Whipsnakes Repeat Title With Undefeated Season
Bt Adam Gotkin
Even with all the craziness that has happened in the past year, one thing
remained constant, the Whipsnakes are the Premier Lacrosse League champions. It may have been different, with no fans and only four regular season games, but at the end of the day, they’re the team that held that trophy after throwing everything that’s in their reach in the air.
This PLL season may have been unconventional with only four games before the playoffs, but the Whipsnakes made the best of it. During the group play, the Whips dominated each opponent, winning every game by at least four goals. Matt Rambo and league MVP Zed Williams were able to lead the Whips to scoring the most goals out of all PLL teams with 82 points.
The Whips couldn’t have won the title this year without their star faceoff man Joe Nardella. Nardella, the Rutgers alumni, went a whopping 72% from the face off X this season going 100-132. Nardella was one of, if not the biggest factor in the Whips winning the championship this year. Nardella improved from just a 55% face off percentage last season.
Over on the defensive side of the ball, the Whipsnakes allowed the lowest scores against average, only allowing 8.5 goals per game throughout the season. This is largely because of the stellar performance in goal this year by Kyle Bernlohr, who was tied for the highest save percentage in the league. It wasn’t just Bernlohr who produced for the Whipsnakes on the defensive side though. Defenseman Bryce Young was tied for third in the league for caused turnovers.
The combination of the best offense and best defense in the league, along with the top faceoff guy was a recipe for success for the Whipsnakes. They’ve proved how much of a team sport lacrosse is. Yes,
they have Matt Rambo, one of, if not the best player in the world, but around him the role players are the reason that they’re now back to back champions.
Give the Rabil Brothers credit for being the originators of the “bubble” league. For all lax fans it was a great 16 days.
Analysis of some of the Terps on the Whips from BP
Matt Rambo–every team pulled out out all the stops to stop Rambo Domination but Matt finished as the assist leader once again and added another Championship to his Hall of Fame resume.
Kyle Bernlohr (goalie) –allowed but 6 goals in the Championship game to Chaos–all that needs to be said.
Jay Carlson–Unsung Hero of the title–when things weren’t going well for the Whips, it was Jay Carlson doing his “Jay things” and just scoring goals that helped the team to the title.
Mike Chanenchuck, Jo LoCasio, Jake Bernhardt, Jeremy Sieverts and John Haus middies that led the way when Zed and Matt were shut down in the Semis. At super crunch time in the OT, Jeremy Sieverts showed up big time and delivered the KO.
Michael Ehrhardt– World Cup MVP once again that he is arguably the best LSM to ever play the game (my apologies to Brian Farrell and Jesse Bernhardt).
Finally the greatest interior defender combo ever–Tim Muller, Bryce Young, Matt Dunn, and Brett Schmidt played with their usual intense swagger.
In all fairness the 2 MVPS of this squad were UVA’s Zed Williams, who nailed a half a dozen goals on Sunday and Joe Nardella (Rutgers) whose Face off performance (including Trevor Baptiste) tipped the scales for back to back Champs.
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