The Ohio Machine entered their sophomore season in the MLL with high hopes. However, the season has not turned out the way that they or their fans have hoped. Their 1-9 record proves just that. There are multiple positives to the Machine’s season thus far.
Defense
The Machine’s offense can be to blame for the majority of their losses this season. The defense has played to a high level. In all but two games played this season, the Machine have held their opponents to under fourteen goals. The defense keeps the Machine in these games, but the offense is really what loses them. This is odd as the offense of the Machine looked stellar on paper, but their defense is outshining their offense.
Steele Stanwick
Stanwick entered the league a few games deep last season and made his mark. His expectations were high entering this season for that same reason but he started the season out slow. However, as of late, he has been on fire. Stanwick isn’t the guy that scored four or five goals game in and game out. What is amazing for this is that Stanwick has fifteen assists on the season on a very low scoring offense.
Logan Schuss
Logan Schuss entered the season three games deep and still ranks third on the Machine in points. This rookie did not take time to transition the league as he simply started his stellar play from day one. Schuss has nineteen points on the season with seventeen goals.
Brian Phipps
A constant question mark for the Machine is their goaltender and the level of play. They cycled through both Scott Rodgers and Stefan Schroder before finding their everyday man in Brian Phipps. Phipps has a goal allowed average of 12.5 with 82 saves and a 52 save percentage. On top of all of that, Phipps is only in his third season.
Age
The mass majority of the Machine’s top players are young in age. Steele Stanwick, the team’s points leader is in his second season. Joe Cummings ranks second in points for the Machine and he, along with Stanwick is in his second season in the league. Both Logan Schuss and Marcus Holeman, who rank third and fourth respectively on the Machine in points are both rookies. Also mentioned earlier is that starting goaltender Brian Phipps is in his third season.
