I'll be honest. I didn’t have the time or the desire to review the Buckeyes’ loss to Notre Dame. It was close, until it wasn’t. Ohio State didn’t get closer than one goal the entire game, once the scoring started. I will leave it at that.
Today, the Buckeyes take on Detroit Mercy. This is one of those midweek games that Ohio State likes to schedule under Nick Myers to make themselves feel better before going into a tough game. Detroit Mercy used to be defensively elite under a previous coaching regime, but has since fallen off into a bit of a backwater.
Now, they get absolutely obliterated by teams with a pulse, and beaten soundly by their peers in the lower tiers of DI. This isn’t even the first time the Titans will play in Columbus this year, as they lost to VMI at Olentangy Liberty in what I presume was something of a cost-saving measure for both teams.
Offensively, the Titans struggle. In their 3 losses this year, Detroit has only hit 10 goals once, against VMI. VMI is better, but has been a bottom-tier program for a long time. Through 3 games, Detroit’s leading scorer, Luke Majick (#12) has a grand total of 7 points. That’s 5 goals and 2 assists.
Absolutely awesome last name aside, neither Majick, nor anyone else on this Detroit roster, belongs on the field with a Big Ten team. That’s not meant as a personal insult, but the Titans would struggle mightily in DIII.
I’m not even going to bother running down other offensive players, I’ll just run through team stats. The Titans are shooting .237 as a team this year. Having played a single ranked team in Rutgers, that’s bad. Detroit is under 60% in their SOG %, which is always a poor sign. And the Titans average just 7.67 goals per game. Absolutely awful. This is just a poor team that is basically going to be looking for conference play to start after today.
Defensively, somehow, the Titans are even worse. The fewest goals allowed all year was the 15 given up to VMI in their 2" game of the season. Marquette poured in 22 goals, and Rutgers managed to get to 17. Just absolutely awful.
As bad as Ohio State has played on defense this year (been terrible off ball for years now, and only transfer Eli Fisher refuses to freeze his feet when a dodger squares him up), Caleb Fyock has papered over all the issues with some massive stops. Detroit Mercy has no such player on their roster.
Both the team, and the Titans’ goalie, are giving up 18 goals per game. What else is there to say? Ohio State can hit whatever number they desire today as they look to get set for Denver on Sunday.
At faceoff, the Titans are just abysmal. Sitting at 32.6% for the year, Tommy Burke and freshman Jack Oldman should be licking their chops from the Buckeye sideline. There’s not anything that Detroit is going to threaten the Buckeyes with today. Not at the dot, not on offense, nor on defense.
Special teams are bad, but not quite as bad as expected. On Man Down, at least. Detroit has only scored on 25% of its Man Up opportunities, but has held opponents to a bad, but not awful, 45% success rate on Man Down.
That’s honestly better than I expected things to be when Man Down, Ohio State on offense is always an adventure, but the Buckeyes theoretically are capable of exploiting their opportunities tonight with ease.
There’s not a whole lot of fluff that needs to be added to this preview. Holistically, Detroit Mercy is the lacrosse version of any team the SEC schedules in football late in November. They’re very bad, they should feel bad for how bad they are, and the Buckeyes should roll with little trouble. If Ohio State doesn’t hit 16 goals, it was a poor offensive night.
Final prediction: Ohio State 18, Detroit Mercy 6.
Go Bucks!
Game is tonight at 7 p.m., BTN+.
