The Charlotte Hounds’ first season is in the books; and it will definitely be considered a successful one. The Hounds finish the season with a 5-9 record and had the fourth highest average attendance in the league. The Hounds started off the season slow, but really came together towards the end of the season and finished strong, on a two game winning streak. For having such great attendance in their first year of existence, Charlotte will host the 2012 MLL All-Star game next July.
The Hounds entered the season one of the favorites to have a good season, given their loaded roster with players like Matt Danowski, Billy Bitter, Jovan Miller, Ryan Flanagan and Adam Ghitelman. The Hounds have used the phrase “Lacrosse is huge in Charlotte†all season, and the big name players they drew in really attracted all the lacrosse fans in the area. Charlotte averaged 5,712 fans per game during the season, good for fourth highest in the league.
The Hounds had six players score 20 or more points on the year: Matt Danowski (43 points), Stephen Berger (39 points), Jeremy Boltus (30 points), Billy Bitter (22 points), Jovan Miller (21 points) and Brian Carroll (20 points). The Hounds loaded offense was backed up by a defense that struggled early, largely in part to injuries, but really came back at full force towards the second half of the season. Ryan Flanagan led the defense that also included the exciting Ricky Pages, Joe Cinosky, Steve Panarelli, Kevin Ridgway and Brett Schmidt.
The Hounds were able to play all three goalies on their roster at one point during the season, but Adam Ghitelman eventually won the full-time starting position. Joe Marra and Mark Manos both started at least one game in goal and both averaged over a 50% save percentage. Ghitelman was great in goal, ending his season with a .551 save percentage and a 13.99 goals average against. Ghitelman was a huge reason for Charlotte’s success this season, and a big reason they won the five games that they did.
Before the season opened, Charlotte hosted the ESPNU Warrior Classic which had a huge turnout. Fans from all over the country came to see Syracuse play Rutgers and the local UNC Tarheels play Hofstra. The event was a huge success and helped to boost Charlotte’s spirits of having a successful turnout during their first MLL season.
Charlotte had a very turbulent first season; they upset the top team in the Bayhawks, won the series against the other expansion team, the Ohio Machine and the Hounds eliminated the Rochester Rattlers from the playoffs on the last game of the regular season. Going into the sixth week of games, Charlotte had won just one game; a 18-15 win over the Machine. Charlotte was hosting the top ranked Chesapeake Bayhawks and with just a couple seconds left Matt Danowski nailed a two-pointer to give Charlotte the upset win. The crowd went wild and all of the players and staff for the Hounds seemed very ecstatic.
August 11th was the final week of regular season games and the Rochester Rattlers were one win away from potentially being into the playoffs. Unfortunately for them, Charlotte had the upset on their minds. It was a long fought game; both teams had the lead at one point. There was even a little bench-clearing scuffle that the refs had to sort out. But Charlotte prevailed at home, and sent the Rattlers back home without a playoff spot. It was the perfect way to cap a very successful first season.
