Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah, was once home to the Premier Lacrosse League’s bubbled 2020 season. With no fans in the stands, the league’s clubs competed in a truncated season and still crowned a champion.
Utah was awarded the Archers when the league expanded to give each team a home city, and during the Archers’ first-ever homecoming weekend, the area has already welcomed them with open arms.
A sold-out home crowd was on hand for two overtime games on Friday, the first of which was won by the hometown team. Jack VanOverBeke — a rookie out of High Point making his career pro start — netted the winner, 13-12, in the extra frame after a furious fourth-quarter rally by the California Redwoods sent it to overtime.
The Archers, who clinched a playoff berth with the win, led 10-7 after three quarters and 12-8 after Grant Ament assisted Ryan Ambler with 7:15 left in regulation. Chris Gray and Wes Berg then buried shots for the Redwoods, and Charlie Bertrand tied it on a two-pointer with just five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Ament and Bertrand tied for a game-high five points. Five Archers — Ament, VanOverBeke, Mac O’Keefe, Connor Fields and Ambler — scored two goals.
In the evening’s second game, Ryan Drenner scored one of the most improbable goals of the season to win it for the Boston Cannons in overtime. After a Matt Campbell shot from just inside the two-point line, the ball ricocheted off Carolina Chaos goalie Blaze Riorden. Drenner followed the rebound and fell to the ground, smacking the ball with his stick and sending it past the PLL’s top netminder for an 11-10 Boston win.
The Cannons were on the brink of defeat at the end of the fourth quarter, with the Chaos leading 10-9 after Josh Byrne found Ian MacKay to go up a goal with 3:02 to play.
Rookie Pat Kavanagh was the beneficiary of an Asher Nolting feed, tying the score with 2:28 left. Nolting had two goals and four assists to lead the Cannons with six points, while Marcus Holman moved into sixth place on the all-time points list by scoring four goals.
