In the first part of what will be a back-to-back meeting between the Charlotte Hounds and Rochester Rattlers, the Hounds proved the better team by winning 15-8 in Rochester. Until about halftime, it was a close back and forth type game, but after halftime the Hounds came out ready to win and Rochester was not ready for that. Adam Ghitelman stepped up big for the Hounds in goal and Peet Poillon led the offense. For the Rattlers, Ned Crotty returned for his first 2013 MLL game and made several nice goals and assists, but it just wasn’t enough.
In their opening week loss to the Denver Outlaws, Matt Danowski led the way for the Hounds with seven points; however, Danowski did not play against the Rattlers due to coaching commitments with Duke University. With Danowski out, recently acquired midfielder Peet Poillon stepped up big and notched seven points (5g, (2) two-pointers) against Rochester. Fellow middie Brian Carroll added a hat-trick in the game, including the first of the game. Eric Lusby added two goals for Charlotte, one of which was a burner from the 2-point line. Former New York Lizard Ryan Young had two points for the Hounds, one goal and one assist. Face-off specialist Tim Fallon (45%) struggled at the face-off X at times, but overall held his own and scored just his second goal of his MLL career. In cage for the Hounds, Adam Ghitelman put on a clinic after missing the home opener. Ghitelman stopped 11 shots and only allowed 8 en route to a final save percentage of 58%. He was huge in the opening quarters, stopping almost everything that came his way.
In his first game of the 2013 season, Ned Crotty netted three points (2g, 1a) but wasn’t able to lead his team to victory. Fellow former Blue Devil Rob Rotanz also added two goals for Rochester, who now starts the season 0-2 heading into Charlotte next week. Matt Striebel, Dan Groot and Jordan MacIntosh also added goals for the Rattlers who struggled against Charlotte’s very aggressive defense. It seemed as though the Hounds double and even triple teamed the Rochester ball-handlers every chance they got which really disturbed the offensive flow. Defensively, the Rattlers had no luck controlling the Charlotte offense in the latter half of the game. They did a good job in the first half, but just didn’t seem ready for play after halftime. Charlotte came out firing and goalie John Galloway paid for it. Galloway stopped 12 of 24 shots on goal for a 50% save rate at the end of the game.
Given the back-to-back games between these two teams, their finale on 5/11 seems all the more interesting now. With Charlotte beating Rochester at home, it’ll be fun to see how the Rattlers counter that heading into Charlotte, NC. Both teams know what to expect and will have to change their gameplans in order to come out with a win.
