Orange Crush: Syracuse Dominates Princeton 13-4
by Chris Gentilviso | Special to Lacrosse Magazine
Online
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Even winning a
national championship is never enough to stop adversity.
For the defending national champion Syracuse Orange, this
season’s adversity has been far from routine.
An assault at a downtown Syracuse bar knocked sophomore attackman
Tim Desko to the sideline for four games. A cracked collarbone
knocked sophomore midfielder Kevin Drew out of action for six
games. Add in an injury that has limited FOGO Josh Knight to two
games, and the run to repeat has been anything but affable.
On Saturday night, adversity was an afterthought, as No. 3 Syracuse
streaked to a wire-to-wire 13-4 victory over No. 4 Princeton at the
Big City Classic.
“I think that it’s been a work in progress trying to
figure out who we are,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said.
“The combinations we were going to use early in the year
versus the ones we’re using now – people are starting
to play as units. We’ve got a little bit more of a plan out
there offensively.”
Ushering in the 82,500-seat New Meadowlands Stadium, the Orange
mixed a seamless offensive plan with a stifling defense to paralyze
the Tigers’ chances. Syracuse (8-1) set the tempo
early, as a pair of early goals from freshman JoJo Marasco and
senior Josh Amidon staked the club to a 2-0 lead.
Despite the early offense, the Orange fell victim to five
first-quarter flags, granting the Tigers an opportunity to regain
their footing. But Princeton (7-2) was listless on those man-up
chances, registering an 0-for-4 mark in those situations.
“Our extra-man was not good,” Tigers head coach Chris
Bates said. “On those opportunities, you need to cash in.
When you don’t, again, I think we never caught momentum and
never really started to feel good about the game.”
Princeton’s best shot to seize that momentum came midway
through the second quarter. A slick submarine goal by
freshman midfielder Mike Chanenchuk trimmed the Orange edge to 3-2
with 9:20 left in the first half.
Little did the Tigers know that Chanenchuk’s goal was the
beginning of a suffocating scoreless drought of 31 minutes and 13
seconds. Over that span, the Orange reeled off nine unanswered
goals, taking a double-digit lead into the start of the fourth
quarter.
From Bates’ spot on the sideline, the crippling factor was
ball control.
“We never had multiple-shot possessions and got ourselves
feeling good,” Bates said. “It was one and done. And
again, to solve a good goalie and a good defense, that’s not
going to cut it.”
That double-digit lead was sparked by a scrappy second-half defense
from the Orange. Syracuse forced four third-quarter turnovers by
the Tigers and won the ground balls battle by by a 14-6 margin.
Junior goalkeeper John Galloway backed his support unit, stopping
11 shots over the first three quarters to hold Princeton at that
meager two-goal total.
Galloway credited the big stage of the New Meadowlands Stadium as a
tipping point for his team’s success.
“The ball was big and white,” Galloway said. “It
looked like a beach ball tonight. It was nice. But I just saw the
ball well.”
A year ago, the Orange suffered a 12-8 loss to the same Princeton
Tigers, in the same event at the old Giants Stadium. Following that
defeat, Syracuse reeled off nine straight wins, culminating in an
overtime victory over Cornell for the national title hardware.
While a Big City Classic win is in the Orange’s pocket this
season, Desko was quick to note that a long stretch of games still
stands before his team.
“I just feel good about being able to beat a team like this
like we did today,” Desko said. “I feel happy about
that. But I think these guys know we have to come to play every
week and we’ve got to keep getting better. We’re taking
each opponent one at a time.”
