Syracuse Orange in the PLL: Week 2 Recap

How’d our favorite former Orange do down in Charlotte over the weekend?

Week 2 of the PLL saw a reduction in the number of former Syracuse Orange players who made game day rosters, but those who did see the field were important contributors.

Brett Kennedy, Brendan Curry, Stephen Rehfuss and Brendan Bomberry all started in their respective games as the only Orange alumni of the weekend, as did volunteer coach TD Ierlan.

Let’s take a closer look:

Archers 17, Chaos 12

Brett Kennedy once again started at close defense for the Chaos, and put in a strong effort picking up four ground balls and marking some of the best attackers in the league.

At various times throughout the game, Kennedy was matched up with Marcus Holman, Will Manny and Matt Moore, among others. While those three combined for 10 goals in the game, none of them were scored in an individual matchup with Kennedy.

It’s a difficult task to move around and mark as many different high quality players in one game as Brett did in this one. It was not a good day for the Chaos defense as a whole, but I thought Brett did well with some difficult assignments.

Atlas 16, Cannons 8

The Syracuse goal-scoring for this weekend was exclusive to this game, where Brendan Curry, Stephen Rehfuss and Brendan Bomberry all started.

Stephen got it started with a fantastic effort on a first quarter goal. He pulled off back-to-back swim moves before dipping his head to fake low and easily finish high past Atlas goalie Jack Concannon.

It was an effort that highlighted so much of what makes Rehfuss a great lacrosse player, from his sneaky-good athleticism to his extremely high lacrosse IQ. Check it out:

Stephen finished with that goal and a pair of ground balls on a difficult offensive day for the Cannons as they were missing their best player, Lyle Thompson.

On the other end of the field, Brendan Curry scored the first goal of his professional career in the second quarter after a couple of near-misses last week.

It was the kind of goal we saw so many times from Curry in his SU career, as Jeff Teat found him as Brendan dodged down the right alley and put home a beautiful cross-cage finish on-the-run. Take a look below for something you’ve seen many times before:

Nobody shoots on the run like Brendan Curry. Oh, and it gave Atlas a lead they would never relinquish in another dominating performance.

Chrome 12, Redwoods 3

In the opening game of the weekend, SU volunteer assistant TD Ierlan had himself a shockingly rough day at the face-off stripe against Chrome FOGO Conner Farrell. TD finished the game 7-of-18 at the dot with only three ground balls. Better days ahead for him.