Contrary To Popular Belief, Taylor Swift Was Not At The PLL Championship Game Yesterday. But The Archers Finally Won A Title
First of all, this is just a little class in SEO. A little inside-baseball, if you will. All around the world right now, folks are searching some sort of combination of the words "Taylor Swift" and "game". It's the biggest story in sports and in pop culture. So if we can trick the search engines and get this to pop up in order to get some more eyes on lacrosse coverage, then that's what I'm willing to do to #GrowTheGame.
Now there may not have been as many eyes on the PLL Championship game yesterday as there were on the family suites in Arrowhead Stadium, but there should have been. Because we were treated to yet another insane game between the Archers and Waterdogs. The best team in the league vs the defending champs. Two teams that were on a collision course to meet in the final since the very beginning of summer. They had already played two 1-goal games against each other earlier this season, so why would the championship be any different?
This game had a little bit of everything. The Archers came out of the gates and started to immediately shit pump the Waterdogs. The Waterdogs somehow found a way to turn it into a game after making a comeback from being down 6.
We had an attempted homicide in the middle of the field.
And after 5 long years, we finally had the Archers storming the field after winning a PLL Championship.
The Archers have always been one of the best regular season teams in the league, but up until this year they only won one playoff game. I know the league is still pretty new, but the last thing you want to do is be labeled as historical chokers. So the Archers were feeling some of that pressure and made some major changes in the offseason. They broke up their core group on offense a little bit, making a big trade to reunite Mac O'Keefe with Grant Ament. They made a change at the faceoff position by drafting Mike Sisselberger out of Lehigh. And made a change between the pipes by giving Brett Dobson the keys. How'd all those changes work out for them yesterday?
Mac O'Keefe led the Archers in points with 3 goals and an assist.
Mike Sisselberger won 69% of the faceoffs (nice) and added a goal.
And Brett Dobson was the championship MVP after making 19 saves on the day, and should get credit with a few massive hockey assists in the clear game.
But obviously having a guy who has been there since the start like Tom Schreiber delivering the final dagger of the game is as sweet as it gets.
A nasty goal to finish off a sick game to wrap up a great season in the PLL. What's better than that?
Tough break for the Waterdogs out there, but I'm sure they'll be coming back next season hungrier than ever. If this reaction by ownership says anything, it's that they'll be taking no prisoners during the revenge tour next year.