After two years of waiting, Rob Pannell made his MLL debut for the New York Lizards. The Smithtown West native notched three goals and one assist in the first half, which the Lizards led 10-7. However, Charlotte would mount a second half comeback as New York’s offense sputtered. Matt Danowski tied the game 7:22 into the fourth quarter and added an insurance goal to give the Hounds a 14-12 road victory in front of 4,886.
Ryan Young would strike first for Charlotte 2:41 into the game. Pannell would respond moments later with his first career MLL goal created by one of his patented dodges we’ve seen at Cornell. Both teams would exchange a pair of goals within a three minute span. Greg “Beast” Gurenlian would score off the face-off by diving forward and slipping a shot past Adam Ghitelman. Peyser and Young would net their second goals of the game to close out the first quarter.
Pannell scored to open up the second quarter before Poillon netted a powerplay goal. Pannell would complete the hat trick on a sidearm shot from the left wing but once again Poillion responded. He would assist on Brian Carroll’s tying goal 8:29 into the quarter. But New York would finish the half on a three goal run. After a TV timeout, Peyser scored a two-point goal on the powerplay before David Earl launched his own long range shot past the goaltender to give the Lizards a 10-7 lead into the halftime break.
Charlotte netted the first two goals of the half. Young dove from behind the net and snuck the ball inside the left post past Drew Adams (9 saves). Lusby connected on the Hounds second powerplay of the night. After a long scrum off the ensuing face-off, Gurenlian scored his second goal f the game. Last year’s rookie of the year Matt Gibson took an open feed from CJ Costabile in transition at the 11:45 mark of the third quarter.
That would be the last goal scored by New York for the final 18:15 of the contest.
The Hounds would finish the game on a five goal run in the final quarter of play. Back-to-back tallies from Mike Sawyer closed the deficit. About four minutes later, Matt Danowski tied the game with a one handed wrap around shot around the right post. At the 9:51 mark, Lusby scored his third goal of the game and gave his team the lead. Danowski would add his second and put this one out of reach. The Duke assistant coach was named the MVP of the evening.
New York won 19-of-29 face-offs and won the groundball battle 37-26. Charlotte was 2-for-3 on the powerplay and killed off 4-of-5 Lizards man-up opportunities.
WHY CHARLOTTE WON
The game featured a lot of breaks in the action. Momentum was hard to come by, but credit head coach Mike Cerino. He kept his team focused on the next play, the next goal, the next defensive stop. Charlotte kept battling for the ball giving the Lizards ball carriers fits. They also shot the ball very well connecting on 14-of-23 shots on goal. Adam Ghitelman and the defense made key late stops in the second half.
WHY NEW YORK LOST
Head Coach Joe Spallina felt the team got away from their game plan. The offense relied too much on the one-on-one match-ups. The Lizards did not score a 6v6 goal in the final 30 minutes. Their off-ball players seemed to be watching the ball carrier, waiting for something instead of cutting or creating open space. That was evident at the end as the players fed Pannell waiting for him to work his magic. Those turnovers on offense also gave the Hounds those extra possessions needed to find a rhythm offensively. It also appeared the defense was a step behind the Charlotte dodgers.
