The Ohio Machine are one of the most intriguing teams in Major League Lacrosse right now. They’ve clinched a playoff spot with two games remaining in their season and after their first trip to the playoffs a season ago, they’re looking to go on a championship run this summer.
So let’s take a look at some of the key factors as to how the Machine got to this point.
The Front Office and the Draft
When the team moved to central Ohio for the 2012 season, Machine went 2-12 that summer, followed by another 2-12 season in 2013.
If Major League Lacrosse has proved anything, it’s that if you perform poorly enough as a team, then your high draft picks should help you if the front office is using their heads.
Clearly, this was the case for the Machine.
In 2012 the team drafted Steele Stanwick out of Virginia with the second overall pick. In 2013, they took Peter Baum first overall, followed by Logan Schuss (who is no longer on the team) and Marcus Holman in the second round.
Last year, they took Tom Schreiber first overall out of Princeton and this year they selected Jimmy Bitter out of North Carolina in the third round.
Here’s a brief look at how each of their careers have panned out:
| GOALS | 2 POINT GOALS | ASSISTS | POINTS | GAMES | |
| Steele Stanwick | 44 | 0 | 85 | 129 | 44 |
| Marcus Holman | 77 | 5 | 30 | 112 | 35 |
| Peter Baum | 55 | 2 | 23 | 80 | 23 |
| Logan Schuss | 56 | 0 | 17 | 73 | 23 |
| Tom Schreiber | 36 | 1 | 33 | 70 | 22 |
| Jimmy Bitter | 15 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 5 |
Schreiber is currently fifth in the league in points with 50. His 26 assists are tied for the league lead with New York’s Rob Pannell.
As far as team stats go this season, Schreiber, Holman, Stanwick and Baum go one through four points-wise for the Machine. Jimmy Bitter sits in sixth despite playing in seven less games than the guy in front of him, Kyle Harrison who has been tremendous in his own right.
The Machine offense is second best in the league right now, averaging 13.75 goals per game.
Brian Phipps and the Ohio Defense
As good as some of the guys I just mentioned have been up front this season, Phipps has without a doubt been the backbone of this team.
On the season, Phipps has played in all but one of Ohio’s games, maintaining a record of 7-4 with a 12.36 goals against average and a .564 save percentage.
The defense as a whole is giving up 12.3 goals per game, second best in the league.
They’ve given up more than 12 goals only four times this season.
Phipps, a Maryland Terrapin product, is in his fifth season in the league. He now has 14 wins in the past two campaigns, a far cry from just six combined wins in his first three years.
If you’ve seen the Machine play (and if you haven’t I recommend it), you would agree that it isn’t necessarily the multitude of saves that Phipps has made (his 176 saves are third most in the league), but the timeliness of a lot of his saves come in very key points of games.
Brian Farrell, Steven Waldeck, Jackson Place and Steven Waldeck comprise the defensive core that is hoping to carry Ohio to a championship.
Greg Puskuldjian at the Faceoff x
Man oh man has Puskuldjian played a major role as to why Ohio is readying itself for the playoffs.
Ohio was dominated through the first two games of the season at faceoffs, as New York and Denver won a combined 38-52 draws.
Enter Puskuldjian.
He split time with Eric O’Brien in weeks three and four against Chesapeake and Florida, respectively, but took over for good in week five against Charlotte.
Heading into the contest against New York on Saturday, Puskuldjian has won 54.4% of his draws, becoming one of the premier faceoff men in the league in the process.
Granted New York’s Greg Gurenlian and Denver’s Anthony Kelly are two of the best at the position, but Puskuldjian at the very least has given the Machine more than a chance possession-wise throughout the majority of the season.
Ohio will most certainly need that in the weeks to come.
The Winning Attitude
This is just personal opinion on my part.
One of the hardest things for a franchise to do in sports is to change a losing mentality.
It’s a lot easier to become a loser after being dominant than it is to become a winner after years of failure.
Ohio is just a small example of that. While they did only win four games in their first two seasons in Delaware, Ohio, it still took a tremendous amount of effort to change the mentality and clearly some smart decisions were made in the process of this quick turnaround.
It’s unquestioned that New York is the favorite to win the Steinfeld Trophy, but this Ohio team has shown that they have a chance to hang with them come playoff time.
