And Then There Were Two: PLL Semifinals Recap
Thursday night saw two competitive and exciting semifinal games, setting the stage for Sunday's championship match-up.
Chaos vs Archers:
If you’ve ever doubted that anything can happen during the playoffs, Chaos are here to prove you wrong. After going winless in Group Play, the team has battled their way into a championship appearance following a huge 13-9 win over the Archers last night. Leading by 5 at halftime, Chaos held off a 3-goal run by the Archers in the third quarter to win the game. Chaos has now upset both the #2 and the #3 seed in bracket play thanks to a reconfigured offense and improved faceoff play, as well as an electric playoff performance by Josh Byrne. Byrne had 5 points Thursday night off of 3 goals and 2 assists, including an insane one-handed between the legs goal. Epoch Athletes Jarrod Neumann and Troy Reh also put up solid numbers on the defensive end; Neumann had 3 ground balls and Reh had 2 ground balls and 1 caused turnover. Chaos will face off against the reigning champion Whipsnakes on August 9th at 12:30pm ET to see who will come away with the title this year.
Whipsnakes vs Redwoods:
People might say that it’s hard to beat a team three times. The Whipsnakes clearly don’t agree, beating the Redwoods yet again last night in a thrilling 13-12 OT win. Jumping to a quick 8-2 lead early in the game, the Whips had to show grit as the Redwoods fought hard to close the gap, just as they did in 2019’s championship game, and force overtime. After being held scoreless for 20 minutes, the Whips repeated history by scoring the game winner with just under 8 minutes left in OT. Midfielder Jeremy Sieverts stuck the high-bouncer, his very first goal of the Championship Series, to help his team advance to the championship game. Though a league leader in points, Epoch Athlete Matt Rambo stuck to the game plan and drew Redwoods defenseman Garrett Epple out of the play, allowing the depth of the Whipsnakes offense to secure the win. The Whipsnakes will play Chaos on Sunday August 9th at 12:30pm ET for a chance at back-to-back titles.