By Morgan Kelly
After a series of blowouts in week five, the Chicago Machine delivered what looked to be yet another clean sweep in the MLL as they flew past the Long Island Lizards 6-1 halfway through the first quarter. Unfortunately for the Machine, the early lead couldn’t sustain the blow of the Long Island Lizards, who after three more grueling quarters came out on top when Stephen Peyser (3G) sealed the deal with a powerplay goal to give the Lizards a 15-14 win.
Going into the final quarter, it was an even playing field for the two teams who were tied at 11-11 after an even third quarter. After two back-to-back goals from the Machine’s Brendan Loftus tied things up at 14-14, a slashing foul by the Machine’s Anthony Kelly would give the Lizards an ultimate advantage in the final minutes as Peyser fired in his third goal of the game for the win.
With the result, the Long Island Lizards advance to 4-2 while the Machine falls to 1-5.
After just 8:40 on the field, Mike Leveille (4G, 2A) caught a pass from rookie Kenny Nims (1A) for the Machine’s fifth goal of the game on a powerlay to take the 6-1 lead with the help of a two-point mark by Brendan Cannon. While the lead came fast for Chicago, the Lizards took it away that much quicker, scoring four unanswered goals, including one two-pointer from the Bud Light Game MVP Matt Danowski (4G, 1-2ptG, 1A) to tie things up just over four minutes into the second quarter.
The Chicago lead that shocked the Lizards in the first quarter came off shots from five different Machine players including Mike and Kevin Leveille (1G, 1A), Matt Striebel (2G), Brendan Cannon (1-2ptG) and Chris Rotelli. But as expected, the Lizards defense picked up the pace making play after to play to help assist the attack in what was needed most; goals.
With impressive efforts from Dan Cocchi, Frank D’Agostino and Ricky Smith, who together picked up 14 ground balls, the Lizards were back in the game and ultimately outplayed the Machine in loose balls picking up 45 groundballs as opposed to the Machine’s 37. In goal, however, the results were fairly even as the Machine’s Mike Gabel stopped 16 of 30 shots while the Lizards’ Brian Dougherty stopped 12 of 25 shots on cage.
The Lizards came into the second quarter ready for revenge, outscoring the Machine 6-2 to tie things back up before the break. Tim Goettelmann (3G) and Danowski answered one another’s goals before Stephen Berger (2G) got on the board for an unassisted goal to finish out the half.
A deciding factor for the game would prove to be the face-off results as the Lizards’ Pete Vlahakis won 20-of-30 attempts at the X while the A-Train Anthony Kelly had a not-so-stellar performance winning 10-of-26 and rookie John Glynn came out winning just one of his five attempts.
Fortunately for the Machine, they will get a chance for a rematch against the Lizards in the final regular season matchup on August 8th, this time on their home turf at Toyota Park.
Next week, the Machine will return home to face the Washington Bayhawks for the game that will determine who will hold on to the bottom spot in the league for yet another week. Then, after a week off, the Lizards will get their own chance to take down the Bayhawks in a July 4th game at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.
