Whipsnakes Down Outlaws, Advance to PLL Semifinals

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Up by a goal with 46 seconds left in Monday night’s Premier Lacrosse League quarterfinal, Joe Nardella won the faceoff for the Maryland Whipsnakes and promptly called timeout.

The Whips needed to clear the ball and kill the rest of the clock to leave almost no time for the Denver Outlaws to go down and score. But an errant up-field pass resulted in a turnover, giving Denver possession at midfield with 17 seconds remaining — more than enough time to get a quality look.

The Outlaws opted to go for the win rather than a tie to force overtime, but a missed shot wide by Jesse Berndhardt secured the 11-10 victory for the third-seeded Whipsnakes, who punched their ticket to the semifinals against the top-seeded Atlas next weekend at Hofstra.

Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta spoke about pulling away late despite not playing to their potential.

“When you don’t play your best and you find a way to win, that’s what good teams do,” he said. “It wasn’t a pretty win, but it was definitely a great win.”

It was looking grim for the Outlaws, as they by two trailed late in the fourth quarter. But Denver got some life when Sam Handley found a streaking Bernhardt in transition for a pole goal to cut the deficit to one with just under a minute to play.

The score was knotted at 9 for a large portion of the fourth quarter before Whipsnakes rookie Adam Poitras stepped up. Poitras netted a tough goal off a dodge from X to give the Whips the lead 10-9 with 4:33 to play. Just a few minutes later, Poitras dodged from X again. This time, he found fellow rookie T.J Malone cutting on the crease, and he snuck one into the back of the net to make it 11-9 with 2:29 to go.

“The young guys have been tremendous down the stretch,” Whipsnakes veteran Mike Chanenchuk said. “We have the utmost confidence in them.”

While the fourth quarter swung the game in the Whipsnakes’ direction, Denver appeared to take some control a quarter earlier. The Outlaws went on a 3-0 run, giving them a 9-7 lead.

Then things turned in favor of the Whipsnakes.

After successfully killing a two-man-down penalty, the Whips got a huge break. Jake Bernhardt attempted to sneak a pass to a cutter in the middle, but the ball was behind him and hit the turf. JT Giles-Harris attempted to scoop up the errant pass, but it fell out of his stick and slipped into his own goal. And because Bernhardt was behind the two-point line when he threw the pass, it counted as a two-point goal and tied the score up at 9.

The contest was back and forth with six ties and neither team going up by more than two goals.

Malone led all scorers with two goals and three assists, while Chanenchuk was right behind him with two goals.

“I feel like we have that feeling back, that mojo, that momentum, [that feeling] of no matter what, if we’re down or we’re up we can win every game,” Chanenchuk said.

The Whipsnakes’ next task is a daunting one — the high-powered Atlas offense.

Stagnitta spoke about the challenge of facing an offense of their caliber and how they are trying to focus more on themselves as they look to advance to the championship game.

“Obviously you look at them, they’re a juggernaut on offense,” Stagnitta said. “To be perfectly honest, and it’s not coach speech, we really are focusing on us. If we do the things that we need to do and play defense as a team, if we work for those 48 minutes, that’ll dictate the outcome.”