The Rochester Rattlers recorded their best season since they came back to the league in 2011. They rode the league’s top scoring defense and second best offense to a home playoff game and a spot in the MLL championship game. Unfortunately their season ended with two late goals by the Denver Outlaws, which swung the game from a triumphant victory to a crushing one goal defeat. The big task for the Rattlers will be how to make sure this season was a sign that the Rattlers have truly arrived instead of this just being a fluke.
Before this past season, the Rattlers featured an average defense supported by a less than average offense. This led to some head scratching moves in the off season sending their veteran leaders packing for seemingly little. Those scratching their heads stopped doing so after the MLL entry draft when Rochester moved up in the draft to get Jordan Wolf out of Duke, followed by Miles and Ty Thompson from Albany, Mark Cockerton from Virginia, and John LoCascio out of Villanova. These picks are going to be the face of Rochester’s offense moving forward and LoCascio joins Joel White to form arguably the best pure long stick middie tandem in the league.
Rochester’s defense will be their calling card once again in 2015 as they are likely returning every major component based on their protected roster. MLL Goalie of the Year John Galloway and Defender of the Year Mike Manley are the anchors. John Lade and White have both played defense in front of Galloway going all the way back to 2009 at Syracuse (White and Galloway were together in 2008 as well). The other long pole Will Koshansky has also played major time for the Rattlers since entering the league in 2012. At the short stick defense spots, Mike Lazore has been a rock for the Rattlers since 2012 and Syracuse grad Steve Ianzito stepped in well to fill out the sixth spot this year. Donny Moss was also a great addition to the unit for 2014 and was solid for the entire season. This group’s cohesiveness will remain strong as it was the position with the least amount of game to game turnover for the team. In a league with limited practices and time together, this is a point not to be ignored.
On offense, the Rattlers had almost too many options at times. John Ranagan and Justin Turri were the only two on that side of the field to see time in all fourteen regular season games. Behind them, the primary offensive middies were Team USA’s Dave Lawson and Canada’s Jordan MacIntosh. Dan Hardy also saw time in half of the games, which was important as the NLL and NCAA schedule overlap was in effect early on in the season. At attack, Rochester and Team USA Captain, and now retired Kevin Leveille will be a massive loss in the middle of the attack as he also recorded the most games at that position. The rest was a battle for playing time as Wolf, the Thompsons, Cockerton, and Mark Matthews all were excellent options in the other two spots. The loss of Leveille will be tough, but with the wealth of talent available, should be something they can overcome.
To improve next year, Rochester will need to find more consistency on offense, specifically at attack. They likely have the pieces they need already, so major trades and draft day deals shouldn’t be on the to do list again. Any draft activity likely won’t be an attempt to immediately improve this year, but building for the future with depth at midfield and close defense. What they’ve built on defense should not take a step backwards as it is still a young, talented group who plays and communicates well together. Where Rochester is likely to struggle is early in the season. Nine of their 23 man protected roster should still be playing in the NLL across just three teams when the MLL season begins. At least another three have NCAA Division 1 coaching commitments as well that may cause conflicts. Rochester desperately needs another stellar season so they can boost attendance to their games and stay in town for years to come. The pieces are there, but the rest of the league isn’t going to just sit back and let it happen either.
