Machine rolls to opening win behind Holman

The Machine’s Marcus Holman scores a goal while being defended by the Lizards’ Austin Pifani. Holman set a Major League Lacrosse single-game record with 11 goals.

game, not leaving him much time to prepare for the Lizards.

“He upgraded to first class so he could get some sleep,” Machine coach Bear Davis said. “He promised that he would be good to go, and he delivered.”

Holman missed both training camp weekends because of his coaching commitments but said his time coaching helped get his

reps in.

“The guys were getting on me a little bit, so I had to make up for the goals that I didn’t score in training camp,” Holman said. “I have my stick in my hand probably five days a week, so I probably took 1,000 shots this week.”

After a while, it seemed as if Holman took 1,000 shots in Sunday’s game alone,

racking up 13 shots on goal. He set the tone by putting together a monstrous first half, scoring five goals and registering seven shots on goal.

Holman also got a lot of nice looks in front of the net from Tom Schreiber, who assisted on five of Holman’s goals.

“This is year five with Marcus and I playing together,”

Schreiber said. “We’ve had a good connection.”

Schreiber commanded all of the defense’s attention, which allowed Holman to float off the ball for a lot of wide-open looks at the net.

“I feel like my strength is finding seams in the defense and thinking one step ahead of how a defense is going to react,” Holman said. “I felt like I could have had one or two more, if I’m being honest with you.”

After a frenzied back-and-forth first quarter that saw Ohio seize an early 5-4 lead, the Machine controlled possession throughout the second, scoring eight goals, four of them by Holman.

They scored seven goals in the third quarter and five in the fourth.

Holman and company quickly extinguished any lingering thoughts of a championship hangover.

“Every year, we set a new standard,” Davis said. “We knew we were going to have a nice crowd today and wanted to start off right.”

Eight different Machine players scored, and seven of them registered multiple goals.

Ryan Ambler netted three goals, while Jake Bernhardt, Connor Canizzaro, Pat Harbeson, Pat Young and Kyle Harrison each had two goals.

Machine goalie Kyle Bernlohr had 22 saves.