Recapping Week 6 in San Diego | The Scoop Episode 17
On this week's episode of The Scoop with Joe Keegan, he speaks to Noel D'Amico on the Boston Cannons' bounce back win, Kylie Ohlmiller Rees on the Charging-Palms game, and Phil Shore on the California's overtime thriller.
Video Transcript
Coming up on today's episode of The Scoop, Dylan Malloy's game-winning goal kept California in the driver's seat in the West.
What was the key for the Redwoods, and what was 40-year-old Kyle Hartzell doing back in a uniform?
Phil Shore joins us to break it down.
The Boston Cannons snapped their three-game losing streak, thanks to hat tricks from all three of their starting attack men.
Noelle D'Amico joins us to talk about Boston's bounce-back win, and Kylie Oh Miller-Reese joins the show to talk WLL, where the New York Charging are no longer undefeated.
How did the Poms pull off the upset, and what does it mean for the playoff picture?
Stay tuned.
It's all coming up on The Scoop.
On Saturday, we got our first look at a full-strength Denver Outlaws offense.
All four of their Tewaaraton Award winners suited up for the first time in 2026 and accounted for 10 of Denver's 13 scores in its win over Maryland.
Pat Kavanagh had four and one, Logan Kusniauske had two and one, and Jared Bernhardt had two and one while playing attack.
Brennan O'Neill was running out of the box for maybe the first time in his pro career since his debut in 2024.
It gave Denver a little bit of a different look.
Outlaws head coach Tim Sudan said soft tissue injuries to Bernhardt and Kavanagh were the main reason why O'Neill ran midfield.
We'll see if this sticks when Bernhardt is back to 100%.
This could be serendipitous.
Remember, injuries are the same reason the Golden State Warriors found out that playing Draymond Green at center was a net positives on both ends of the floor and unlocked the most lethal lineups of the 2010s.
Maybe O'Neill stays at midfield, maybe he goes back to attack.
Either way, it's one more thing that opposing defenses need to account for when preparing to play against Denver.
Through just five games, O'Neill has matched his career high with eight assists.
He's attacking mismatches, drawing slides, and setting up teammates for success.
I knew that when he was getting a shorty coming out of the box, that all six guys are gonna be ball watching, 'cause Brennan on a shorty, he's gonna get his hands free.
He gets his hands free against any pole that's guarding him.
So him on a shorty, obviously, there's-- he's gonna garner so much attention.
So I was just trying to find seams, we connected on that one skip pass.
Great look by him.
So, yeah, just trying to work off the ball, knowing that they're gonna slide to him early, and get in a good spot, and have good spacing.
So yeah, I think he did a phenomenal job, and just shows the type of teammate he is, too.
He doesn't care what his role is.
He just wants to win.
So I think that's a very underrated aspect of Brennan as a player and person.
On Saturday night, the Boston Cannons got a much needed bounce-back win to stay within striking distance in the East.
I caught up with Noelle D'Amico on what worked for Boston.
I'm now joined by Boston Cannons beat writer Noelle D'Amico.
Noelle, the Cannons entered the weekend at one and four, last place in the East.
They thought they had a win on Long Island until Brian Costabile's two-pointer in the 45th minute put the Atlas on top.
The Cannons needed a win, and they got one.
How'd they get it done?
Yeah, coming off those three losses, Joe, they were hungry.
The offense had a strong rhythm going from the start.
You know, they really got the ball moving, especially in the second half.
Brian Kelly had his best game since his debut with five points.
Marcus Holman had a hat trick.
Colter Mackesy led the way with six points on the night, four goals, including an electrifying shot clock beater in the second quarter.
Colter was great leading the way.
Like you said, six points, four goals, two assists.
What stood out to me is he's been more aggressive in year two as a Dodger.
He already has as many unassisted goals this year as he had as a rookie.
Without Asher Nolting on attack, Colter has taken more on his shoulders to be that guy.
What'd you see from him specifically, and what did coach have to say about him after the game?
