Denver, CO – The Dallas Rattlers headed into Thursday night with the priority being to improve their offensive pressure. They are currently at the bottom of the league in terms of goals per game. By going up 7-4 in the first half, it seemed that the momentum was there for an upset at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. But some half-time defensive adjustments by the Denver Outlaws resulted in a scoreless 4th quarter for the Rattlers. The defending MLL champions ultimately came out on top with a commanding performance and a 15-9 victory in their first home game of the season.
The Denver attack simply did not let up, making every possession count and putting shots on goal. The score-line didn’t reflect the effort put out by Rattler’s Goalie Christian Carson-Banister, who saved plenty of chances. Part of the aggressive strategy on the Outlaw’s side resulted in a few controversial collisions. One of which took attacker from Duke, Zack Greer, out of the game.
Greer didn’t see the hit coming but while the referees determined it as a clean target, he was on the floor for minutes before leaving the game. Dallas’ Head Coach, Bill Warder said, “They took a shot at one of our guys and put him out for the season so that’s how physical it was. I’m not too happy about that. So you know, referees call it a clean hit and he’s out for the season.”
The main contributors for the Outlaw offense came at the hands of Zach Currier and Brendan Kavanagh. Currier finished with his best performance in 3 goals and 3 assists while the rookie Kavanagh had 4 goals and 1 assist. On the performance tonight, Kavanagh said, “I think we had a slow start in the first quarter and then we settled in and got more organized. Our defense played great, Ward made great saves in the fourth to shut it down.”
The reigning MLL champions have won 3 of 4 games to start the season and they have no intentions of slowing down. They have a very quick turn around for their next game where they travel to Quincy, Massachusetts to take on the Boston Cannons this Saturday at 5:00 pm. The Dallas Rattlers also have a busy travel plan as they head to Hempstead, New York to take on the New York Lizards.
While the Outlaws will look to maintain their winning habit following last year’s title, it will be interesting to see how the Rattlers bounce back from a less than ideal start to the season. After hearing the thoughts of the players and coaches, backed by their hard-fought performance Thursday, I think there is plenty of potential for them to turn their momentum around.
Written by Paul Fritz
(Image Courtesy of Denver Outlaws Communications
