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With the shortened field in the Premier Lacrosse League comes a slightly closer two-point arc. The Chaos are making the most of it.

Andy Towers’ squad took seven two-point shots and hit on three of them at Red Bull Arena on Sunday against Atlas, helping the team surge forward early in an 18-13 victory. They bombed away on the biggest stage, as the game aired on NBC.

After giving up the first goal to Atlas’ Ryan Brown, Chaos got the next eight thanks largely to a pair of two-pointers from Matt Rees. Jake Froccaro had the team’s other goal from deep.

In the MLL, the two-point arc has mostly been used to keep defenders honest and keep defensive schemes farther spread out. With the shorter arc, attacking two-pointers hard and with some intelligence can be a real strategy. The Chaos seems to have figured how to utilize it faster than their counterparts.

“It seems those are the opportunities that presented themselves in transition,” Towers said in his halftime broadcast interview. “We get a 5-on-4 opportunity, if that first guy throws down and gets deep, they’ve got to honor the cutter. The next trailer has been our guy.”

Drenner latest OT master

On a team filled with Maryland Terrapins, it was a Towson Tiger that played hero for the Whipsnakes Saturday afternoon.

Ryan Drenner took advantage of a miscommunication off a pick, getting time and space as he crossed into the middle of the field from left. He fired home a shot to hand the Whipsnakes their second overtime win of the season, this time a 12-11 victory against the Chrome.

“Timmy Rotanz set an awesome pick,” Drenner said on NBC Sports Gold following the goal. “I came off of it and my hands were free. In this league, you just can’t pull back on shots. You’ve just got to pull the trigger.”

Each team had multiple possessions in the extra frame, but Chrome struggled to take advantage of their opportunities. They turned it over twice, first on an errant pass and then on an offsides call.

“Lacrosse is a game of runs” is a common refrain, but it seems so far that the PLL has a way of equalizing even more than normal. Whipsnakes opened the game on a three-goal run only to have Chrome fight back thanks largely to a strong showing in the cage from John Galloway. Chrome then started to pull away only to have Whipsnakes snap right back.

The Whipsnakes appeared to get the dagger with 6:16 left when John Haus scored a two-pointer on a bounce shot to make it 11-9, but Jordan Wolf responded with two trademark goals from X to force overtime.

The PLL has already had three overtime games through two weeks, highlighting one of the rule changes the league has implemented. Timeouts have been annoying staples of overtime games in the past, but no wind is taken out of the sails in the most dramatic moments of the PLL.

 

Mc Attack

The Archers joined the Whipsnakes as the only 2-0 teams thanks to a Ben McIntosh-fueled 3-1 run to end the game.

He scored the final two goals of the contest, including the eventual winner with 1:37 left, in the Archers’ 10-9 victory against the previously undefeated Redwoods.

After scoring the equalizer with less than four minutes left, he bluntly said in a sideline interview that the key to keeping up the momentum was to score another goal. He then took matters into his own hands.

“We found that extra gear at the end,” McIntosh said.

Noteworthy

Connor Buczek showed his tough side this week, scoring a two-point goal 30 seconds after popping his shoulder back in its socket.

Whipsnakes’ Matt Rambo leads the scoring charts after two weeks, pushing his total to 10 points with a second straight five-point performance this week. Chaos’ Miles Thompson and Jake Froccaro matched his five points in New York. … Week 2 saw a handful of professional debuts: Atlas’ Cade van Raaphorst and Noah Richard and Redwoods’ Ryder Garnsey and Tyler Dunn. Chrome’s Max Tuttle and Atlas’ Richard scored their first professional goals. … Redwoods’ Matt Landis was put on the injury list with a groin injury, so fellow former Notre Dame defender John Sexton slid into his place in the starting lineup.

Play of the Week

Connor Fields showed off his fake out abilities in PLL training camp, and if you thought he couldn’t pull it off in a game, you were wrong. The former Albany Great Dane continued to show he’s back to his old ways by fooling all the Atlas defenders at the end of the second quarter.

Up Next

The PLL heads to the Midwest for the first time when the six squads travel to SeatGeek Stadium just south of Chicago. Redwoods vs. Chaos (2 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Gold) and Whipsnakes vs. Archers (5 p.m., NBCSN) are the two Saturday games, while Chrome and Atlas close out the weekend on Sunday (2:30 p.m., NBC).

I’ll be catching the PLL in person for the first time, so give me a follow @GoodsOnSports for live updates throughout the weekend.