Yeah, when I spoke with, Colter earlier this season, he actually told me that's really what he learned from Will Manny and, and getting to adjust to now having to, as a coach, that, that off-ball offense that he wasn't used to playing in college is something that when he came into the league, it was really a learning curve for him, and I think we're starting to see the effects and the impact of that more and more, and this weekend was probably his best performance of the season.
Out of the midfield, third round pick, Jack Regnery, out of Tufts, shout out D III, back-to-back-to-back national champ.
He had a breakout game.
He wasn't shy in his debut last week.
He took 10 shots, and you could sense that a game like this was coming.
His footwork is incredible, whether he's up top, whether he's at X, off rollbacks, off split dodges.
He just creates separation and makes good things happen for this offense.
You caught up with Regnery last week and wrote about him for the PLL website.
How has he made this transition from D III to the pros?
He has made this transition look easy.
Another two goals this weekend.
He said that his time at Tufts really helped prepare him for the pros pace-wise.
He said he's used to a fast game and taking a shot within the first 30 to 50 seconds of a shot clock, but he said the biggest adjustment has just been playing with the best lacrosse players in the world.
It's a whole new ballgame and a new, roster of guys for him, but he got to head over to Charlotte back in week four and practice with the Cannons, so even though he wasn't playing, that little extra bit really helped ease the transition for him.
They had a ton of retirements in the off-season.
2023 Defensive Player of the Year Garrett Epple retired.
Bryce Young, who was a longtime starter for this defense, retired.
Their backup goalie, Adam Gitteman, retired.
They lost a lot of on-field production, a lot of leadership in the locker room on that end of the field.
Owen Grant has stepped up, moving from LSM to close.
Other guys are finding new roles.
Will Donovan, who is a lifelong LSM, played close defense, covered his former college teammate, and did a great job at close defense on that matchup.
How have you seen these guys start to mesh and find their identity defensively for a group that entering the season really had not played together?
Yeah, and that's been something they're taking week by week, and Coach Holman actually said in the, the press conference after the game, that's exactly why they brought Will Donovan into the lineup.
He said he's s- so glad to get him in the draft to give the defense that type of versatility that when Hunter Smith has to step out, he can slide down and play at, at an elite level like they, like he did.
Great performance on both ends.
The young guys are stepping up.
You, you knew that this Cannons team could sense that their backs ag- were against the wall.
Marcus Holman said it himself, "Good things happen when you're faced with adversity."
They got it done, back in the playoff picture, back in contention, headed into the All-Star break.
Noelle, thanks for jumping on.
We'll talk to you soon.
Thanks so much.
Entering the weekend, people were wondering if anybody could beat the New York Charging.
I was one of them.
I asked Chris Rosenthal whether anybody could beat them on the show last week, and the California Palms were the ones to do it.
In a rematch of the championship series title game, the Palms got their revenge, knocking off the reigning champs 16 to nine.
For more on how they did it and where each team goes from here, I caught up with Kylie Oldmiller-Reese.
Kylie, home field advantage in the WLL is real.
New York traveled to San Diego with a chance to clinch a championship berth, and the Palms played spoiler in a statement win.
Who stood out to you for the Palms?
Yeah, I think you have to give props to Taylor Moreno.
She just stood tall in cage.
She had 17 saves on the day.
and as I was watching it, you know, as a fan and as a player who got to play against and with Taylor Moreno, I knew she would have herself a game.
after the first quarter, there was a stretch around the first two minutes of the game, she had three back-to-back-to-back, one crazy kick save against, like, Kuykendall and Harris-Chuck and some of the best shooters on the Charging.
so she just kind of found herself in a flow early.
I think she definitely deserved that effing Barbie that she talked about in the post-game interview.
that the MVP Barbie- She did that the Palms give out.
So that was, I think she, she, she really sparked the defense on that end, and Sam Geiersbach and Emma Lapinto are continuing to kind of stay strong on the offensive end for their attack.
And then I think A- Anna Brandt had, a little bit of a, a standout or a breakout game for her.
She opened up the scoring in the first quarter, and she ended up with a big hat trick for the Palms.
