Week 12 of the Major League Lacrosse season saw the first team clinch a spot in the playoffs: the Dallas Rattlers.

Whether the franchise has played in Dallas or Rochester, the Rattlers have been one of the most consistently successful teams in the league. The team has played in the playoffs in three of the past four seasons, reaching the championship game in both 2014 and 2015.

With a 14-9 victory over the Charlotte Hounds, the Rattlers kept their undefeated home record without a blemish and will return to the MLL playoffs.

“It goes back to that Denver locker room last year. [Former head coach Tim] Soudan gave the postgame speech [after the semifinals] and no one felt good about that,” Dallas head coach Bill Warder said in a postgame interview on Lax Sports Network. “No one felt good about losing the way we did in Denver last year. It was a pretty easy choice for every single guy to say we have unfinished business, and that’s been, from day one of the transition from western New York to Texas, finishing the business we started.”

The Rattlers were strong at every position. John Galloway made 12 saves on 21 shots on goal, five of which came in the fourth quarter. Drew Simoneau won 12 of 22 faceoffs while also scoring a goal in the fourth quarter. Nine players earned a point on offense, including four with three points apiece, but it was Randy Staats who stood out on offense.

Playing in only his second game of the 2018 season, and his first since May 19, Staats scored three goals. The fourth-year MLL pro scored the first goal of the game and scored another with 30 seconds remaining in the first period, giving Dallas a 3-1 lead that they would not give up.

Two Return, Help Bayhawks Keep Pace

Prior to their Week 12 game against the New York Lizards, the Chesapeake Bayhawks added two players to the lineup, although neither was a complete stranger to the organization. Jeremy Sieverts and Nate Lewnes combined for six points and helped Chesapeake extend its winning streak to seven games with a 16-13 victory over the Lizards.

Sieverts, who was originally drafted by the Bayhawks in 2010, was acquired in a trade with the Boston Cannons (after being waived by the Denver Outlaws). Lewnes played six games with Chesapeake as a rookie in 2017 and the first three games with Chesapeake in the 2018 season before being waived and landing a spot on the Atlanta practice squad before being reclaimed by Chesapeake.

Sieverts scored one goal and added two assists (one to Lewnes), and Lewnes scored three goals.

“Nate has been with us off and on for two years so we know what he can do. When Nate has time and space, he shoots the ball as well as anyone in this league,” Bayhawks head coach Dave Cottle said in a press release on the team’s website. “I think Jeremy is one of those veterans who knows how to play the game the right way and he really helped us tonight. He scored a really big goal off an invert to make it 14-10.” 

Ohio Snaps Skid

The 2018 season has been a tough one for the defending champion Ohio Machine. It wasn’t just that the team was on a seven-game losing streak and at the bottom of the league standings: Tom Scheiber, the reigning MLL MVP, has only played in three games; the team traded All-Star defender Matt McMahon; and Connor Cannizzaro, whom the team traded up for the in the 2017 MLL collegiate draft, announced he was retiring from the league after playing in nine games in 2018.

There was a glimmer of hope in Week 12, however, as the Machine ended their losing streak with a 13-11 victory over the Florida Launch. They also got help from some unlikely places.

Midfielder Frank Brown, who was drafted by the Rattlers in the 2017 collegiate draft but did not play, was added to Ohio’s 25-man roster on Friday. He made his MLL debut on Saturday and he led the Machine with five points on three goals and two assists.

On the other end of the field, Scott Rodgers started his first game in goal since August 5, 2017. Although he played fewer than five minutes in two spot appearances for the Machine in 2018, Rodgers stepped up when awarded the opportunity, making 17 saves on 27 shots on goal, including a one-handed, cross-crease save on Jules Heningburg in the fourth quarter and the Machine holding on to a two-goal lead.

When you get Lucky you get lucky. Great win with the boys tonight. Felt good to be btw the pipes again. pic.twitter.com/QkOAPIiBx8

— Scotty Rodgers (@ScottyRodg42) July 8, 2018

Noteworthy

Ryan Brown led the Hounds with three goals and three points. … In his first MLL game, Hounds rookie Morgan Cheek scored one goal and added one assist. … In addition to Staats, Ned Crotty (three goals), Jordan Wolf (two goals, one assist), and Ben Reeves (one goal, two assists) each scored three points. … Dylan Molloy scored four goals and added one assist in Florida’s loss to Ohio. … Florida goalie Austin Kaut made 23 saves. … David Emala (three goals), Ryan Ambler (one goal, two assists), Justin Guterding (two goals, one assist) and Peter Baum (three assists) each scored three points for the Machine. … Colin Heacock scored three goals and added one assist in the Bayhawks victory. It was his second consecutive game with a hat trick. … Chesapeake midfielder Myles Jones scored three goals. … Niko Amato earned Player of the Game honors thanks to his 19 saves against the Lizards. … Lizards stars Will Manny (four goals, one assist), Rob Pannell (three goals, two assists) and Joe Walters (two goals, three assists) each had five points. … Thomas Kelly won 20 of 31 faceoffs for the Lizards. … Boston attackman Mark Cockerton led the Cannons with six goals. It was the third time in five games this season he totaled at least six points. … Boston midfielder Tim Edwards scored two goals, including one two-pointer. … Eric Law scored two goals and added four assists in Denver’s 25-11 victory over the Cannons. … Matt Kavanagh scored four goals and added three assists for the Outlaws. … Denver faceoff specialist Max Adler won 28 of 39 faceooffs.

Player of the Week

Chris Cloutier, A, Denver Outlaws

The fourth-round draft pick continued his rookie season dominance in Denver’s Fourth of July victory over the Cannons. The rookie scored six goals and added three assists for a total of nine points, which was a career-high. Cloutier has only played in five games, but he has scored at least four points in each game, and his latest effort was the fourth time he tallied at least seven points; it was also his third six-goal game. He now has 36 points on the season, averaging 7.2 points per game.