Three Takeaways from Atlas Lacrosse Club’s Loss to Chrome

Atlas dropped its first game of the season, 13-12, to the Redwoods on Saturday. Despite a competitive game through four quarters, Atlas showed some rust. The team trailed the Redwoods wire-to-wire. There were dropped passes, high shots and shot-clock confusion.  

Still, there were crazy shots, and makes, and signs of promising chemistry to be developed between the veterans and rookies. Here are three takeaways from Week 1:

Gone is the FOGO Trevor Baptiste?

It felt like face-off specialist Trevor Baptiste clocked more minutes in the season opener than he has in a long time. 

With the new PLL shot clock rule, a 32-second shot clock – not the normal 52-second one – starts after a won faceoff. With 20 seconds less to sub out, Baptiste found himself a part of the offense regularly. 

Baptiste took three shots on the day, which is nearly double his career average of 1.6 shots per game.

“With the shot clock, just have to try and get that ball moving fast,” Baptiste said during a mid-game interview Saturday. “Have to play fast and aggressive without playing sloppy.”

With the new rule, it seems the days of the FOGO (faceoff, get off) are behind us.