Not just the Barbie, it's Palmella.
It, it has a name.
Palmella is the name of the Barbie, and what I love about it is it's not given out by the coaches.
It's given from the last game's, you know, Palmella or MVP of the Palms, and it g- comes from that person.
It's given on to the next person, so could definitely feel that kind of fun energy that the Palms always bring, and, it definitely lives within Palmella.
It definitely does, and Ally Mastroianni gave it to Taylor Moreno, or Taylor Moreno took it from Ally Mastroianni with a statement performance in cage.
offensively, Sam Geiersbach, like you said, led the way, four goals.
We've talked about this team's midfield a ton, but Geiersbach's role in the settled offense and on the power play was huge.
When she's shooting like this, what does it do for the rest of the team's offense?
Yeah, I think having Geiersbach as that prime lefty attacker for the Palms, it really helps kind of open the middies up to have that room for those, you know, strong, shifty, downhill dodges that we see out of Marie McCool and Mastroianni and A- Ellie Masara.
so yeah, when she's a threat from the left side and the defense has to pay attention to her like they did this past weekend, I think that allows the middies some room to do some work.
New York heads to Chicago with another chance to clinch the postseason.
If they don't get a win, they'll be on the edge of their seats awaiting tiebreaker scenarios for the rest of the year, watching from the sidelines.
In order to prepare to control their own destiny, get it done on their terms, what needs to change or go right for the Charging next week in Chicago?
Yeah, and I think this is gonna be tough playing in Chicago at Northwestern, right, the home of Kuykendall and Izzy Skaane, who are gonna wanna have big days.
But I think that their opponents are gonna be prepared for them to wanna have good, big days, and I think that's exactly what happened against the Palms, was that they had a great defensive game plan for Izzy Skaane.
she was the only multi-goal scorer for the Charging this past weekend, but she only had two goals, and I know that I'm only saying two goals, and that sounds crazy, but those are low numbers for Izzy Skaane.
So, we can expect a defensive game plan that tries to mimic exactly what the Palms did 'cause it kept her to a low scoring.
It also kept every other top scorer for the Charging, everyone else only had one goal on the day, Edmondson, Carney, Harris-Chuck, Kuykendall.
so yeah, I think it's gonna be a little bit of trying to get some more of their scorers on the board early and often so that they can, you know, be a threat from everywhere like they typically are.
Huge opportunity for them, like you said, that that game is gonna mean a lot to them, to all those Northwestern grads.
if they're able to win, they will punch their ticket to Philly for the WLL championship in August.
If not, the, the standings will get nuts.
We, we could, we could have four two-and-two teams.
It's gonna come down to a tiebreaker one way or another.
every goal in this league matters.
Kylie, appreciate you jumping on as always and breaking it down for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
On Sunday, Philadelphia and Utah met in a rematch of the 2023 PLL championship.
Brett Thompson was incredible for Utah, but at the end of the day, the Archers' defense took too many penalties.
They had eight penalty minutes and allowed three power play goals, including a two-pointer by Matt Collison.
CJ Kirst scored five goals for the Waterdogs, on ball, off ball, righty, lefty.
Kirst has been automatic as a scorer this year.
He's scoring 4.7 goals per game.
Nobody has averaged one righty goal and one lefty goal in a season since Paul Rabil did it in 2015, but Kerst is on pace to join that club.
Zach Currier scooped up nine ground balls as a short stick.
With the influx of rookie midfielders in Matt Collison, Silas Richmond, Josh Yago, and Kyle Lewis, Currier's been moved to a short stick defender role, and he's been great.
He joked post-game that he's going to show up on film for allowing a goal, and he's not looking forward to Coach Tierney's reaction, but it was just one goal.
Short stick defender is the most picked-on position in the sport, especially in this league, and Currier stepped up, doing whatever the team needs and doing it well.
The Outlaws improved to 3-2.
Meanwhile, the Archers fall to 2-4.
They seem to be searching for an identity offensively, averaging only 9.8 scores per game, exactly where they were in 2025 when they finished in last place.
