Head Coach Mike Cerino and the Charlotte Hounds organization have a very good put together 23 man protected roster. They’ve released some talent but have gained it as well with a few trades.
Charlotte has brought in a few new faces with Peet Poillon and Casey Cittadino from Denver, and Kevin Drew out of Rochester.
Midfielder Poillon was sent to Charlotte for attackman Jeremy Boltus. Peet brings his 37 with him while Boltus takes his 29 points to Colorado. Poillon will make an impact once the team gets settled and starts going. It will be interesting to see where Boltus is after his season ending injury at the end of 2012. If he is healthy, he will help out an Outlaw offense that needs a feeder at attack.
Cittadino, another midfielder from Denver, heads to the Hounds with 6 points for a 6th round supplemental draft pick for the Outlaws. Casey, a defensive midfielder, will give the Hounds defense a boost.
Kevin Drew travels to Charlotte while Billy Bitter makes his way to upstate New York. Losing Bitter hurt the Hounds a little bit, but they bring in a great d-mid in Drew. Kevin had 5 goals and 2 assists last year with the Rattlers, which makes him a threat on both ends of the field. With Cittadino’s 6 points (2G, 4A) coming over, the Hounds midfield defense went from mediocre, to stellar. Gerry Reilly, already with the Hounds, will mix in with the two at the d-mid position.
The Hounds went on to protect 12 midfielders, 5 defenders, 2 Attack and Goalies. They return top scoring midfielder Stephen Berger, who had 39 points in 2012. Ahead of him in points was attackman Matt Danowski. He scooped up 43 points of his own. Gone are Bitter and Boltus who were numbers 3 and 4, with a combined 54 points, on the Hounds points list.
One of Coach Cerino’s younger players who must step up in 2013 is attackman Eric Lusby. At the end of the 2012 season he scored one goal in his MLL debut against Long Island and had a hat-trick in only his second game in the Hounds win over the Rattlers. Needless to say, Lusby will be a big factor in the Hounds’ offense this coming season.
With only two attackman protected, Charlotte is either looking for another trade or to pick up a top attacker in the January MLL draft.
At midfield, along with Berger, the Hounds are bringing back Josh Amidon, Brian Carroll, Kevin Kaminski, Jovan Miller, Gerry Reilly, Justin Turri, and Kyle Wimer. This group was relied on heavily to help score goals.
Jovan Miller was second in midfielder points behind Berger with 21 (13G, 2 2ptG, 6A), but first in Sportscenter Top 10 plays. He will bring his electrifying moves and his “I can’t lose†mentality again in 2013.
Brian Carroll is a text book style player and can get goals in must score situations. Josh Amidon has to make his shooting percentage go up above .122. He is a great midfielder, but has to make his shots count. Joe Vitale can play both ways, mainly defense, but can shoot and be useful if needed on offense. Kaminski, Turri and Wimer are going to be good dodgers from up top as they get more experience in the MLL, which will turn them into solid threats with slides and shooting.
Faceoff’s were troublesome for the Hounds. They tried multiple guys, but just couldn’t seem to find the right tools to be more successful at the X. Acquiring faceoff specialist Geoff Snider (protected) looked promising for Charlotte. However, he only played in their final game, but made an impact winning 18-28 faceoff’s. Jerry Ragonese won 28-67 faceoff’s in the three game she played for Charlotte and was protected for 2013.
The other four faceoff guys tried were Corey Bulken, James Carroll, Dan Cooney, and Andrew Hennessey. Bulken saw time in 4 games and won 41-106 faceoff’s. Carroll went out to the X 38 times and came away with only 9 wins in two games. Cooney had 73 reps, winning 21 of them in four games, including 7-25 in their win over Chesapeake. Hennessey was supposed to be the hounds’ go to faceoff guy. Unfortunately he didn’t perform up to his and Charlotte’s standards. He only played in two games, recording 26 wins out of 70 faceoff’s, giving himself a 37% average. Lower than the 55% he posted in 2011 for Denver.
Defense and Goalies were not Charlotte’s strong suit this past season either. The defense started coming together towards the end and will look better in 2013. They protected Brett Schmidt, Ricky Pages, Joe Cinosky and Ryan Flanagan, the core of their defense from 2012. Dan DiMaria the rookie out of Harvard, saw little to no time last season, was also protected. One defender that surprised me as not getting protected was Kevin Ridgway, who played in 8 games last season and raked in 10 groundballs.
Goalies were very hard to watch for the Hounds in 2012. Mixing together were Joe Mara, Adam Ghitelman and Mark Manos. Mara only played in five games, letting in 33 goals and 1 2pt goal, averaging 14.6 GAA and making 43 saves ending with a .566 save percentage. Unfortunately, he was not protected by the Hounds. Manos, protected, became the eventual backup goalie. He participated in 3 games, giving up 16 goals, saving 18 shots and recording a .529 save percentage.
Adam Ghitelman, protected, got the leading role as starting goaltender for the Hounds. Adam played in 14 games, giving the Hounds their 5-9 record. He had 151 goals put past him, 13 of those were 2 point goals. His goals against average was 13.99, making 185 saves and finishing with a save percentage of .551. Ghitelman got better with time in net, and will continue that surfacing as the experience comes to him.
The Hounds showed life at the end of 2012 with their win over Rochester. Obtaining d-mids Kevin Drew and Casey Cittadino will hopefully work out their defensive problems. Adding Peet Poillon to the mix will boost Charlotte’s offense on to the next stage, even if by a little. The 2013 MLL Draft and offseason will be interesting to watch as the Hounds make trades and selections.
Protected:
| Amidon | Josh | Midfield |
| Berger | Stephen | Midfield |
| Carroll | Brian | Midfield |
| Cinosky | Joe | Defense |
| Cittadino | Casey | Midfield |
| Danowski | Matt | Attack |
| DiMaria | Dan | Defense |
| Drew | Kevin | Midfield |
| Flanagan | Ryan | Defense |
| Ghitelman | Adam | Goalkeeper |
| Kaminski | Kevin | Midfield |
| Lusby | Eric | Attack |
| Manos | Mark | Goalie |
| Miller | Jovan | Midfield |
| Pages | Ricky | Defense |
| Poillon | Peet | Midfield |
| Ragonese | Jerry | Midfield/FO |
| Reilly | Gerry | Midfield |
| Schmidt | Brett | Defense |
| Snider | Geoff | Midfield/FO |
| Turri | Justin | Midfield |
| Vitale | Joe | Midfield |
| Wimer | Kyle | Midfield |
Unprotected:
Corey Bulken – FO 4 games, 21 GB’s
Alex Burkhead
Michael Burns – M 5games, 7 GB’s
James Carroll – FO 2 games, 5 GB’s
Dan Cooney – FO 4 games, 1 assist, 7 GB
Ryan Cranston – M 2 games 1 GB
Nick Desper
Craig Dowd
Andrew Hennessey – FO 2 games, 9GB’s
Ryan Hurley – A 2 games, 1 goal on 1 shot
Michael Jarvis
Brekan Kohlitz
Scott LaRue – M 6 games 2 GB’s
Ben Love – D 2 games 1 GB
Joe Marra – G 5 games, 135:38 mins, 33 GA, 1 2pt GA, 14.6 GAA, 43 saves, .566 SAV%
John McFadyen – D 3 games
Steve Panarelli – D 8 games, 12 GB’s
Kevin Ridgway – D 8 games 10 GB’s
Andrew Spack – M 4 games, 7 GB’s
Devan Spilker
Mikey Thompson
David Tamberrino
Chris Unterstein
Spencer Wims – D 5 games 6GB’s
