In the first of back to back meetings between the two teams, Ohio (5-4) will travel to Rochester (5-4) to take on the Rattlers at Eunice Kennedy Shriver Stadium on Sunday.
Each game becomes more pivotal as we head into the final five weeks of MLL play, as there were five teams that had a record of 5-4 heading into Saturday night’s Denver/Charlotte contest.
This will be a rematch of the 2014 playoff meeting between Ohio and Rochester back on August 16.
The Rattlers, who would fall in the championship to Denver, won 15-11 thanks to five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter.
Ohio, who lost to Chesapeake in overtime at home last week, scored 11 goals, their lowest since week one against New York (8).
The Machine will look to get more quality looks this Sunday, as they dominated in shots and possession against the Bayhawks.
Tom Schreiber continues to provide offensive firepower for the Machine, as he is tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 16 goals and 20 assists.
Marcus Holman has been a beast this season as well. The former North Carolina Tar Heel has 24 goals to go along with six helpers.
Peter Baum returned to the lineup last week and contributed two goals and an assist. Look for his continued contributions on Sunday.
Brian Phipps returns to the cage for the Machine after missing last week’s game due to prior engagements.
Phipps carries a 5-3 record to go along with a goals against average of 12 and a .545 save percentage.
On the opposite side of the field, Rochester is coming off of a crushing overtime loss following an epic 22-21 game against Denver.
The Rattlers have been offensively strong over the past five weeks, averaging 16.2 goals per game.
Their counterpart in Ohio is allowing a league best 12 goals per game.
Jordan Wolf has been a monster this season for the Rattlers. He’s tied for second in the league with 45 points and he has 33 goals to go along with 12 assists.
Surprisingly, he only scored one goal in their game last week.
Dave Lawson is coming off of a four goal, one assist performance and is second on the team in scoring.
John Galloway will be the man between the pipes once again for Rochester.
The former Syracuse Orange standout has a record of 4-4 and sports a 13.13 goals against average and a .523 save percentage.
The matchup at the faceoff x will be a good one between Ohio’s Greg Puskuldjian and Rochester’s John Ortolani.
Puskuldjian wins 56.4 percent of his draws while Ortolani wins 55.4 percent of his. Both are coming off of weeks where they overpowered their opponents by a wide margin.
Game time is set for 1 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN3.