But they still have a positive score differential, and they're only one win behind third place in the West.
Anything can happen in that conference.
The Redwoods managed to stay in first place in the West with an overtime win on Sunday.
For more on that, let's send it to Phil Shore.
I am joined by California Redwoods beat writer Phil Shore.
Phil, the Redwoods defense has been depleted.
We haven't seen Cole Caster since opening weekend.
He's still on the PUP list.
Chris Fake is out with a hamstring injury.
Last Tuesday, they signed Arden Cohen, who they released in early June, and then shortly after signing him, they moved him to the PUP list.
They were desperate for defensemen, and in their desperation, they turned to a man who they do fully understand, Kyle Hartzell.
Hartzell played with head coach Anthony Kelly on the Ohio Machine back in 2012.
He won an MLL championship for Joe Spallina in 2015.
There's familiarity, but he's 40.
He hasn't suited up since 2023 , so talk to me.
How'd this all unfold?
It unfolded very last minute, and I think that's part of the reason that honestly helped Kyle Hartzell get the opportunity, was that, you know, Anthony Kelly said that he learned that Arden Cohen wasn't gonna be able to go this weekend.
They wanted-- They were really limited and depleted at that defensive position.
They needed some backup.
So Anthony Kelly was on his plane ride to California, getting ready for the weekend, and he and Joe Spallina were texting, who can we grab last minute that we can feel comfortable with, that can just be thrown into the fire, thrown in minutes notice, and will actually get here in time?
So he texted Kyle Hartzell.
they, like you mentioned, they've known each other for quite some time.
They've teamed together, and Kyle said, "Let me call my wife," called right back or texted right back and said, "I'm in," and he sent a picture to Coach Kelly of his wall ball routine that he's been doing every day, w- along with his stick to show that he's been still working on his game, even though he's been retired as a player.
Yeah, gr- incredible performance by Hartzell, how it all c-came together.
, I can imagine the stress for Anthony Kelly being on that flight.
I mean, air- airplane Wi-Fi can be spotty.
Sometimes you're getting green bubbles even from friends and family.
so to find out that Arden Cohen's not playing, moving to the PUP list, scrambling, finding somebody, they couldn't have found anybody to perform better than what Hartzell gave them.
And, we mentioned Kelly and Spallina's role in this.
How about hats off to defensive coordinator Chris Collins, who's made some gutsy, gutsy decisions with matchups this year.
He put Hartzell on Hiltz.
Two weeks ago, he put Colin Brown in his PLL debut on the reigning MVP, Connor Shellenberger.
Both games resulted in wins, and I think both matchups, you could say, decisively went in the Redwoods' favor.
so credit defensively to Coach Collins on that plan.
Offensively, the Redwoods finally went back to Ryder on attack.
Finally.
He averaged 10 touches a game entering the weekend.
He'd been running out of the box, and I just think you lose so much of what makes Ryder Ryder when he's not on the field for rides and clears.
He thrives playing in the gray.
On Sunday, he had more touches than his three previous games combined.
What'd you see from number 50 on Sunday?
I think you mentioned that those gray areas, just getting some extra touches.
A lot of times, even on, you know, end line restarts, right?
It wasn't always Dylan Malloy picking up the ball and just trying to bull his way up.
That's an area where Ryder excels.
Give him the ball, let him see what happens.
And he's also, I thought last year he really developed as a feeder, and you saw it on that cross-field pass, that cross-field pass to Aidan Denenza on the first goal of the game against the Chaos.
He's able to draw some attention because he is so slippery, and then he finds guys in their spots.
and it just seemed like he was back to normal.
It seemed like he was riding a bike again, where he said after the game, you know, he said that he thought he was ready.
He thought that, you know, playing with the guys at Notre Dame while he was coaching and things like that were helping him.
But the pro, playing pro games at game speed, is a different level, and he just wasn't as prepared as he thought he was.
But getting into that attack, into that familiarity, really helped him, and they let him go and let him work.
And he was not working against Jared Newman, who has always been the matchup.
