Winless No More: Redwoods Dominate Fourth Quarter Against Cannons

The Cannons didn’t get a lot of points from their midfield (three), and stat sheet mainstays like Ryan Drenner and Matt Kavanagh didn’t get a ton of touches either. But that was not by design.

“There was no plan on getting guys more touches,” Brian Holman said. “Our offense is based on ball movement and flow. One thing I know is that until I see the film I won’t be sure why it looked like that or what it was.”

Chris Gray’s goal with 5:03 left turned out to be the dagger for the Redwoods, who kept working to get more and more possessions to close out the game. Gray, who dutifully moved the ball through X all game, led the Redwoods in scoring with a hat trick by picking his spots and getting to the cage naturally.

“To have both of these guys here (Gray and LSM Jared Conners) has been great,” St. Laurent said. “I know we took a lot of heat for trading our draft picks away, but we would make those moves again in a heartbeat. I was really happy to see those guys play the way they have — you have Chris being able to play the way he has and score some big goals for us … it got us going early and put it away for us late.”

The PLL’s return to Harvard Stadium brought with it the return of Cannons fans from the sport’s Major League Lacrosse days. Attendance was not announced, but it was comparable to some of the best crowds that the first iteration of the Cannons drew years ago. Boston has a chance at redemption as they face off against the Philadelphia Waterdogs at 7 p.m. in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

“The beauty of this is that we get to come back tomorrow and play another one,” Brian Holman said.

ATLAS CRUSH OUTLAWS

A blowout from the jump, the New York Atlas brought their apocalyptic offense to Boston and the Denver Outlaws had no answer for it. Jeff Teat had a hat trick before halftime and finished the game with nine points. He is now on the precipice of breaking the PLL scoring record with 44 points — in just six games.

Xander Dickson, the PLL’s leading goal-scorer going into the game, had his title usurped by teammate Jeff Teat, who has 20 goals to Dickson’s 18.

Liam Entenmann was also on top of his game, making 14 saves in his first career PLL start.

“I was obviously pretty excited about it,” Entenmann said. “It’s something I have dreamed of for a long time. I was pretty comfortable out there tonight and that’s largely because of the guys I have in front of me. The defensive guys, Trevor (Baptiste at the dot), and the offensive guys doing their part — it’s not anything I can take a big piece of credit for.”

First-overall draft pick Brennan O’Neill was held in check by the Atlas defense and went 0-for-3 from the field, but Denver’s ball carriers didn’t get him the ball all that much. He finished with just eight touches.

There’s not a lot to take away from this game other than what most people knew coming into it — the Atlas are playing on another level. The Outlaws are still figuring things out on both sides of the ball. And games like this sometimes happen in professional lacrosse.

“It’s hard to win in this league,” Outlaws attackman Justin Anderson said. “If you don’t come and show up and give it your absolute all from the get-go, it’s going to be hard to beat any team. It doesn’t matter who they are. Obviously, we ran into a really hot Atlas team, and I thought they did a phenomenal job. We just didn’t match that energy.”