The talks of an undefeated season in Major League Lacrosse has been put to rest this weekend. After receiving their first loss last weekend from the Ohio Machine, the New York Lizards defeated the only remaining undefeated in the MLL, the Charlotte Hounds, 21-18.
Both teams used different strategies throughout the game. For the Lizards, their offensive game plan was centered around one player: Rob Pannell. Pannell scored an amazing 8 goals in the game, one short of tying the single-game record of goals scored. Also contributing to the offense with goals in the game for New York was Paul Rabil, JoJo Marasco, Dave Lawson, Matt Gibson, Tommy Palasek, Steve DeNapoli, and Steven Holmes.
For Charlotte, they opted to spread the offense out. Stephen Keogh led the Hounds offense with four goals. Not far behind him were McCallion and John Haus, each with three goals. Mike Chanenchuk contributed to the Charlotte offense with the only two-point goal for either team.
Also part of the Hounds offensive game plan was gain an advantage through extra-man opportunities. The Lizards struggled to avoid committing fouls last week, and Charlotte looked to exploit that in their favor. The Hounds drew four penalties, and capitalized on two EMOs. The Lizards, on the other hand, drew three penalties, but couldn’t score a goal.
Face-offs were another interesting aspect of the game. Again, this was a part of the game where the teams differentiated. The Lizards opted to rely on Greg Gurenlian to do most of the face-offs, winning 23 out of 40 face-offs. Kevin Unterstein was in the face-off for two face-offs, losing both of them. Brendan Fowler did 33 face-offs for the Hounds, winning 16 of them. Will Haus had a higher face-off win percentage, winning 5 out of 8 face-offs, and Kevin Massa lost his only face-off of the game.
With the victory, the Lizards improve 3-1 on the season. They’ll take this weekend off for Memorial Day weekend and return to action June 3rd when they host the Denver Outlaws at James M. Shuart Stadium.
