If past events could predict the future, the Baltimore Bayhawks (1-2) would already have their Saturday night road game against the New Jersey Pride (2-1) in the bag.
Baltimore has a 14-3 record against New Jersey since the league began in 2001, and the Bayhawks have won 11 straight.
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Baltimore coach Scott Hiller, however, knows that the 2006 New Jersey Pride is not the same 2-10 team it was a year ago. “They have a good core of midfielders,” Hiller said.
“We need to clamp down on their midfielders and shut down their transition,” Hiller said. The Bayhawks had trouble in transition in the loss at Denver last week. “We made too many mental mistakes,” Hiller said. “We have got to work on stopping that.”
Hiller said that he also wanted to give Greg Havalchak (Rutgers University) a shot in the goal against New Jersey, after the team let up four two-point goals last week. “In this league, you cannot give up that many long shots,” Hiller said.
According to Hiller, Tewaaraton Award winner Matt Ward will be joining the team this week. “Hopefully, we are going to get [Matt] Ward in the line up,” Hiller said.
Midfielder Mark Frye said Ward had a lot of potential for success in the MLL. “[Matt Ward] is probably the best player out of college this year and he can be a huge boost to our offense,” Frye said.
Frye said the Bayhawks need to focus on maintaining their intensity for the entire game. “[New Jersey] has a new found confidence. We need to be able to stop or answer their runs,” Frye said.
“New Jersey has struggled a lot,” attackman Mark Millon said. “But they have compiled a lot of draft picks, they got a new coaching staff and they made some offensive acquisitions. They are probably one of the top three teams in the league this year.”
Millon said the key to winning this week would be to look at the whole picture. “We don?t need to focus on any individual players. We just need to play good team defense and offense,” he said.
