Welcome to the preview of my discontent. It's been a rough three weeks for the Ohio State lacrosse programs. The men's team has gotten butchered by top 5 opponents three games in a row. The women's team lost to TTUN at home. And the rest of the Big Ten looks like they're all a step ahead of last year, aside from Maryland. But that's because Maryland is adjusting to life without the best senior class in history.
With the taste of ashes and bitterness in our mouths, up comes a short turnaround game against Detroit Mercy. And we will see what these Buckeyes are made of in the heart of hearts. Is it going to be pudding? Or iron?
The Titans are a weird outlier in lacrosse, though they have a reputation as a nice schedule filler for big name programs. Detroit Mercy is currently winless, at 0-3, and probably will be parting ways with their current coach at season's end. The Buckeyes need a chance to catch their breath and shake off some soul-crushing losses. This is the game for it.
Detroit Mercy is bad. Through three games, the offense is shooting just over 16%. Bearing in mind Ohio State's horrible outing against Notre Dame, that's just awful. The Buckeyes should not have a problem shutting the Titans down.
Middie Ryan Birney (#9) is the Titans' leading scorer with 7 goals on 31 shots this year.
Two different A/M players are tied at 4 points each. It's really not even worth it to break down the offense, just know Detroit is bad, and they should feel bad about their dreadful O.
Defensively, Detroit has yet to keep a team below double-digit goals. VMI, High Point, amd Marquette all hit that mark, though the Titans are showing improvement by keeping Marquette to just 10. That's more than the Buckeyes have done their last 3 games.
Detroit will likely start Kyle Grant (#4), Joey Schmaltz (#21)(actual name), and Noah Martin (#30) at the poles. The Buckeyes are the most talented offensive team Detroit has played, but the Titans have been getting better.
In goal, Detroit rolls with Jakob Hemme (#3), who is fresh off a 16 save performance. If the goalies get hot, we could see some real offensive mediocrity. But probably not enough for the Titans to win.
At faceoff, Detroit "starts" Billy Hart (#2), who is winning under 40% of his draws. Blanchard should absolutely eat his lunch at the dot all game long. There's no reason to not hit 80%. Especially with Ohio State's wing machinations.
On special teams, the Buckeyes will likely struggle some more. The Titans are allowing teams to score just 33% of the time. On the flip side, Detroit is converting an anemic 20% of their opportunities. That's bad, too, and Ohio State should feel comfortable with their matchups.
If we're being honest, this game should have been two weeks ago, to keep some Buckeye confidence heading into another top 5 matchup. This is a return to normalcy game, where Ohio State gets to punish a weaker opponent to help boost their morale against Denver.
Even a B+ game should see this get out of hand early. It changes nothing about this season, but we all can recover after watching the gauntlet of the past few weeks maul Ohio State's postseason hopes.
Final prediction: Ohio State 18, Detroit 9.
Go Bucks!
