Outlaws Face Confident Hounds in Home Opener

 

No disrespect to team President Jim McPhilliamy, but I think we all can agree that in a perfect world the ideal owner for the Charlotte Hounds would be Montgomery Burns if not just for the fact that he could say “release the hounds” before every game.

Luckily for Charlotte they don’t need a cartoon tycoon to motivate them to score goals. The Hounds will visit the Mile High City on Sunday for Denver’s home opener. Now history is on Denver’s side when it comes to playing at home. The Outlaws have only lost one home game since mid-2012. Charlotte didn’t win a single road game last year, but were able to reverse that curse last week when they downed Boston in overtime at Gillette Stadium.

Both teams enter the game with .500 records and will be looking to move up the rankings.

Definitely keep an eye on “Them Loyola boys!” on Charlotte. (This sentence should be read in the voice of Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard.)

On the offensive side of the ball Justin Ward isn’t missing a beat and Mike Sawyer is as big of an outside shooting threat as ever. Then in the middle of the field Josh Hawkins and Pat Laconi are a couple of the best SSDMs out there. To limit the Hounds defensive midfield unit to that side of the field is short sighted. Both coaches spoke this week about the transition game. Charlotte head coach Mike Cerino noted that his defensive midfielders can be offensive threats too so there is no reason to give up opportunities in transition when they arise. Denver, of course, is also known using two-way midfielders to both stifle opponents’ transition and to spark their own. The play between the proverbial lines should a big part of who wins this game.

In both of Charlotte’s games this year they’ve given up late leads, which is something they can’t afford to do against Denver. The Outlaws almost did the same thing the last time they were on the field in Ohio, but last minute heroics from Bocklets, Inc. preserved the victory.

Winning faceoff draws won’t be as easy this week for Denver’s Anthony Kelly. After struggling last year, Charlotte’s Brendan Fowler looks to have regained the form he displayed at the faceoff dot in college and adapted to the professional game.

Both teams will likely need to lean heavily on their defense to make sure any lead earned doesn’t slip away again. Denver’s squad will no doubt be pleased when they look back and see Jesse Schwartzman manning the crease. Charlotte has its share of hulking defensemen (Lobb, Cinosky, Flanagan), but when it comes to the last line of defense, the edge should still go to Denver.

Denver was a bit shaky defensively in week 1, and then in week 2 they looked better on D, but took their foot off the gas against Ohio. If the Outlaws want to put another W in their pocket, they’re going to need to keep their forward progress on defense going.

Charlotte has been too inconsistent over the span of sixty minutes in the early going of 2015. If they can lay out a full sixty minutes on Sunday don’t be surprised if the Hounds are above .500 on Monday.