Game Preview - Barrage vs Bayhawks 8-11-07

By Tom Hoffman

The Philadelphia Barrage (8-3) are in the playoffs but still find the final game of the season against the Washington Bayhawks (5-6) to have meaning for them. A victory in Saturday's game will give the defending MLL Champions the #1 seed in the Championship Weekend in Rochester on August 25. Saturday's game at USTC will face off at 7 PM.

Last Game

The Barrage won their third straight game against the Bayhawks with a 21-11 win at Georgetown University on Saturday. Matt Striebel earned MLL Offensive Player of the Week honors with a four goal, one assist game. Roy Colsey, Jed Prossner and Justin Smith each added hat tricks and Brian Dougherty made 16 saves before yielding to Kevin Keenan with eight and a half minutes remaining in the game.

Playoff Seeding

According to an article on majorleaguelacrosse.com's Newsletter, the Barrage have control over the #1 seed as they are currently the top team in MLL. A tie with Rochester would be settled by Conference record while common opponents would break a tie with Los Angeles. Should the Barrage lose they would need each of the other playoff teams to lose as well in order to maintain the #1 seed.

Notes

A victory on Saturday would give the Barrage an undefeated record at home for the first time in team history. The previous best at home was last season's 5-1 record.

Ryan Boyle needs eight points to set the Barrage single season point record (57 by Blake Miller in 2004). Five goals would give him the second highest goal total in one season for the Barrage behind Miller's 46 scores in the 2004 Championship season. Boyle leads the Barrage this season with 23 goals (one 2 pointer), 26 assists and 50 points.

Matt Striebel needs two more points to set a career high (previous 36 in 2005) while Mike Springer has already surpassed his career high (35 in 2006) with 40. Both need two goals to set career highs in that area (previous for both 23).

Next Game

The Barrage will play in the semi-finals on August 25 against an opponent to be determined. The other three playoff squads are Los Angeles, Denver and Rochester.

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