Article by Garrett Pog
On Club Soccer night at Hope Sports Complex, the Detroit Mechanix took to the field in hopes of evening the score against the Indianapolis AlleyCats, who won on their home turf just two weeks prior. As the sun set and the lights came on, the stage became a battleground for two teams that love to hate each other. One team would travel home victorious, whilst the other would wonder what their season would become.
The Detroit Mechanix became the latter, as they would fall 25-16 in bitter fashion, failing to keep the lead after the 5th point, leading 3-2 midway through the 1st Quarter. Though there are many questions to answer, there are also many moments to look fondly at, as these Mechanix fought tooth-and-nail every step of the way.
Captain Terry Gaither was on fire throughout the 1st Quarter, scoring 2 of the opening 3 goals, showing his flexibility, scoring one on both sides of the disc. Malachi Neil also kept his team alive early, recording a Block in the opening point.
Trailing by 4 to start the 2nd, the Lambo line got to work right away. After they forced the AlleyCats to throw the disc away, Greg Moreno made his epic return to the field from a shoulder injury. He scored the team’s 2nd Break of the evening, and made a Block to fuel another Break point moments later. McLaren got back into rhythm with Neil and Justin Perticone passing back and forth before scoring, followed by Neil scoring his own Goal from the hands of David Cox. Cox recorded a Block just minutes later, and scored the last goal at the halftime buzzer to bring the score to 13-10, Detroit trailing going into the break.
Terry Gaither and Malachi Neil continued to build upon their excellent performances, each scoring a goal on offense in the 3rd Quarter. Jake Felton even made an impact for Lambo, recording a block and sending the disc across the complex to Trevor Polisuk-Balfour, who recorded his first goal of the season. Unfortunately, though, they allowed Indy to get hot and score 5 out of the last 6 points of the quarter. The Mechanix had a tough hole to climb out of if they wanted to get back into this game.
Similar to the last game, time issues became constant throughout the 4th quarter, with 3 points in the 4th Quarter taking over 2 minutes, with 2 of those going against Detroit. Still, the effort and relentless energy was on display, especially from Neil and Joe Cubitt, who fueled the first two points for Detroit in that quarter. As the final buzzer sounded, the Mechanix lost a hard-fought game against their biggest rival.
Malachi Neil is all over this article, and rightfully so. He led the Mechanix with 3 Goals and 3 Assists while achieving a +6 Plus/Minus. David Cox was still able to make an impact, despite coming out of the game twice due to injury, with 2 Blocks to his name. Behind them was Gaither and Moreno, who had their fair share of fans make it out to the game.
Detroit will regroup before coming back home to take on the Madison Radicals, who will be on the 2nd half of a doubleheader after their game with Minnesota. Check it out live, Saturday June 14th at 5pm, at Hope Sports Complex, as well as WatchUFA.TV.
To get Mechanix tickets, click here.
