The Ohio Machine have made the MLL playoffs for the first time in their young franchise’s history. Rochester is in the playoffs for the first time since 2008, before Ohio was even in the league. These two teams are hungry, but despite the Rochester Rattlers being the top seed in the league, the Ohio Machine match up very well against the ‘Ratz.
Ohio ended the season on a five game winning streak to make the playoffs, defeating Florida 14-10 to clinch their spot. Meanwhile, Rochester lost to Ohio two weeks ago in a stunner, but the Rattlers bounced back to blow out the Cannons last weekend.
In fact, Ohio is 2-0 against Rochester, and that’s not an accident. The Rattlers proved last week in Boston what a physical and overwhelming defense that they have. But you can’t hit what you can’t catch. Ohio is a very fast, young, and explosive team. What we saw last week with Rochester’s defense up the middle had a lot to do with the Cannons’ missing Paul Rabil and forcing plays.
Ohio has some good shots and also the ability to dodge quickly and evade the wave of Rochester defenders.
Marcus Holman is red hot after leading the season with 37 goals. He scored four last week against Florida and will be the go-to guy this week for them again. However, the rest of their attack with Steele Stanwick, Logan Schuss and Peter Baum matches almost anybody in the league.
Justin Turri is coming off of a most improved player award and John Galloway the goaltender of the year award. They are not an easy team to score on with a league low 161 goals against. But Ohio led the league with 200 goals for a true defense vs offense match up.
The question for Ohio is how do they get open and dodge the Rochester defenders? Their speed provides them a match up that no other team would have against them, as proven with their two victories over the 10-4 team.
Ohio’s defense was the second worst in the league so Rochester should be able to score with their tied for second best 188 goals this season. Miles Thompson scored seven last week against the Cannons. Dana Wilbur is coming off of the defensive player of the week award. Does he help Ohio’s game step up against Rochester’s offense?
Rochester is great off of transition, so Ohio will need to slide properly and need Greg Bice to step up with Wilbur to match up. Brian Phipps had the worst goals against average of any starting goalie in the league. If Rochester exploits that, this could be a high scoring affair.
