As I am writing this my fiancé is not having a good Monday. Greg Gurenlian’s New York Lizards lost 13-12 to the Charlotte Hounds, the Florida Launch lost in the last seconds to the Boston Cannons 19-18, the Ohio Machine lost in overtime to the Chesapeake Bayhawk 12-11s, and the Rochester Rattlers lost to the Denver Outlaws in that Seventies overtime game22-21. Mel’s team loyalties lie with her favorite players (Greg Gurenlian and John Ortolani) or home ties (she is from Ohio and now lives in Florida). I am a bigger picture or sport guy and was fascinated by the results of this past weekend. Denver, Boston and Chesapeake all had serious questions following their play prior to All Star Weekend. Prognosticators penciled New York, Rochester, and Ohio into three of the four championship slots while the Bayhawks, Outlaws, and Cannons battled for the final spot. Charlotte and Florida were relegated to the league basement and destined to start searching for next year’s draft class. Well that all got thrown out the window this past weekend. The separation that existed prior to the All Star Break disappeared as a five way tie for second place exists with every game decided by a single goal. What a wonderful weekend for Major League Lacrosse!
The Lizards and Hounds defeated the Hounds earlier in the season in a game that the Hounds made very close towards the end with some two point goals and gutsy determination. That formula proved successful for Charlotte in the rematch as they upset a heavily favored New York team that was without the services of Paul Rabil due to an injury. Despite Drew Adams twenty-two saves and Greg Gurenlian going 20-28 at the X, the Lizards man up team went 0-3 and the offense could only score once in the fourth quarter. Even worse for New York, Rob Pannell came up hobbling in the fourth quarter after a collision. Gurenlian feeds the New York offense with his incredible faceoff percentage and the absence of Rabil and possibly Pannell is a cause for concern. Charlotte refused to give up the fight and exposed New York’s vulnerability to outside shots. The Hounds have played spoiler in one game and will do so again. Despite only winning their second game of the season, Charlotte keeps fighting every game. Coach Mike Cerino has had a difficult season but has been preaching pride in being a professional lacrosse player and the Hounds responded with the biggest upset of the season.
With Charlotte’s win, Florida is now in sole possession of last place, but there is a silver lining to the Launch’s season. The Thompsons made their home debut and Florida scored 18 points and played their best team defense of the season. The second pick of the draft, Connor Buczek scored two goals and Roman Lao-Gosney scored three goals. This production forced Boston to defend the midfield and freed up Florida’s attack to score double digits. Brett Queener made thirteen saves and Chris Mattes went 26-34 at the X against Boston’s All Star Craig Bunker and picked up seven ground balls. I still feel that Mattes was an All Star snub and he played like one against the Cannons. Boston is the surprise team of the year because of trading Paul Rabil to New York had them relegated to “rebuilding season.” Through some tough hardnosed play Boston are positioned for a postseason run. The Cannons even traded for Charlotte’s Josh Hawkins and reunited him with former Loyola teammate Scott Ratliff. I was concerned how the dynamic between Ratliff and Brodie Merrill would work as they both like to spark transition, but they are making it work.
John Grant Jr. put on his engineer’s cap, hooked up the Bocklet brothers to his train and did his best Casey Jones as he guided the Denver Outlaws past the Rochester Rattlers in overtime. It has been a long strange trip for the defending champs as they and Rochester have gone through more lineups than Lady Gaga has costume changes. Many sports writers and commentators said that Denver seemed disjointed on offense and slow on defense and needed to get back to “Outlaw ball.” Perhaps Denver listened to this or got into character for the Grateful Dead themed game, the Outlaws shared the ball like they were at a commune and John Grant Jr. was the guru. Denver was without faceoff man Anthony Kelly and faced off with a combination of defenseman Michael “Tree” Simon, Jeremy Noble, and Justin Pennington. The Rattlers failed to take advantage of Kelly’s absence as Denver’s aggressive wing play nullified Rochester’s wins. This game answers that the Outlaws are back from the dead where a few doubters had consigned them. Rochester is now looking for answers as they did not play their best game.
Much like Denver, Chesapeake was being written off as a team that would be lucky to make the post season. Ohio came into the game with a high octane offense and an apparent solution to their faceoff dilemma. Greg Puskuldjian went 19-27 at the X while Chesapeake’s Charlie Raffa struggled to adjust in his first MLL game. Face-offs continue to be an issue this season for the Bayhawks as the Machine dominated at the X. Indoor and coaching commitments take a toll on every MLL team at the beginning of every season, but the story of this game was wedding commitments as players on both team missed the game because of this. Scott Rodgers started in goal for the Machine and looked sharp making 12 saves and keeping a depleted Ohio defense in the game. The Rodgers only stumble was a two minute illegal body check in the third. Ohio’s offense seemed out of sorts this game even with the return of Peter Baum to the lineup as they continually settled for outside shots early in possessions. This backfired as Chesapeake took advantage of Ohio’s impatience on offense to pound the retooled Machine defense. Kyle Harrison tied the game in regulation and neither team could end the deadlock until C.J. Costabile won an overtime face off (he has a track record of doing that) and Drew Westervelt found Ben Rubeor on the doorstep for the win.
Any clarity that existed prior to the All Star break was lost in a weekend of close games that now has five teams tied for second. I am not sure if there has ever been a weekend in any sport on any level where every game was decided by one goal. What makes this even more astounding is how crucial these games are as many of the teams that won were previously being cast into the also ran category for the season. This weekend shows that every team in the MLL is loaded with the best players and served as a wake up that mid season predictions may have been too early to determine who will make the post season. I am okay with being wrong, especially if the result is such an entertaining weekend.
