Photo courtesy of the Premier Lacrosse League
The first game of the #Chromeback Tour certain got of to a hot start as Tim Soudan’s Chrome squad scored the last eight goals of the Saturday’s contest against the Chaos to come come out victorious 13-9.
The Chaos’ fast paced offense cranked back up at the start as Patrick Resch and Sergio Salcido got the scoring started to give the Chaos an early 2-0 lead. With his team trailing early, Jordan Wolf went to work for the Chrome. The former Duke attackman scored a hat trick in the first quarter to help the Chrome fight back and tie the game at 4-4.
The second quarter was a different story, as the Chaos’ offense got rolling. A four-goal quarter was headlined by a pair of goals from Curtis Dickson, including one worthy of the Sport Center Top-10. Additional goals from Dickson, Connor Fields, and Josh Byrne gave the Chaos an 8-4 lead at halftime.
Halftime proved to be the rest the Chrome needed though, as they emerged a different team to start the 3rd quarter.
A powerplay opportunity early in the second half saw Matt Gaudet score his first professional goal. Gaudet exacted a little revenge on the Chaos, who traded him after initially drafting him in the offseason. Fields picked up his fourth of the goal of the afternoon to extend the lead back to four goals, but the Chrome were off and running and did not look back.
A 5-0 run gave the Chrome their first lead at 10-9 in the waning seconds of the third quarter. The run was thanks, in large part, to goals from John Ranagan, Will Haus, Justin Gutterding.
That momentum didn’t stop as the fourth quarter got going. The Chrome scored the only three goals of the quarter to defeat the Chaos 13-9.
The new-look Chrome had four different players (Ned Crotty, Wolf, Ranagan, Gutterding) score at least three goals, and five others who scored a single goal.
Welcome to the PLL!
After newcomer Zed Williams recorded a hat trick during his PLL debut for the Whipsnakes, Curtis Dickson followed up with a hat trick of his own for the Chaos. A veteran of the NLL, Dickson hadn’t played outdoors since the 2017 when he played six games with the Lizards.
Milkman Special
A strong second half from Connor Farrell helped fuel the #Chromeback as he won 11 straight face offs during the third and fourth quarters. Farrell finished the game 19-for-24 (79%) at the stripe.
King of the Chirps?
Chrome rookie Matt Gaudet was mic’d up for the game and quickly became an internet sensation in the Twitterverse. Early on Gaudet’s clearly unique laugh could be heard throughout the stadium, and once the Chrome started rolling the chirps came flying.
Next up:
Chaos will look to bounce back on Monday when they take on a Redwoods’ squad who also will be looking for their first time. Games set for 7:00 p.m.
In 2019, it took the Chrome nine nine game to get their second win. The Chrome will look to change this as they go for their second straight victory in Utah when they take on a Redwoods Tuesday who be playing the latter half of a back-to back. Game time, 9:30 p.m.
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