a lot longer, more than honestly I realized, and he’s had a good run and pro career. He’s a good physical presence, smart kid, and a great, wonderful young man.
Kielty on the play of the rope unit...
Four of the best players in the world at their position, plain and simple. There’s really no other group that I would want to play with. They bring a ton of versatility, they can all cover the ball tremendously well, they can pick the ball up and push transition, and like you saw, they can stay out there and make an impact on the offensive end. Credit to them and to our poles, Matt Rees and Ethan Rall. That was Ethan’s first pro game and I thought he was phenomenal. There’s a lot of guys on this roster that can get the job done at a high level, so hats off to all of them.
CHAOS
Jarrod Neumann on the effort...
Defensively I thought it was a good game. I thought we gave up some uncharacteristic goals, but it’s something to work on and get better. It’s only week 2.
Josh Byrne on the offense...
Offensively, I think we are still trying to find out rhythm a bit. We’ve got guys coming into the lineup from being away, so at the end of the day I thought we did a decent job. Myself, Indefinitely need to be better I was just talking to Jarrod about it. It’s incredibly frustrating trying to get the rhythm back. (Jarrod: bigger net). Right? Bigger net, it should be easier to score. But at the end of the day we got the win.
Byrne on how he feels being back...
The NLL season is a grind. To come right off a championship and jump right into the field game and the PLL is obviously going to take some adjusting. It always does, it’s a completely different game. A lot of new rules in the PLL with the 32 second shot clock, so trying to strategize with that. Something to get used to. So it’s going to take some time. Our coaching staff did a good job of trying to keep us up to date and keep us connected throughout the week.
Byrne on if the NLL helped the rules adjustment...
Not really. It’s a totally different situation. Trying to play with poles, trying to paly with a faceoff guy, sometimes you’re almost playing five on six in a way. It’s a totally different strategy to go over. We’re going to watch some film and see if we can get better at it.
On the pace of play increasing late...
Neumann - From the defensive end, you have to be good at scrambling. With quicker shot clocks and different personnel staying on, you have to be able to adjust on the fly. You’re not always going to get the matchups you like, you kind of just have to go with it.
Byrne - At the end of the day for us, fortunately we’re Canadian, the majority of us, so we’re pretty used to a little bit of chaos.
Byrne on the Cannons bumping up a pole and adjusting...
There’s a lot to unpack there. To be honest, going into different sets, allows us to kind of negate that and not dictate what shorty is going to set a pick, or come up to me. Adding a guy like Minicus, who has been a breath of fresh air to our group as a two way guy, lots of speed, young legs and he can really fly around. It’s just reacting on the fly and understanding you have to find a way to do it.
On getting NLL guys back sooner...
Byrne - Definitely. At the end of the day, we are at a disadvantage. Most teams have their full squad all the way from training camp through week one. That’s two and a half weeks together where they are able to get connected and really get dialed in. let alone all the practice during training camp to get used to the game again. It’s definitely a disadvantage for us. But to be able to get our guys back in game 2 instead of game 4 is definitely going to help us get connected a little bit earlier.
Neumann- I want to add something to that. Obviously the indoor guys have a grueling schedule. They won a championship. But we thank these guys because they are true professionals. Not many guys would win a championship and show up the next weekend to play a game, going through that grueling practice and whole different change of pace. So we thank those guys because they are true professionals.
Neumann on how fast he thought he shot the two...
High 90s? I pulled up, I saw the slide coming and then he sort of went to backpedal and I thought well, I’m already here, might as well let it go. I definitely wasn’t in rhythm so maybe high 90s. I don’t think that one had that much juice on it, I think I just caught him by surprise.
(told it’s 100. Can he sense how fast it is?)
Sometimes. When I can get a full windup and I can get my arms and stick back, I usually know it’s going 110 plus.
Coach Andy Towers on the effort...
Really proud of our guys for pushing through. Obviously each team has unique circumstances, and ours is relatively known as it relates to personnel that’s missing during training camp and week one. To get some key guys back and to have these guys look like they had in training camp all week. I’m just incredible proud of how hard they competed. Every team in this league is super talented. We're super talented. But the difference today in my opinion for us, as a group, was that we didn’t rely on that talent. We really tried to channel an appreciation and an extreme effort as it relates to getting back in the hole on defense, shooting intelligently, getting second opportunities on the offensive end when the ball is on the ground, getting first time ground balls on the defensive end. Blaze Riorden showed again why he’s the best player in the world, and you look at the job Nick Rowlett did. An unbelievable job and super proud of everybody.
