While this year’s Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game lacked drama, it featured enough goals to satisfy any onlooker.
Trevor Baptiste proved his general manager skills by selecting a squad that rolled to victory against Connor Farrell’s group, claiming a 33-13 win in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in the highest scoring All-Star showcase in the league’s short history.
Team Baptiste got out to a 10-2 lead after the first quarter, powered by a pair of two-point bombs and a pair of late goals that counted double thanks to a rule change, and never looked back.
In addition to winning the league’s Accuracy Challenge for a third time, Marcus Holman was named the game’s MVP with two goals, one two-pointer and four assists for Team Baptiste. Jeff Teat and Myles Jones each added five points, while four points each came from the Atlas trio of Danny Logan, Chris Gray and Bryan Costabile.
Eleven players found the back of the net for Team Baptiste. Logan Wisnauskas led Team Farrell with six points.
The game featured two experimental rules: the two-point arc was moved in from 15 feet to 13 feet and any goal scored inside the last two minutes of a quarter counted double. That led to a combined eight goals from beyond the arc and four goals that counted double. Team Baptiste pulled away thanks largely to its eight two-pointers to Team Farrell’s none.
Team Baptiste led 19-6 at halftime, then rode a six-point run stretching from the third quarter into the fourth to go up 20 for the first time. Jules Heningburg closed out the scoring for Baptiste with a goal that counted double with 37 seconds remaining in the contest.