DENVER — With decades of coaching experience at Bryant and Duke, New York Atlas coach Mike Pressler has seen some extremely skillful and explosive teams that have made numerous NCAA tournament appearances. But there’s something that sets this Atlas squad apart, aside from their professional status.
“All the teams I’ve ever coached, I’ve always felt like we could be a little bit tougher,” Pressler said. “But this team is a tough bunch. They’re a talented bunch, but when it comes to the physical plays you have to make in lacrosse — those collisions on defense, those ground balls everywhere, running through the check, increasing your angle, drawing contact. We do a really good job with all of that and that’s one of the parts of this team that I really like. We bring our physical nature to every part of our game.”
New York used that gritty performance Saturday and benefitted from unforced errors to beat the Utah Archers 15-11 and clinch the top spot in the Premier Lacrosse League’s Eastern Conference during the second day of action at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
The physicality manifested in checks that raised the temperature of both teams and even game officials, resulting in several lengthy arguments during particularly contentious moments. It showed through at the faceoff dot, where Trevor Baptiste won 14 of 25 opportunities with seven ground balls.
But the grittiness was perhaps most apparent when New York attacker Connor Shellenberger, shortly after scoring the shorthanded goal that tied the game 7-7 at halftime, was unavailable for the second half with a left foot injury.
Unlike college lacrosse, where top programs run with depth at every position, teams in the PLL dress three attackmen per game. That meant Xander Dickson was suddenly playing with midfielder Dox Aitken, a former teammate with the Virginia Cavaliers, in the attack position.
“I thought that was hilarious because he said, ‘I’ve never played attack in my life,’” Dickson said with a laugh. “We said, ‘It’s the same thing; it’s just offense, man.’ It was definitely a little nerve-racking, wanting to find Connor and knowing he’s OK, but being able to make those adjustments in time to close out the game was huge.”
The Atlas kept their sizeable advantage in shots all the way to the final whistle, finishing up 32-22, while Aitken scored two of his three goals in the second half. Dickson also had a hat trick, closing out the win with two markers in the fourth quarter, while Jeff Teat notched five assists alongside two goals of his own to continue his MVP-caliber campaign.
One of those assists came on a feed to Tyler Carpenter, who’s 2-point goal capped a 4-1 run to open the third quarter. Utah was able to get two scores back off the stick of Mac O’Keefe, but New York went 5-1 the rest of the way to close it out.
“This isn’t college where you dress eight attackmen and 15 middies,” Pressler said. “So, we kind of ham-and-egged Dox Aitken and Ronan Jacoby in Shelly’s spot. You’re not nearly as effective with those two guys in that spot, but we found different ways to get it done in the second half. That’s number one on the list of things we have to address going into Salt Lake City.”
The reigning champions, meanwhile, find themselves in the mix of the sudden parity in the Western Conference. They sit in second behind Denver and will play two games next weekend with Carolina and California technically within striking distance.
Utah coach Chris Bates said the 27 turnovers — only nine of which were directly caused by their opponents — were unacceptable.
“Frustrating on a lot of levels for us,” Bates said. “Candidly, that’s a big game for us and we thought it’d be an opportunity to take our next step. So many unforced errors. I’ve never seen so many unforced errors by an Archers team. The ball was just flying everywhere. We were actually wondering if they were slick balls because of how uncharacteristic it us for us.”