On the defense forcing weak shots...
I think that it’s an egoless group. Obviously they’re super talented, we have a ton of incredible cover guys, we have great short sticks, but they’re egoless. These are not guys that are looking for individual credit. They view every possession as our seven vs their six. They’re willingness to do anything and everything to win the possession is something that has bonded this group, and it makes us hard to penetrate. When they do, we have the best player in the world between the pipes.
On Byrne in OT...
I’ve said once I’ve said it before, I think Josh Byrne is the best attackman on the planet. He’s definitely the best left handed attackman, but I think he’s the best attackman on the planet. What makes him so good is obviously he’s an incredible athlete, he’s uniquely skilled, his IQ is off the charts. But his intangibles make him who he is and separate him from everyone else that plays that position. He’s hyper competitive, he’s a phenomenal teammate, he couldn’t have more confidence in himself, he’s got that swagger. We all believe that one guy can’t cover him. His willingness to play within the framework of the scheme, and if it’s an overtime game and we don’t pull the ball in his stick, then I should be fired. So we did that, and he delivered, as he always does seemingly, and here we are with a W.
On Will Bowen's impact...
We ask a lot of all of our guys. If you look at the breakdown of our defense for the first four years, we got three of the best cover guys on the planet. And then when we had the chance to draft Will Bowen I couldn’t believe he was still available. Frankly if we had the first pick, we would have taken Will. And I told him that, I said it during the draft and I stand by it here. What he has brought to us is not only the ability to cover small quick guys and big strong guys. But he has taken ownership of being the QB of our defense. And that voice helps us accelerate our connection as a group and makes us very hard to penetrate. Our viewpoint is that, if they aren’t going to get opportunities in transition and on the power play, we feel really good about our chances of being able to defend the best teams in this league in a six on six situation. He’s been an incredible value add. Not only as a player, but off the field, he’s on point. In terms of his sense of humor but he’s hyper competitive, he will knock you out if he gets the chance. He’s been an invaluable piece to the puzzle here.
WHIPSNAKES
Matt Rambo on the game...
I thought we played pretty good ofefnsively in the first half. We just weren’t disciplined with the ball enough. It’s a close game the Atlas are super talented. We’ve got to get away from these one goal games that we’ve been playing. But a lot of new faces on our team, we still need to get them int he groove. I’ve to go back and watch the film, I think we left a lot on the table offensively, we need to score more than 11.
Rambo on his first game with Will Manny...
Will is great inside. He moves so well, he’s sprinting all the time. He opens us up a lot. Zed is a beast, he’s such a big body presence. He did so well today for his first game back. I'm happy with our attack right now, hopefully we can click a little better next week.
Rambo on the play of Dordevic in game 2...
I thought Tucker played great today. He’s such a quick, great shooting rookie. I don’t know how many goals he had, he had a lot though. That last shot was a good shot it got caught in Concannon’s shorts. Tucker’s been playing great, he’s a spark plug, he’s great in the locker room, we’re happy he’s on our side. I thought he played great these last two games. With Brad out, we’re putting bigger load on him. When brad gets back, some of that pressure can come off him. But he can keep shooting the ball as many times as he wants because it’s going in now.
Rambo on losing back to back 1 goal games on the last possession...
We’re right there. We just need to click it a couple times. There’s a lot of confidence in our locker room. There’s a lot of great chemistry going on. We’re not holding out heads down, we’re fine. It sucks losing with four seconds left and then 19 seconds left today. We’d like that game to go to overtime. We’re right there, we’ve just got to click a couple more pieces. Obviously it sucks losing one goal games, but when you look at it we’re right there. When you look at it we just need to do a couple things better. Maybe score a couple more goals, get a couple more ground balls, make a couple more stops, that’s the difference right now. This league is so good, every team is so balanced, so talented. So when you don’t execute as you plan to and you leave a couple plays on the floor, that’s when you get to these one goal games. We need to execute just a little bit better.
Rambo on being able to get more shots/goals..
I talked to Stags last week a lot about it. I just think I wasn’t as aggressive. I was jogging when I was dodging. I just needed to bring more of a spark plug not just on the field but as an energy guy in the locker room, what I’d been doing in the past. Mike Manley played me really well, he’s a really good heavy hitter defenseman. He’s really good. So a lot of credit to him. But I wasn’t dodging as hard as I should’ve. This week my plan was everyone on the offense should shoot the ball more than one time. So I’m a little happier how I played but I think I could have played better, our offense could have played better, 11 goals is 11 goals. We need to score 13, 14 so we aren’t in these one goal games.
