Cannons Repeat as Winners of PLL Championship Series

SPRINGFIELD, Va. — Marcus Holman called the athletic training facility a refugee camp. Boston Cannons head coach Brian Holman laid out all the ailments of his players the morning of the Premier Lacrosse League Championship Series title game. 

He said his son was laying on the ground and couldn’t walk. Matt Campbell couldn’t move his arm. Ethan Rall’s feet were ripped apart and had no skin on them. Bubba Fairman’s shoulder was falling off. Jeff Trainor was playing on “half a leg.”

Brian Holman said the team’s athletic training staff deserved a ton of credit. Campbell found inspiration from acting assistant coach Brodie Merril, who told the team he loved playing banged up. Marcus Holman found solace in the fact that things couldn’t get any worse.

“Our locker room was so light before the game,” he said. “It was like, excuse my language, ‘F*** it. We might as well go hard. We’re already dead anyway.’”

Watching the PLL Championship Series final, the fans never would have known just how beat up and exhausted the Cannons were. They stepped on the gas from the first whistle and took a lead they would never relinquish against the top-seeded Utah Archers, who were able to earn some rest with a bye that cemented their spot in the title game. 

Boston beat the Archers 21-14 on Monday and became the first team to win back-to-back PLL Championship Series finals.

“That’s what this is all about,” Brian Holman said. “I couldn’t be more proud. I’m very grateful to be part of this and of those guys. I just appreciate the effort. That’s what we talk about as Cannons: effort, attitude, toughness. All of that was on display today.”

The first boost Boston got today was from activating Marcus Holman. The captain sat out the semifinal matchup the night prior with a lower-body injury. Campbell said something felt off in the semifinals without Holman on the field next to them.

Then the Cannons got an immediate impact from their stars, as Holman, Campbell and Asher Nolting combined to score six of the team’s first seven goals. Boston raced out to a 7-2 lead before Beau Pederson hit a two-pointer with five seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The Cannons maintained that lead through the second quarter until the final four minutes, when Nolting, Holman and Campbell scored the final goals of the half. Campbell’s came with one second remaining.

“That’s one of the things we focus on, winning the last minute of each quarter, the last minute of each half,” Pederson said. “Those are huge moment swings. It definitely hurt a little bit, but we flushed that as soon as we got in the locker room.”

Boston struck first coming out of halftime, but Utah responded with a Jackson Morrill goal less than a minute later. The Cannons, however, went on another run, scoring four more goals to extend the lead to 10.

The Archers attempted to dig themselves out with a Mason Woodward two-pointer and another Morrill goal, but the Cannons again struck at the very last second, this time with a Holman goal with one second left. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when Utah outscored Boston, but it was too little, too late.

The Archers defensive gameplan was to take away the two-point shot, and they were efficient in that. Boston did not score a single two-point goal, and they only took three two-point attempts. Utah head coach Chris Bates said the team “leaked” elsewhere on the field.

“You have to defend [the two-point shot], and it just opens up space. We got beat one-on-one all day long,” Bates said. “Tip my caps to those guys, we figured they’d be tired, but Matt Campbell ran by us. Alex Vardaro ran by us.”

Pederson led the Archers with four points on two one-point goals and one two-point goal, while Golden Stick Award favorite Mac O’Keefe was held to just one goal in the first quarter.

Cannons goalie Colin Kirst made 15 saves. Campbell led the Cannons with eight points on seven goals and one assist. He also earned the Golden Stick Award — given to the player with the most scoring points throughout the tournament — marking the first time a player from the winning team won the award.

Both Holmans called him the best player in the world currently and advocated for him to earn a spot on the U.S. team in the 2028 Olympics. Campbell said, though, that he was just focused on the immediate and getting healthy.

In addition to heaping praise on Campbell’s play, Marcus Holman also credited his father for the impact he’s had on the team, leading them to consecutive Championship Series crowns.

“He just holds people to a high standard,” he said. “I think that’s maybe a little bit of a lost art today because it’s hard to do. It’s really hard every day to challenge people and be tough on them. At the end of the day, even though we’re pros, and you have the best player in the world, we all need to be coached. [Coach] likes to say a rising tide lifts all boats. We won’t lower the standard so everyone can get there. Raise them up. We’re never going to hit them, but it’s about trying and doing your best.”