Ohio (1-2) looks to continue its momentum from last week against a Florida team that is trying to garner its own first win this year in Boca Raton on Saturday night.
Peter Baum, Jimmy Dailey and Tom Schreiber all potted hat tricks in the 12-9 Machine win over Chesapeake. Baum and Schreiber in particular are off to great starts this season, as Baum leads the team with nine goals and four assists, while Schreiber has eight goals and three assists.
The first midfield line of Baum, Kyle Harrison and Schreiber are among the best in the league and will try to build on their early season success on Saturday.
On the defensive side of things, Brian Phipps was named the MLL Warrior Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Bayhawks. Phipps made 14 saves and had a 60 percent save percentage in the win.
Eric O’Brien and Greg Puskuldjian were solid at the faceoff x last week, winning 16-25 draws. This was huge as the Machine are looking for consistent faceoff men.
On the flip side for the Launch (0-3), they are seeking to figure things out from an offensive perspective.
They made a trade this week in acquiring 2014 co-Tewaaraton winner Miles Thompson and a fourth round pick in the 2016 MLL Collegiate draft from Rochester in exchange for faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton and the rights to Kevin Rice, in addition to a sixth round pick in the 2016 MLL Supplemental Draft.
Thompson will soon by joined by his brother Lyle of Albany, who was drafted by the Launch.
Florida has scored a league low 28 goals through their three games.
Kieran McArdle leads the way for the Launch with eight goals and five assists, followed by Steven Brooks with six goals and three assists.
On the defensive side of the ball, Reid Action, Tucker Durkin, Bobby Lawrence and Peter Ricci make up the core unit. Former Ohio State Buckeye Joe Meuer saw action in the first two games of the season but did not last week.
From the faceoff perspective, Christopher Mattes will be the go-to after Poppleton was traded. It will be interesting to see who will compliment Mattes from here on out.
Mattes is 23-40 this season. He won 6-12 draws last week against Rochester.
In terms of their goaltending, Brett Queener and Adam Fullerton have split time.
Queener has started two games, including the most recent one against the Rattlers, opposed to Fullerton’s one.
Queener has a .657 save percentage to go along with an 11.06 goals against average while Fullerton is rocking a .462 save percentage and a 14.93 goals against average.
The two teams split the season series a year ago.
Game time is set for 7pm and can be seen on ESPN3.