Coach Stagnitta on the outcome...
Like all these games it goes down to the end. Obviously we are all disappointed in the outcome. I thought we could have impacted a little bit differently. Certainly the Atlas handled their offensive possessions out of timeout a lot better than we did. That’s something I have to look at and address. We had our opportunities, we had things we wanted to do specifically, but we didn’t execute them. I thought Petey did a hell of a job today facing off and competing. I also felt like we let him down with our wing play. And again, credit to Atlas. Their shorties picked up ground balls on the wings all day and we didn’t pick up enough of them. At the end of the day, we had our shot, we didn’t stick it, they had their shot, and they stuck it. It’s the way a lot of these games are going to be and we have to be lot more disciplined, that’s for sure.
On ther last possession and Dordevic taking the alley shot...
We wanted to put the ball in Zed’s stick. We thought he was doing a great job with his matchup. He was drawing double teams. It was draw the double and move it or get himself an opportunity. He drew the double team, we moved the ball twice, and Tucker had a really nice opportunity, we just didn’t stick it.
On the last defensive possession...
We did a lot wrong. It’s a play, both plays they scored on our of their timeouts are basically plays that we run. That’s our sniper play. We got hung on it, and we shouldn’t have because there wasn’t enough pressure on the cage to hang us up. They set a pick at goal line extended, and unfortunately we didn’t paly the pick well. Probably should have doubled him at that point; that’s the way we usually play it. And we misplayed it. Misplaying it gave Chris his hands free and he stuck it.
On the Gavin Adler vs Zed Williams matchup...
I thought Zed was able to draw double teams. I thought they sent poles to him as a slide when we got to him. Adler is a very good player and he held up very well against a very good matchup in Zed. That being said, the third quarter, I don’t know if we played offense for more than a minute and a half or two minutes. The first three shots of the half were just dodges and shots and Concannon ate them up and we just didn’t have the ball. So some of it is just our discipline. The ball needs to be in Zed and Matt’s stick. When it was, we created offense. And that’s really where we should be starting our offense. We were too quick on offense. We got out of our mantra and didn’t take the best shot, we took the first shot on a bunch of occasions in the 3rd quarter. That led to us being down and the game going down to the last shot again.
ATLAS
Jeff Teat on the win...
Great team win. Anyone that has played in the league eknows that it’s not an easy league to win in. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day or night. Sometimes it’s not pretty
Gavin Adler on the win
Great team win. Executing collectively on the things we spoke about during the week, it felt good for me to get my first professional win. So just happy for the guys.
Adler on the Zed Williams matchup...
It was kind of a sudden change after the 1st quarter. I had planned to go up and play in the midfield, we were going to double pole. We just made that switch and responded to what coach said. There wasn’t really time to prepare, it was just go out there and compete. Physically it was just getting to the right spots, trying to stay on his hip and use the right leverage and spacing. He’s a great player, it’s tough for me with size differential, but it was just competing in the moment.
Teat on the first Atlas win against Whips...
I think it’s something we don’t talk about but everyone kind of knows in the back of their head. Jack said in the huddle after the game, it feels good to get this one against these guys. They’re a great team, they’ve been a great team in this league for a while. For us it was overcoming a hurdle and we needed everybody to do it today.
Teat on the last sequence with Gray scoring after missing his first 9 shots...
He’s a special player. There’s never a point in the game or the season where we aren’t going to go to him. He was struggling a little bit, to be honest I didn’t really feel it because he was playing hard and getting good looks, he just wasn’t finishing. He kind of mentioned something with a few minutes left and we all looked at him and said you’re going to score your next shot. Low and behold he got the job done for us. Big goal to get for him and for the team.
Teat on Romar Dennis in the lineup regularly...
His presence on the field does a lot. Even if he isn’t scoring, today he was drawing the pole matchup. He’s a big presence, has a hard shot, his dodges, tend to draw a lot of attention. For us, it opens up a lot on the inside and on the backside. Even if he isn’t producing on the stat sheet, he does a lot for us just in terms of the way he plays and gets everyone involved in the offense without really showing it. On top of that, he’s one of the best locker room guys we have, super important to the team and this offense.
Coach Mike Pressler on the result...
