Today the MLL championship bout sees the experienced Chesapeake Bayhawks do battle with the Charlotte Hounds. The Hounds are a second year expansion franchise. In professional sports to see an expansion team make the championship in year two is very rare, the closest being the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks being three years old.
Yesterday the Hounds not only accomplished that feat, but they also defeated the 14-0 Denver Outlaws to get there. Now they face the Bayhawks who have won two of the last three championships.
There isn’t much of a rivalry between the two clubs due to an 11 year difference of years they came into the league. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a history.
This season the teams split their games. In game one the Hounds defeated Chesapeake 16-15 in overtime led by the three goals, including the game winner, from Ryan Young.
Two weeks ago the Bayhawks took the game in Chesapeake 16-14 led by Ben Rubeor’s eight points. Both of these teams, despite their records, can be evenly matched; they were second and third in the league in scoring, respectively.
The Bayhawks have four championships to the Hounds zero and they are looking to defend their 2012 title from when they defeated the Outlaws last season at Harvard Stadium.
Last season the two teams faced off for the first time ever on June 9th. The Bayhawks won 15-7 and John Grant Jr scored seven points. In game two, which took place on July 7th, the Hounds took the then-upset 13-12. Charlotte had a seven goal fourth and were led by four goals from Matt Danowski.
Today’s game is at 3pm on ESPN2. Follow the terrific coverage from the staff in-house with the live blog, postgame audio and video and on twitter @LacrosseWeTrust.
