'Primetime Guy' Mac O'Keefe Crucial to Archers Repeat

For the first time in Premier Lacrosse League history, a player won back-to-back championship game MVP honors, as Utah Archers goalie Brett Dobson made 17 saves in the team’s 12-8 victory over the Maryland Whipsnakes on Sunday in Chester, Pa.

The hardest shot — at least in terms of force — might have come during warmups from his own teammate.

“I actually broke his head before the game,” Archers attackman Mac O’Keefe said, “so he was using Nick Washuta’s stick. That was pretty wild.”

While Dobson and the defense earned praise for their efforts in helping the Archers become the first team to win consecutive PLL championships since the 2019 and 2020 Whipsnakes — and deservedly so, after holding an opponent to under 10 goals for the fifth time this season — O’Keefe led the offense with three goals.

“Mac’s a primetime guy,” Utah head coach Chris Bates said. “He shoots it like nobody else. I said to him before the game, ‘Just let it rip, man. Let it rip. Get your hands free and put pressure on the goalie.’”

The Archers offense is rich in weapons. They finished third in the regular season in scores per game (12.9) and second in shooting percentage (29.5 percent).

Navigating the playoffs was always going to be a challenge, with captain and Midfielder of the Year winner Tom Schreiber nursing a broken clavicle — an injury he suffered the final weekend of the regular season.

Still, the Archers finished first in shooting percentage (29.9 percent), first in two-point goals (two), and tied for first in scores per game (11) during the playoffs. They finished second in assists (10).

“We battled through adversity. Losing Tom was a big hit for us, but we had guys step up, especially Ryan Ambler stepping into that leadership role, and it carried us from there,” O’Keefe said in an on-air postgame interview with ESPN’s Quint Kessinich. “Everyone has to pull their weight a little bit more, not do too much, but just pull a little more and give that group effort.”

Even without Schreiber, the talk throughout the week about the key matchup to watch was the Utah offense against the Maryland defense, one that held league MVP Jeff Teat to just two goals with three turnovers in the Whipsnakes’ semifinals victory over the New York Atlas the week prior.

Maryland head coach Jim Stagnitta said Grant Ament and Connor Fields were the main focus, adding they wanted to make Ament just a scorer, not a scorer and a feeder.

They were able to accomplish that, holding both Fields and Ament to a goal and an assist apiece. Stagnitta said O’Keefe was able to take advantage of a few mistakes they made, and they couldn’t get a body on him in key spots.

“At the end of the day, he’s a talented player,” Stagnitta said. “And the difference for them was those other stepped up. He was one of them. He’s a goal scorer. He’s a good player. He had a good day today. He got off around a couple picks. He was able to put the ball on cage. I don’t know if he did anything different than what he does. He’s a scorer. Unfortunately, today, he was really good at it.”

Bates, on the other hand, said O’Keefe did in fact do more.

“Today, you saw him active with his feet. He was putting his shoulder into guys. He was dipping and dodging,” Bates said. “That’s something we knew we had, and we challenged him last year to develop. We have so many other ball carriers. We have real-deal guys that can carry the ball, but I thought today, he just did a little bit extra. He stuttered, got to the middle, that level of energy and getting shots off, he put pressure on the defense, and he was obviously huge for us.”

Ament added O’Keefe was a major contributor in more ways than just the scoring.

“If you watch back, the way that Mac rides and the way he rode the ball back,” he said, “he didn’t get many turnovers today, but he rode the ball back to the midline every single possession.”

The Whipsnakes jumped out to an early 3-0 lead Sunday. O’Keefe nearly got Utah on the board, but video replay showed his foot was inside the crease, overturning his goal.

Utah scored four of the next five, however, including a two-pointer from rookie defender Mason Woodward, that shifted the momentum and helped the Archers take the lead — forcing Maryland to play from behind.

In four seasons in the PLL, O’Keefe has played in the championship every year, twice with the Chaos and twice with the Archers. He now has three championship rings and is 2-0 against the Whipsnakes in title games.

He said his playoff experience helped him stay calm during Maryland’s early run, and that demeanor was a big reason for his personal and team success.

“From prior experience I’ve had, I always know it’s going to be a close game. We’re going to level it out at some point,” he said. “We had to figure it out. We knew we had to get to around 12 goals to make this in our favor, and we were able to do that.”