After outscoring New York (10-3) 7-2 in the first quarter, Ohio (8-5) put things in cruise control en route to a 14-9 win in front of 4,133 at Selby Stadium in Delaware, Ohio on Saturday night.
Jimmy Bitter and Marcus Holman led all scorers with three goals each for the Machine, one of which was a two-point goal for Bitter.
Although Ohio took an 8-4 lead into the locker room at halftime, the visiting Lizards wouldn’t go away quietly.
Unfortunately for New York, for each of the three goals that they scored in the opening 5:37 of the second half, Ohio was there with an answer within a minute each time.
Marcus Holman’s third and final goal at the 5:34 mark of the fourth quarter and Conrad Oberbeck’s first goal of the season in his first game with 2:09 left closed out the scoring for the evening.
The nine goals that the Lizards scored marked their lowest total of the season.
They went into Saturday night’s contest averaging 15.25 goals per game.
A telling point in the game tonight was the dominance of Machine faceoff man Greg Puskuldjian over New York’s Greg Gurenlian.
Puskuldjian won 17 of 26 draws over one of the most highly regarded faceoff men in the league.
Brian Phipps was once again stellar for the Machine, making 15 saves on 24 shots, 10 of which came in the second half.
His counterpart in Drew Adams made 13 saves on 26 shots. He made 10 second half saves as well.
The win for the Machine sets up a very exciting finish to the Major League Lacrosse season next Saturday, as Ohio, Rochester and Boston are all tied for second place.
Ohio will host Boston after beating them 19-12 at Gillette Stadium on June 11.
New York, who has already clinched the number one seed in the playoffs, will finish their season in Denver.
