Maryland Whipsnakes Explode Early, Cruise Past New York Atlas

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Gary Groob

Gary Groob has been involved with Lacrosse for the majority of his life, whether playing, coaching, or covering the sport for the media. An avid fan, with a real drive about helping to "grow the game", Gary became part of podcasts about the game in 2010. Through the podcasts, Mr. Groob was given an opportunity to write about lacrosse, and the rest as they say, is history. Through many miles (flying and driving) Gary has made inroads with the National Lacrosse League, Major Series Lacrosse, Ontario Series Lacrosse, the Ontario Lacrosse Association, CUFLA, as well as the Arena Lacrosse League, covering the leagues, their teams, and players, working for, and in concert with all of them. In the year 2019, Mr. Groob was made the media person for the Arena Lacrosse League, voted onto the board of directors of the Brampton Excelsiors Lacrosse Club, as well as being made administrator of the Lacrosse page "Global Lacrosse" with a membership of 14,000+ members in over 90 Countries. Gary was also made an administrator of Lacrosse History Past Present and Future in 2022 with a membership of 19,000+. Gary also has been the media person for Ontario Series Lacrosse (Senior B) since 2023. Mr. Groob also covers the Green Gaels for their excursions to Prague at the Ales Hrebesky tournament since 2022. In 2024, when Major Series Lacrosse was in need of a media person, Gary stepped in as their interim media person. His tasks were running their social media, as well as their website until a full time person was found to fill the role. In 2025 Gary was voted onto the Board of Directors for Ontario Series Lacrosse. Mr. Groob hosts a weekly lacrosse interview show formerly on Spanglish Sports World, and ZingoTV channel 250, now on StreamPunkEnt.com, Youtube, as well as Spotify. Groob also hosts a lacrosse talk show and podcast for All Lacrosse All The Time seen live Sunday nights at 8pm (ET), and archived on the All Lacrosse All The Time YouTube page, as well as Spotify. Gary also wrote a weekly lacrosse editorial column for La Portada Canada News both in print and online for three years from 2021-2024. In 2025, Mr. Groob joined the ownership ranks, becoming a minority owner of StreamPunk Entertainment, ensuring Lacrosse will always have voice in media. Gary was voted onto the board of directors as the social media director for Ontario Series Lacrosse (OSL) in November of 2025. In 2026 Mr. Groob was nominated for the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, made a voting member of the NLL media, was put as a voting member in the Ales Hrebesky Tournament awards, and was nominated for the Tom Borelli Award as media person of the year for the NLL. Mr. Groob's other sports interests include Hockey, Football, Boxing, Wrestling, and Baseball, competing competitively in Boxing and Wrestling for many years.

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The Maryland Whipsnakes (1-1) faced the New York Atlas (1-1) in Premier Lacrosse League action Friday evening.

Maryland was coming off a loss to the Philadelphia Waterdogs in which one bad quarter cost them a very winnable game. Matt Brandau, Aidan Carroll, TJ Malone, and Rob Pannell led the Whipsnakes, and were looking to continue the strong offensive showing.

The Atlas beat the Carolina Chaos last week with Reid Bowering, Matt Traynor, Bryan Costabile and Connor Shellenberger leading the way offensively.  Hiwever, with Jeff Teat not in the lineup, this team will need to be more creative in their attack if they want to continue to he successful.

The goaltending match-up had Emmet Carroll in net for the Whipsnakes facing Liam Entenmann in net for the Atlas.

Warriors

Maryland Whipsnakes used a dominant middle stretch to pull away from New York Atlas for a convincing 12-6 victory.

Maryland struck first just seven seconds into the opening quarter when Petey LaSalla opened the scoring, but Reid Bowering answered for New York just over a minute later. Aidan Carroll restored the Whipsnakes lead at 5:14 before Matt Traynor blasted home the equalizer at 6:38. Maryland closed the quarter with momentum as LaSalla and Carroll scored 1:16 apart to give the Whipsnakes a 4-2 advantage after one.

The Whipsnakes continued to dictate play in the second quarter as Carroll completed a four-goal performance with two more tallies, including one off a feed from TJ Malone. Matt Brandau added a power-play marker from Rob Pannell, extending the Maryland lead to 7-2 at halftime.

Maryland kept rolling in the third quarter with unanswered goals from Adam Poitras, Pannell, and Truitt Sunderland to build a commanding 10-2 lead. Bowering scored with just 12 seconds remaining in the frame for New York, but LaSalla answered seven seconds later to immediately halt any Atlas momentum.

New York showed some pushback in the fourth quarter as Traynor and Bryan Costabile scored back-to-back goals early in the period. Maryland responded once again with Poitras finding the back of the net at 6:15. Connor Shellenberger scored with 15 seconds remaining for the Atlas, but it was too little too late as the Whipsnakes cruised to the 12-6 win.

The Three Stars:

1. Aidan Carroll
2. Petey LaSalla
3. Emmet Carroll

Game Stats:

  • Shots on goal favored Maryland 27-26.
  • The faceoff battle went to the Atlas 14-8.
  • The ground ball battle was won by the Atlas 32-25.
  • Maryland went 1 for 3 on the power-play, while New York went 0 for 1.

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