Dating back to Ryder's rookie year, when these two teams meet, it's 88 on 50.
You can set your watch to it.
Newman drew the Dylan Malloy matchup.
That's two big physical guys going at it, and Malloy, as we know, had seven goals last weekend, dominating physically at the island.
I think the contrast between Ryder and Dylan is so interesting, where Malloy, they don't necessarily have the thunder and lightning dynamic.
Malloy does bring the thunder and the physicality.
Ryder just brings, like, y- y- The unpredictability.
You don't know.
He's not necessarily lightning, he's not necessarily thunder, he is just a tornado.
He'll dodge to his left- He's the worm he'll dodge to his right.
He's the worm.
He's the worm.
And it worked out.
The, that hat trick, really helped extend that lead, and they needed it extended, because the Chaos came charging back in the fourth as, as teams are want to do in this league.
Well, and you mentioned, Ryder and Dylan, and Ryder's also got great chemistry with Chris Kavanaugh, obviously.
And he was another important piece to that victory against the Chaos.
You know, where Coach Kelly said you could see the fatigue setting in, you could see the legs getting tired.
And when they tied up, when the Chaos tied up the game in the third quarter, it looked like they were starting to, the wheels were coming off, and Chris Kavanaugh scores two brilliant goals against Blaze Reardon.
Two absolute snipes going across his body, hitting the corner.
The precision was excellent, and they were big time plays.
He hadn't scored in the first 40 minutes of that game.
but those two goals came at very opportune times.
Obviously, the Chaos again came back and tied it up again.
But those are huge goals to not only keep a lead, but also to give them a little bit more juice left and to keep them fighting.
When Chris Kav was coming out of college, Adam Lamberti's player comp for him was a right-handed Matt Kavanaugh, surprise, they're brothers, with shades of Ryan Brown.
And the Matt Kavanaugh side is the side that we saw yesterday.
Like, his game feel is, is incredible.
When the team needs him, he will go and attack that matchup.
And you mentioned the two goals that he scored, changed planes on those, scored one high, one low.
In the first one, he went right at that Jack Rowlett matchup, which is one of the toughest matchups in the league.
the Kavanaughs, when you need 'em most, step up, make big plays.
Phil, y- what's next for you?
What, what are you working on feature wise?
What can we look forward to?
Looking forward to working on a piece on Ryder Garnsey.
Obviously, he had a huge weekend, and to get a little bit into that mindset of what it took for him to get back to where he was.
obviously, like you mentioned, like we talked about, his first few weeks didn't do too much, but getting, getting settled in an attack.
So working on a piece on Ryder, and also gonna be working on a piece on Sam English, who was absolutely invaluable to the team's success over homecoming weekend.
You know, it's easy to forget, or it's easy to think about last year when he is injured in one of the first couple of games.
you know, with the success that Kavanaugh had, with the success that Andrew MacAdory had, obviously, they helped propel the team moving forward.
With the success that whole draft class had, it's easy to forget that Sam English was the third overall pick.
And this weekend, he really showed why he deserved that pick.
He was everywhere.
He's on wings- Everywhere which also, he, he's on the wings on face-offs, which helps, you know, keep Ryan Tevlin fresh.
He's scoring on offense.
He had a hat trick against the Chaos.
he's on, playing on defense.
He had a really heads up play, too, that, you know, there was a shot clock violation, I think, I forget which game it was.
I think it was the Cannons, though.
It's a shot clock violation, and, you know, they go to throw it up in the air, and he is waiting in the corner to catch it so that he can just go down the field and get in transition.
And he's been paramount to their 32 second offense, so gonna be doing a feature on him as well.
Looking forward to it.
Can't wait to read.
Phil, thanks for jumping on.
Joe, thanks for having me.
It was a pleasure.
This weekend, the PLL and WLL head to Annapolis for All-Star Weekend.
Catch the West against the East at 2:00 PM Eastern on Sunday, and then Team Humphrey against Team Izzy at 5:30.
Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of The Scoop.
Enjoy the All-Star Games and 4th of July weekend.
