First, here’s the Launch recap via press release: The Florida Launch’s three-game winning streak ended Saturday night after an 18-14 road loss to the Charlotte Hounds. Despite an early Launch lead, Florida’s offense struggled to overcome a commanding Charlotte lead in the second half. Striking early with five unanswered goals in the first quarter, the Launch slipped into a deficit before halftime. Though Dylan Molloy (3G, 1A), Chazz Woodson (3G) and Kieran McArdle (4G) tallied hat tricks in their late game rally, their offensive fire power was not enough to break through a stout Charlotte defense, who kept the Launch to five goals in the second half.   Despite facing a persistent Hounds offensive presence, goalie Austin Kaut stopped 14 out of 28 shots on goal. Richmond product Benny Pugh also made his debut in the cage tonight, seeing considerable action in the final minutes of play. The Launch found success at the faceoff X with Will Gural and Tim Edwards, going 20 for 34 collectively against the Hounds. Next up, the Launch head to Atlanta on Saturday, July 1 to face the Blaze. Follow the Launch on social media (twitter: @florida_launch) to never miss a minute of the action.  

Author’s Thoughts: This one hurts on a number of levels.  Given the results of the rest of the league’s games it was one that would have given the Launch firm possession of a Top 3 slot in the standings but now the race tightens up.  New York managed to blow an 8-goal lead in Denver and Atlanta took a win over Rochester so the Launch only really lost positioning to the Hounds, but a win would have been huge. This game also exposed how a young team can sometimes not learn a lesson in consistently.  Coach Mariano noted at his Press Pass interview about not playing a consistent 60-minute game and that certainly was on display last night.  A fantastic first quarter defensive effort of allowing only the 2-point goal in the first minute was followed up by a TEN goal second quarter nightmare.  Defensive communication is still breaking down at times and transition defense was not strong.  The team did an admirable job on Charlotte’s high scoring attack but were not able to handle the midfield offense. Offensively we saw the best and the worst of the team.  The incredible collection of talent at dodging and creating their own shot versus the way too frequent standing around and watching the ball carrier.  Last week the team worked hard off ball and it showed in the second half with a number of great inside looks and easy finishes.  This week it was the exact opposite, as you could probably count the off ball cuts to open space in the middle on one hand.  Last week Dylan Molloy was able to find inside passing lanes and effectively passed to them, this week he was doubled effectively because no one gave him that option.  It wasn’t until 10 minutes or so were left in the game, and the Launch trailing by 5, that the team finally started to remember how they scored 19 goals last week, but it was too much of a deficit to overcome.  I haven’t seen the box score yet but of the first three quarters I wouldn’t be surprised if at most two goals were assisted. This team is on the cusp of being a top team, but until they can mature on offense and defense they will be a likely threat for the playoffs but also likely not to be able to get by either Denver or Ohio, two teams that have the ability to adapt to multiple styles of play based on what the other team throws at them.  There’s still 5 regular season games left to learn that, the process will be interesting to watch.