A pair of 1-2 teams coming off two-game losing streaks will play a key early-season game on Saturday night that could go a long way towards a playoff spot come August. The New York Lizards travel to the Ohio Machine for an 8 p.m. ET faceoff on ESPN3.
Coming off a 15-9 loss against Rochester Saturday, New York has lost two straight games after its season-opening win over those same Rattlers. The Lizards were trailing by only one (8-7) at the half last week, but managed just two second-half goals. For just the second time in his Major League Lacrosse career, Rob Pannell was held without a point. In fact, Pannell has reached double-figure goals in 11 of his 13 career professional games.
Pannell scored six goals in the season opener and the Lizards managed 18 goals. No surprise that when he was held goal-less, New York could only manage nine. Ned Crotty led the New York offense with three goals while Max Seibald scored twice. Drew Adams kept the Lizards close early on, stopping five of six first-half shots to give them a 4-1 lead after one quarter. Rochester responded by scoring seven second-quarter goals to take a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Like New York, Ohio is 1-2 and coming off two straight losses. The Machine defeated Charlotte 15-8 in their opener before dropping a pair of tight games at Denver (14-12) and versus Florida (10-9). Playing his first Major League Lacrosse season, 2012 Tewaaraton Award winner Peter Baum is tied for the team lead with nine points (seven goals, two assists). Baum had three goals in last weekend’s loss to Florida. Leading 7-6 after three quarters, the Launch scored four of the six fourth-quarter goals to hand the Machine the tough defeat.
Ohio features a very young squad with many fairly recent collegiate standouts. In his first game of the season, Ohio State grad Logan Schuss had three goals last week. North Carolina alum Marcus Holman is tied with Baum for the team lead with nine points on the season. Tom Schreiber out of Princeton, the #1 overall pick in January’s MLL Collegiate Draft, also had a goal and assist last weekend in his first professional game.
New York’s Greg Gurenlian has won 61 percent of his faceoffs this season while three Ohio players have combined to win just under 50 percent. Saturday’s matchup features some strong goaltenders as Scott Rodgers has stopped 61 percent of the shots sent his way (tied for second in the MLL) while New York’s Drew Adams owns a 54 save percentage.
The winner of Saturday’s game will pick up a key early-season win, but most importantly, snap a two-game losing streak and gain key momentum moving forward.
