Machine gets chance to avenge title-game loss

For a year, members of the Ohio Machine have had one goal: get back to Major League Lacrosse’s championship game. Last year, the Machine was left to lament a one-goal loss to the Denver Outlaws after leading by as many as seven goals.

That has been achieved. Ohio will play for the title Saturday night in Frisco, Texas. As a bonus, the game will also serve as a rematch against the Outlaws.

“Our goal was to Major League Lacrosse final 7 p.m. Saturday Ford Center at The Star, Frisco, Texas CBS Sports Network

get back there, and I think it just lined up that it happened to be Denver,” coach Bear Davis said. “Guys are pretty excited to have that opportunity to go back, and to face Denver in the championship game. If you’d have written up at the beginning of the season how we’d like it to play out, that’s pretty much what every guy would’ve said.”

Denver and Ohio finished the regular season with 9-5 records, and the two split the regular-season series in a pair of games decided by a total of three goals. In the process, the Machine clinched a postseason spot for a fourth consecutive season after posting identical 2-12 records its first two seasons.

MLL veteran midfielder Kyle Harrison, now in his eighth season, doesn’t know the Machine as anything other than a perennial postseason contender. So when Ohio pulled away Saturday at Fortress Obetz for an 18-13 playoff win over the Florida Launch, Harrison said the feeling in the locker room was one of measured excitement.

“We knew that this season for us would be looked at as a failure if we didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to compete for a championship,” he said. “We haven’t talked much about revenge, or even Denver, all season long. For us, it was about getting back to this game, having another opportunity. We felt like we missed an opportunity last year.”

While this year’s team has seen some roster turnover, last year’s loss to Denver wasn’t harped on throughout the season. Davis said the most he brought it up was when he encouraged anyone looking for extra motivation this week to watch a video special produced about the game that details the Outlaws’ victory.

It’s the first championship rematch since Long Island and Baltimore played for the first three Steinfeld Cups from 2001 to ‘03. Denver has made six appearances and won two.

“This is the stuff that sports are scripted on, right?” said Harrison, who has twice reached the title game and lost. “You get to play the team that beat you in the championship last year, and you look at our games against Denver this year, (they’re close). For us, it is a situation where we know them well, they know us well … but we wouldn’t want it any other way.”