It’s the Battle of New York for the 15th anniversary of Major League Lacrosse! For the second year in a row, the Rochester Rattlers have made it to the MLL Finals, where they will face the New York Lizards in an all-Empire State affair for the Steinfeld Cup this Saturday night in Kennesaw, Georgia. In last week’s first playoff game, the Rattlers traveled to Ohio to face off against the second seed Machine, where led by Syracuse alum’s John Galloway’s 15 saves and rookie Kevin Rice’s 4 points, the Rattlers defensive unit limited Greg Puskludjian at the face-offs and used a strong second half while the offense maximized possessions to surge forward to win the match 12 – 8 in one of their best games, if not the best game, of the season.
This is the second consecutive year where the Rattlers have knocked the Machine out of the post while being dominated by them in the regular season, being swept in 2014 and splitting their meetings this year but losing by goal differential.
As the two teams head into the home stretch, the biggest moves to make going forward for Rochester would be to do their very best to understand New York from a defensive standpoint. This is the one team Rochester did not defeat in 2015, being swept for the season including a 19 – 9 dismantling by a Lizards team that would go on to have their best start in their 15-year history of 8 – 0. Rochester, with a healthy Mike Manley, is one of the few teams in the MLL built to stop NY, however with him out of the lineup, the Rattlers have to focus all their attention on being able to defend against the duel threat of NY from up-top and NY from behind with Pannell. In many respects, the Lizards run an offense that has similarities with Rochester, in that their midfielders, though dynamic scorers, are pass-first initiators that are at their best when dodging to feed, not score. Look for Joel White to match Paul Rabil stick for stick. Meanwhile, Rochester’s late addition of Jeremy Thompson to the defensive midfield is looking more and more genius, as the NCAA and NLL Champion Thompson brother is superb in transition while being able to match feet with playmakers such Ned Crotty and Jojo Marasco.
The close defense and Face-Offs will be the single biggest issue for the Rattlers, and where Mike Manley will be most missed. John Lade is almost certain to cover MVP-favorite Rob Pannell, which would have been Manley’s job, while John Locascio and Penn product Will Koshansky will do battle against Matt Gibson and Tommy Palasek, who each would have had a tough time if John Lade was shutting off their off-ball work. Throughout the second half of the season, Rochester’s weakened close defense has been picked apart, but has shown signs of holding their own, the ability to keep a high-powered offense like Ohio to just four goals in the entire second half and single digits overall without that star-defender in Mike Manley being the most recent example. However, if NY goes on a run early, Rochester will not be able to get back in this game, as problem No. 2 rears its beastly head in the form of the Beast, Greg Gurenlian. Despite not being as dominant in recent weeks, the 2015 Face-off Specialist of the Year rattled the Rattlers’ cage in their two previous meetings, and while Poppleton and Ortolani is a significant improvement since then, face-offs are the other glaring weakness in Rochester’s team. However, turning the face-offs into a scrum is a sure-fire way to stop NY, a tactic Rochester has employed throughout the season.
The offense should revolve around two fundamental tasks: transition goals and midfield initiation with attack finishing. New York is not a transition team, in both respects, so look for Rochester to give the midfield the green-light to begin each possession and break down New York’s own superb defensive midfield and score with range or right on the crease. Despite being the league-leading defensive unit with the 2015 Goalie of the Year in Drew Adams, the Lizards have been shown to defensively break down. Mark Matthews and Kevin Rice have to have fantastic games. Matthews will most likely draw the crosse of Brian Spallina, whose aggressive style is best suited to guard the DU product. Meanwhile, the Rattlers have their own superstar attackmen in Jordan Wolf. The 2015 Offensive Player of the Year will have a bulls-eye on his back from the moment he steps onto the field, so Rice must use Wolf’s presence along with the midfield in order to control the pace of the game and keep the NY defense spinning, scoring no less than four points for his team if the rookie out of Syracuse wants to walk away with a championship after shockingly leaving the Orange without appearing in the Final Four.
For Rochester to make it to this game, despite their incredibly tough season, marred with injuries and one of the slowest starts because of their roster build, is a testament to their skill and a victory in of itself. However, they had a disappointing ending to an otherwise fantastic 2014 season. In order to really prove themselves, they must do whatever it takes to secure a second win for their franchise.
