RAMBO VS. ZED
Matt Rambo and Zed Williams are a lethal tandem on attack for the Whipsnakes in the Premier Lacrosse League. On Saturday, they were opponents.
Playing defense for the Haudenosaunee, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Williams drew Rambo as his assignment. The two could be seen chatting before the game. Out of position but certainly not out of his element, the 2020 PLL Championship Series MVP more than held his own, limiting Rambo to just one goal and one assist.
“He’s one of my closest friends now. He’s my roommate on the road for the Whipsnakes. He’s my righthand man. Him covering me was unique, but we have such a good bond and love for each other that it was fun,” Rambo said. “I wish I had a couple on him but it was good fun out there. I just tried not to get him mad because he does that.”
Universally respected by his peers and others in the lacrosse community, Williams asked Haudenosaunee coach Lars Tiffany if he could play defense both to fulfill a team need and scratch an itch he’s had as a player.
“We saw Zed Williams emerge tonight. His comfortability on defense has been growing and tonight it took a big step up,” said Tiffany, who also coached Williams at Virginia. “Part of it might be because a really good friend of his and his teammate, Matt Rambo, was willing to dodge him in the first half. And they had that battle, King Kong vs. Godzilla.”
“He’s just a freak athlete, unbelievable,” Rambo said. “He’s a better person than he is an athlete. He’s just one of the greatest humans I’ve ever met.”
GET MAD? GET SIX
After a sluggish second half against Australia, U.S. head coach John Danowski challenged the offensive players to allow anger to manifest.
No one plays angrier than Kieran McArdle.
While Michael Sowers frequently played the role of party starter out of the midfield — the Haudenosaunee had no answer for his array of speed and change-of-direction dodges — McArdle made it count.
The lefty wing attackman scored on his only three shots of the game and facilitated when needed, finishing with a team-high five points. He took advantage of the Haudenosaunee’s hesitancy to switch on picks and dodged more with the ball in his stick.
“Sometimes I draw the third defender with Rob [Pannell] and Rambo out there. They draw a lot of the attention,” McArdle said. “I kind of just demanded the ball a little bit. Rambo was saying to get me the ball and I made a few plays down the stretch there.”
TD’S PERFECTO
Haudenosaunee veteran Jeremy Thompson took a page out of Australia’s book, using an array of counters and lockups to disrupt faceoffs. TD Ierlan was unfazed. He went 14-for-14 on faceoffs, just the second perfect game on record for the U.S. in international play. (Greg Gurenlian went 12-for-12 against England in 2014.)
Through three games, Ierlan has won 25 of 28 faceoffs, an astonishing 89 percent.
BIG CROWD AT TORERO STADIUM
The University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium, a 6,000-seat multi-purpose venue that houses the school’s football and soccer programs, was near capacity Saturday night. There was an audible and palpable buzz about the game, heightened by the challenge the fan-favorite Haudenosaunee team posed to the vaunted United States.
Eventually, chants of U-S-A took over as the U.S. did, and there were long lines of autograph seekers for both teams after the game. San Diego showed out.