With the first game out of the way, Ohio State moves toward its second contest riding high on a very good performance against Air Force. The Vikings of Cleveland State are up next and, with all due respect, these aren't the Vikings of yesteryear.
With the departure of Dylan Sheridan, Cleveland State has gradually regressed to a program that's on the level you would expect. Last season, the Vikings went 3-10, and none of the wins was particularly impressive. Beating Hampton, VMI, and Canisius isn't going to get anyone feeling particularly threatened.
Offensively, Cleveland State loses a lot of points from last year's squad. The Vikings' top goalscorer, Ryan Haigh (#8), returns for his COVID year, having tallied 32 goals last season. It's easily the most on the team, and he will draw either Van Buren or Hudgins as a defender.
After that, redshirt sophomore Gannon Matthews (#22) is the next biggest threat, having tallied 19 goals and 15 assists from midfield in 2022. Matthews will probably heavily feature in the dodging rotation, and it will be a long day for Cleveland State after that.
With so many scorers not returning, it's hard to predict the starting lineup for Cleveland State, but I am going to go with Ryan Haigh, Michael Care (#15), and Amiri Austin (#17).
Offensive middies will be Matthews, Ian McKissick (#18), and Jacob Lubrant (#55).
Defensively, Cleveland State was below average, but not ridiculously terrible. The Vikings did allow 12 of 13 opponents to score double digit goals, which is obviously a problem.
Needless to say, there isn't a lot of threatening matchups for an Ohio State squad that's deeper offensively than it has ever been. Depending on how things go early, we could see most of the team take the field again.
Starting defense for Cleveland State should be Karson Burkey (#2), Reggie Regala (#26), and big Jacob Humphreys (#88, 6'7"). It shouldn't be much of a problem to see a lot of goals scored by Ohio State.
In goal, the starter from last year has departed, so we'll all be surprised by who takes the starting job come game time. My guess is that Connor Kernan (#0) will likely take the first start, but it's very difficult to say for sure. In any case, the Ohio State offense will have a newly minted starting goalkeeper trying to stop their shots. For Buckeye fans, this is good news.
Faceoff might be the most experienced group Cleveland State has, as they return both FOGOs from last year who took meaningful draws. Evan Moskwa (#40) will be the starter at the opening whistle, coming off a year when he won 51.7% of his faceoffs. Not elite, but certainly a good foundation for the 2023 season.
The other FOGO Ohio State might see is Charlie Williams (#19), who was much less effective than Moskwa, winning only 35% of his draws.
Either way, look for Drew Blanchard to be at or near 60% again, which would really turn up the heat on Cleveland State.
On special teams, Cleveland State was mediocre. The Vikings only scored 28% of the time, which is 7% below average and 17% below good. Lots of room to improve there. Ohio State struggled a little bit last week on Man Up, but ended up doing fairly well on Man Down. We will hopefully see some better results this week.
This preview is light because 1) Cleveland State has played no games in 2023, 2) Cleveland State lost a lot of personnel, and 3) Cleveland State isn't very good. This is the definition of a tuneup game, and Ohio State should coast here. Quickly.
Final prediction: Ohio State 18, CSU 8.
Go Bucks!
