We had our first week of Premier Lacrosse League action this past weekend and it didn’t disappoint with 3 of the 4 games all being decided by a single goal.
Dope PLL Storylines…
Cross Ferrara Made Paul Carcaterra Eat Absolute Shit
In the closing seconds of the Whips/Chrome game, Sam Handley missed a shot out of bounds that Cross Ferrara backed up. About 10 seconds was left on the clock and Ferrara had the ball on the restart and just as the whistle was being blown, PCarc said the quiet part out loud, “you don’t want Cross Ferrar with the ball” or some shit like that. Ferrara proceeded to book it to the goal, got a step on his way to the middle of the field, let it rip on the run and totally put Carc in a body bag. It was something to see.
Ryder Garnsey Had a Day
Garnsey came out hot, scoring three consecutive goals in the first quarter for the Woods. He finished the game with 6 goals off 9 shots and a gb. He scored 6 of the Redwoods first 9 goals of the game and was held scoreless after he scored with a little over 8 minutes to play in the third quarter. It was impressive the way he scored these goals with a couple of them being scored with defenders draped all over his body.
The Shot Clock After a Faceoff Rule Blows
The worst part of this entire weekend was that things were a bit sloppy at times offensively. Some would call that the week onesies, HOWEVER, the week onesies were mainly limited to playing into rough play over the first quarter. Where play stunk all day long was after every faceoff win. The rushed offensive sets, with inferior offensive players on the field was easily the worst part of the weekend and I presume it will be the worst part of this season. The PLL’s goal was to limit the effect that faceoffs have on the game, and that is certainly the case, because it is FACT, winning the bulk of the faceoffs last weekend put you at a distinct disadvantage as your first possession was rushed and sometimes included not optimal players being on the field for far more offensive shifts than they should have been.
Connor Fields Had a Nice Return To Albany
It would make sense Fields would enjoy playing professional ball in Albany considering he tore it up on that field his entire career. This return was a bit more special as he scored 4 goals and looked really comfortable playing attack for the Archers. He scored a disgusting one-handed between the legs goal from a bit of distance that was pretty dope.
Defensive Midfielders Play a Much Larger Role in the PLL
It is extremely apparent that the guys that have been tasked to play short stick defensive midfield in the PLL really are the cream of the crop. Guys like Logan, Harris, Terefenko, Warner and the like are known quantities. But this weekend we saw the young guns, second year Nakai Montgomery play quite a bit of SSDM and do a good job against a killer like Romar Dennis. But more, he played a legit 2-way role which was even more impressive staying on for offensive shifts and putting up 3 helpers. Rookie Piper Bond also looked good. The offensive firepower in this league is bonkers and I would have expected that SSDM’s would get carved up in this league, but it’s been the opposite. These guys are such incredible athletes and buy fully into specializing their game and it shows as they limit some really talented offensive players despite running around with a 40 inch stick.
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