Same situation we were in last week, down one at half time. Last week we didn’t respond at half time, this week we responded at half time. That was the key thing in the game. Our third quarter response in the first five minutes changed everything for us. That was the point of emphasis for us. Our guys listened, and they reacted. Jack Concannon bounced back from a sub par game a week ago and was outstanding across the board. Kevin Unterstein made a great adjustment when he moved Adler to Williams and Rexrode to Manny. So we kind of went lefty/righty and righty/left and that was very effective for us. And Trevor certainly won the faceoff battle against the rookie. Chris Gray, kind of a tough day for him, but he makes the paly at the end to win the game fo rus. A lot of intestinal fortitude for our guys in the second half in a very difficult place to play. Youre playing on the tuft with the cork in there, and it’s the same for the other team I get it, but it’s just different. With 19 players, guys are cramping on the sideline running out of gas. At the end of the day it was a great gut check for us, losing the first one in a one goal game, being down at halftime by a goal, and winning the second half. We go up two, they come back and tied, then we got the winner and the game never went to overtime. Thrilled for those 19 players and our entire program. Great to have the first one under our belt, and now it’s a short week and on to the Waterdogs in Columbus.
On switching Gavin Adler onto Zed...
Nobody has studied his film more than I have when we drafted him. I’ve seen him play every caliber of different player. Sam Handley and those big middies, big attackman, little quicker guys. He just rises to the occasion and he did it again. His center of gravity is lower than everybody, his physical strength is off the charts. It’s generated by his hips and his legs, and he’s a traditional one on one shut down cover defenseman. What people don’t see that we see, as coaches, are the little plays. The ground balls, the tipped balls, the winning edge plays, he makes a jillion of those. I throw Brett Makar in there too. Our two top draft picks after two games have really stood out. Adler was sensational when we made that switch. Rexrode did a good job on Manny, and we all knew they were going to go to Rambo when they needed one. And he made a couple incredible plays, but I thought Tucker Durkin did a really good job too.
On the play call for the final possession...
That was Steven Brooks. That was a little seal play for Chris Gray. Chris will tell you he didn’t shoot it well today. But at the endo the day he made that play at the end and beat the goalie to that off stick high spot. Kudos to Chris, some guys are going to struggle, they’re all great, Romar struggled here, we are sticking with him, but Chris Gray made the play when we needed it the most.
CHROME
Coach Tim Soudan on the outcome...
Tough one to swallow. It’s a quick turnaround Sunday to Friday with guys flying all over the place, but that’s no excuse. It was a little helter skelter early, we ran into a hot goalie. I thought we played really solid defensively at big moments in the game. I think they wore us down, they had some extra possessions in the first half just based on how we were playing offense. We just have to get better, so back to the drawing board here to get ready for Columbus
On halftime discussions...
We talked through the idea that setting picks to getting matchups. That’s what happened with Jackson in the second half. We talked about keeping it positive, it’s a new half, that was basically it.
On dealing with a hot goalie...
I think the biggest thing they did is they weren’t sliding to us. Without slides, you can’t get heads turned by moving the ball quick and having guys open on the inside. A lot of the time you want to make sure you’re scoring assisted goals, but I think we only had one assisted goal today. So we were taking what they were giving us and getting that switch with a shorty on Jackson, but it just wasn’t enough.
On Archers shorties pick play...
I think we just got a switch right away. The biggest part is where we were doing it. We were doing it at X and we were able to turn the corner and have shots that were closer to the cage. I thought those guys played well, we were just identifying that they were switching every pick, and a razor would switch that matchup. And on the switch, they usually get a step behind, so that’s how Jackson was able to get topside a bunch.
On Archers limiting transition...
They rode hard, I think they pressed out on us offensively. They made it hard to transfer the ball to the attackman early in the game. Pressing out takes away some of that in transition. They did a great job. We ran into a really good Archers team tonight and they had a really good game plan. They slowed us down just on their rides.
On defending Mac O’Keefe...
Mac is great. You put him on the field with Schreiber it’s dangerous. And you have Leclaire on the other side. We prepared a lot this week for that. He’s a really talented guy and they’ll throw him the ball with him barely being open and he still gets the shot off, which just makes him tougher. Having a passer like Schreiber in his corner makes him that much more dangerous.
On playing in Charlotte...
It’s awesome here. We played in this stadium when I coached in the MLL, and they’ve done great work with this place. The fans area always into it, this would be a great place to play.
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