After advancing to Major League Lacrosse’s championship game last season, the Charlotte Hounds expected to start off the 2014 season as a team ready to take that next step.
Instead, it was the Ohio Machine that looked like a much-improved team Saturday, beating up the inconsistent and struggling Hounds early in a 15-8 season-opening victory at American Legion Memorial Stadium.
The Machine (1-0), now in their third MLL season, beat Charlotte (0-1) for the first time in five tries by jumping on the Hounds early, bolting to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter and never trailing.
Kyle Harrison, one of the players Ohio acquired during the offseason, scored two of his three goals during that key first-quarter run. Peter Baum and Jake Bernhardt also had three goals each, while Marcus Holman added two goals and two assists for the Machine.
“Any team, in any sport, wants to get off to a good start to the season,” said Harrison, who had played on the LXM Pro Tour since 2009. “We shot the ball pretty well offensively, and our defense and goalkeeper made some incredible saves and stops, and we were able to start off the season with a win.”
It marks a turnaround of sorts for Ohio, which had gone 2-12 in each of its first two seasons. But under head coach Bear Davis, who took over for the final six games of the 2013 season, the Machine have won their first-ever season opener.
While Ohio only had a 32-31 edge in shots on goal Saturday, they managed two key runs that Charlotte had trouble responding to.
The six-goal run in the first quarter put the Machine in command; the second, a 5-1 run over the third and fourth quarters, put the win away.
“This is a game of runs,” Davis said. “They could’ve easily gone on a 6-0 run, too. They had a run in the second quarter, and could’ve had one in the third (quarter). But we answered that, and had our own run in the fourth (quarter).
“You always want to start off well, but it’s vital that we make sure we’re playing well. We’re still not where we need to be … but we’re happy where we’re at today, and we’ll look at getting better next week.”
Yet if the stats from Saturday’s game are any indication, it’s the Hounds that have a lot of improving to do.
Ohio goalkeeper Scott Rodgers made 23 saves in goal, while Charlotte’s Mike Gabel — starting in place of Adam Ghitelman, who missed the opener because of his college coaching commitments — had five saves in the first quarter, and backup Pierce Barrett made 12 over the final three periods.
The Hounds also struggled on faceoffs, with faceoff specialist Tim Fallon losing 17 of 27 attempts to Ohio’s combination of Eric O’Brien (9-14) and Matt Dolente (8-13).
“We’ve been to the mountaintop; now we’re right back at the bottom,” Charlotte head coach Mike Cerino said. “This is not the way we wanted to start, though. I’m proud of the guys fighting to get back in it … but we used a lot of energy to get back into the game.”
Three players – former Machine player Joe Cummings, Matt White and Ryan Young – had two goals each for the Hounds. Matt Danowski, Charlotte’s leading scorer last season, was held to just one assist and no goals.
“This is not the way we wanted to start,” White said. “We weren’t sharp out there. We showed some glimpses, so we’re getting there. But (Ohio) came out ready to play, and they kicked us in the mouth.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities, but we’re lucky it’s early in the season. We can really figure things out from here.”
