Coach Jim Stagnitta’s club is “not trying to think too far down the road about what could be” but looks to capture its third title in four seasons.
View the original article to see embedded media.
The first two seasons of the PLL ended with the same result: a euphoric on-field celebration by Whipsnakes Lacrosse Club, having claimed the league championship. A three-peat, however, was cut short last September as Whipsnakes fell to Chaos Lacrosse Club, in the sport’s biggest game, by five goals.
A year later, as the PLL playoffs begin this weekend with Whipsnakes holding the league’s No. 1 seed, goalie Kyle Bernlohr says he doesn’t use the word dynasty to describe what a title would mean for his organization.
“Other people outside of our can team can use those buzzwords and determine what they want to determine for themselves,” he says.
But the Whipsnakes, who earned a bye into the league semis, are eyeing their third title in the four seasons. They would become just the third team in men’s professional outdoor lacrosse history to accomplish the feat, and the first since the PLL debuted in 2019.
Coming into this season, coach Jim Stagnitta says he sought to understand why last year proved to be so challenging (despite reaching the title game, the Whipsnakes went 5–4 and entered the playoffs as the No. 5 seed). A lot of their woes stemmed from complacency.
“Becoming comfortable. Making assumptions that we would be there," Stagnitta says. "The assumption that it was just gonna happen because we were the Whipsnakes. I felt like it was pretty obvious that was not sustainable or viable.”
Courtesy of Liam Murphy/PLL
Throughout the offseason and into the summer, Stagnitta instead pushed for a renewed focus on the short term and urged his players not to look too far ahead.
“We’re not trying to think too far down the road about what could be,” Bernlohr says.
The Whipsnakes roster features two of the league’s recent three MVPs, in attackmen Matt Rambo and Zed Williams, but their defense has been instrumental to their recent success. “[It] has been what’s kept us in games and held us there until our offense started to evolve,” Stagnitta says.
Defensemen Matthew Dunn and Tim Muller have been staples of the group’s backline, as have midfielders Jake Bernhardt, Michael Ehrhardt and Ty Warner. Bernlohr, minus a blip at the end of last season that led to him asking not to start to the semifinals in an effort to give his team the best chance to advance, has been a stalwart in goal.
After a 9–1 regular season, they enter the upcoming postseason No. 1 in goals against and No. 1 in defensive efficiency. As important to its stellar year has been the club's performance in close games. Between 2019 and ’21, the Whipsnakes went 6–2 in one-goal, regular-season contests. They are 4–0 in one-goal games in 2022, with seven of their wins coming by two scores or fewer.
Courtesy of Nick lerardi
Throughout this season, Stagnitta has, at times, reminded his group they are just a few goals away from being under .500, or worse. But in tense moments, they have seldom been fazed.
“Everyone’s calm and relaxed,” says Rambo, who finished the 10-game campaign with 32 points.
Adds Stagnitta: “When you’re winning that many one-goal games, it’s not just luck. At some point, there is something to it. They’re comfortable and confident in stressful situations and sometimes we play our best in situations with our backs against the wall.”
While the Whipsnakes offense finished the season in the bottom three of scores entering the postseason, Joseph Nardella remains a force on face-offs, winning 65% of draws, second best in the league. Rambo and Williams, while having more muted seasons by their standards, are also still among the sport’s best goal scorers. Plus, explains Rambo, “I think we’re a little bit hungrier this year because that was our first championship loss.”
The Philadelphia Barrage and Chesapeake Bayhawks both took home three titles in four seasons. But they did so in the MLL, before the league’s merger with the PLL ahead of the 2021 campaign. The current consolidation of lacrosse talent makes the sport’s single entity perhaps as strong as it’s ever been. A third Whipsnakes title, as a result, could prove to be even more historic.
“The standard is always the same,” Bernlohr says. “Our goal is to win it all. We have all the pieces to do it again.”