After an unexpected, delightful destruction of legendary Virginia, Ohio State welcomes the Bryant Bulldogs to Columbus. Bryant, despite playing 3 games, is not really a known quantity. The Bulldogs dropped their opener to Providence, and then annihilated two also-rans in Quinnipiac and Merrimack.

There's not a whole lot to glean there. Bryant is positioning itself pretty well, but doesn't really have a sounding board game to use for predictions. But we press on.

Attack

Bryant's best goalscorer is Dawson Rielly (#16), who has racked up 12 goals in 3 games. Rielly was quiet in the loss to Providence, but really poured it on against the cupcakes.

Jack Lonsinger (#12) will also feature as the dodging player, based on his even split of 6 goals and 6 assists.

Brian Russell (#8) also sports the same 6 goal, 6 assist scoreline, meaning Bryant is very attack heavy on offense. With that sort of combination, you're going to see Bryant have better balance than Virginia did down low. That said, this is good for Ohio State, whose poles are easily the strongest unit on the team.

Midfield

Bryant has a combo attack/middie in Patrick Walsh (#1) who adds some bite to midfield to watch out for, but otherwise the middies are pretty spread out in terms of scoring. No one really overwhelms you as a danger, which is also a good thing for an Ohio State midfield defensive unit that, admittedly, is developing nicely. Ari Allen has adapted pretty well to defense, and it's sad it took this long to make the transition. He could really have been a Terefenko type defender.

Defense

Bryant is bad. They just are. Teams are well over 60% SOG, even if they're converting just .287 on shots. Bryant got a great defensive performance against Merrimack to set things off kilter statistically. But SOG % doesn't lie. The Buckeyes should not have a problem here.

Faceoff

JJ Murphy (#18) is the primary faceoff man for Bryant, and is doing well, winning close to 60% of his draws. The Buckeyes remain very weak at faceoff, which is going to hamper them. Ohio State bullied Virginia in all phases last game, so they should be fine here. But the faceoff problem has no solution in sight.

Overall

I was tempted to warn of a potential letdown after last week. Looking at the schedule for Bryant, however, it's pretty hard to see an avenue for the Bulldogs to do anything but make a good effort. I think the Buckeyes cruise, just in time to go to South Bend in a week.

Final prediction: Ohio State 17, Bryant 8.

Bryant Ohioan Count: 1

Ohio Vibe Rating: LeBron is from Ohio, right?

Go Bucks!