Going into the All Star break means a lot for teams. it gives players time to recover from plaguing injuries, teams can reassess their game plans and try to regroup if things have not been going their way.
It also means that players selected as All Star’s get to travel to take part in friendly competition and just go out to have fun and play lacrosse. This past weekend, Team Supernova took on Team Eclipse in the MLL All Star Game. Team Supernova commanded the scoreboard and took home a 24-15 victory, with Kevin Crowley receiving game MVP. As for the half time competitions, Mike Sawyer of the Charlotte Hounds made history in recording the fastest shot ever with 114 MPH. Jesse Schwartzman won the inaugural Long Distance Accuracy Contest and Kevin buchanan defended his Freestyle Competition title by winning his second in a row. Six thousand fans were out in the pouring rain at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte to cheer on the players in a tremendous atmosphere.
Going forward, fans will get to see some changes in teams, wether it’s personnel or in the way of rearranging tactics. Before the All Star break, we saw some great games Chesapeake vs Ohio, Charlotte against Boston and Rochester duking it out with Hamilton.
The Machine took Coach Cottle’s team all the way to the wire in a thrilling one goal game. The Bayhaws will have some work to do if they expect to keep teams off their heels. If Ohio can play with the same sense of urgency the rest of the season as they did last Saturday, we may see them get a few more wins.
Hamilton traveled to Rochester to do battle with the Rattlers. Coach Huntley’s squad took home a 10-6 victory. The Rattlers played a tough game and made the Nats work for every goal. A broken finger limped the Rats attack with Kevin Leveille getting smacked on the hand by defender Tucker Durkin, making it difficult to get something going offensively for Rochester. Coach Soudan’s defense held strong thanks to the play of John Galloway. If Leveille comes back strong, even with a broken finger, the Rattlers will give their competition a run for their money. The Nationals are sitting strong in second place, but are only a game above the Bayhawks and two in front of Boston, making the rest of the season crucial to not slipping.
One of the biggest math-ups of the season was between Charlotte and Boston. They were tied for fourth place and whoever won took a one game lead and the right to the fourth slot. A week before was the trade deadline for teams to make last minute moves, Boston sent Steve Mock to New York in trade for Stephen Berger, and boy was that a win for the Cannons. Berger made a strong statement in his last game with the Lizards versus Rochester, tallying three goals and jump starting his season, finally. He created an even bigger challenge for the Hounds defense, picking up four assists in regular time. Just as overtime got started, it quickly ended, and who was in the midst of the glory? Berger. Knocked on the ground, got back up, snuck behind his defender on the back side, caught the feed and fell to finish the game. If there’s one person and squad that teams will have to watch out for heading forward, it’s Berger and the Cannons as they have won four in a row. Charlotte is no picnic either, as they are only one game behind Boston and still have time to take fourth place if they win out the rest of the regular season and the Cannons slip up. These are two teams everyone will want to keep their eye on.
Denver has set a record this season, as the first team to ever go 10-0 in an MLL season. There’s really not much to say but that they are dominating the MLL and are not taking any prisoners. They trounced the Lizards 16-7 on July 4, in front of over 30,000 fans. If there’s ever a team that is going to win the MLL Championship for Denver, it will be this one. Hopefully the cloud that has been over the Outlaws during Championship Weekend will clear and they will finally hoist the Steinfeld Cup.
New York. What to say about the Lizards season so far? There’s so much and at the same time so little. They have so much talent, but have found such little way to fully utilize it. They are leading the league in face-offs at .603 percent thanks in big part to Greg Gurenlian. However, they’re last in the league with shots on goal percentage at .562 and tied for last with Ohio for total shots on goal at 222. Rob Pannell is leading their entire offense with 24 points and has played in four less games than Tommy Palasek (20 points) and two less than Mark Matthews (17 points). Matt Gibson only has nine points as well. The decision to split time between Matthews and Gibson at attack has effected their game. Once they get something started, they have to sit a quarter and try to get started all over again. Drew Adams and the defense have to stand their ground heading into the home stretch. The Lizards system has to change and hopefully it will. It’ll take a real miracle for New York to get even a taste of possibly making the playoffs, if at all. Watch for changes to be made for the Lizards.
It is the home stretch for the 2013 MLL season, and it will come down to every last second on the clock. Schedules for the remaining games can be found at http://www.majorleaguelacrosse.com.
