The team compiled video shout outs to celebrate Murphy’s children’s birthdays this spring. On a recent Zoom call, all the Whipsnakes signed off by saying bye to Henry — Brett Schmidt’s newborn son.
The group has such a close sense of each other that Murphy feels like he’s coached them for 20 years.
He thinks their togetherness reached a turning point after the Whipsnakes lost to the last-place Chrome 20-16 in Week 8. Instead of pointing fingers and casting the blame on someone else, they looked inward and asked questions like, “What can I do to help us be a better team?” The next week, they were fired up and it showed. They topped the Redwoods 17-4 in Hamilton, Ontario, in one of the most dominant performances of the season.
The Whipsnakes looked on pace to deliver another similar outcome in the league championship game. They led 9-2 in the third quarter before a diving goal by Jack Near triggered a Redwoods comeback. League MVP Matt Rambo’s late-game heroics lifted the Whipsnakes to the inaugural championship win.
“There’s a bit of sour taste in our mouth that we didn’t play our best for 48 minutes,” Murphy said. “There was a lull in there for about 15-20 minutes where we looked like the Bad News Bears.”
Bernlohr made 16 saves and stopped 65 percent of the shots he saw in the championship. Still, he said he feels sick when he watches the replay of the second half despite knowing the outcome. They felt they had peaked as a unit during that first half.
“We’re all perfectionists and would have loved to win that game by a much greater margin,” Bernlohr said.
Despite their winning ways and perhaps because of their style, the Whipsnakes acknowledge a perceived lack of attention, though you probably won’t see them voice those opinions on social media.
“It was a little bit of a running joke,” Ehrhardt, the 2019 PLL long-stick midfielder of the year and 2018 World Championship MVP, said. “We felt like we got overshadowed most of the season. We’re not the sexiest or prettiest of defenses, and it’s not like we’re making crazy forced turnovers or ground balls. We’re pretty fundamental. That’s just the way we were taught to play defense. All we care about is letting in less goals than the other team.”
While the Whipsnakes ranked fourth in caused turnovers in 2019, per PLL Stats, they tied for second with the Redwoods in Scores Against Average (11.6).
But like any good defense, the Whipsnakes understand the importance of a short memory. The championship was brought up during their first Zoom call this year.
“Fellas, it’s not about us defending anything,” Murphy recalled Stagnitta telling the team. “It’s about us being the best version of ourselves game in and game out.”
They haven’t mentioned the championship formally as a group since.
“We don’t act like it didn’t happen, but we’re pretty good at shedding the past and moving onto what’s in front of us,” Dunn said.
Besides, the Whipsnakes, who will kick off Championship Series group play against the Redwoods this Saturday, are not the same team as last year. By protecting all of the defensive starters, that left openings on the other side of the ball. Waterdogs head coach Andy Copelan picked up former Whipsnakes Drew Snider, Ben Reeves, Connor Kelly and Ryan Drenner in the expansion draft — the most players taken from any team.
The offense assembled around Rambo will look much different over the next two weeks.
The defense should remain its consistent and cohesive self.
“I can’t wait to go out there with them again,” Bernlohr said. “I couldn’t pick seven or eight better guys to take the field with. I wouldn’t trade them for anybody.”
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