This year’s Orangemen can’t look ahead
GENEVA — Check your calendars. It’s March, not May.
So the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team better think twice about coasting to another Final Four. The Orangemen showed why last night.
Though they won, 15-12, over spunky Hobart at AstroTurf Field, they certainly played poorly enough to lose.
‘We’re digging ourselves in holes, and we’re not at the point now where we can get ourselves out of them too quickly,’ SU defenseman Sol Bliss said. ‘Our intensity’s there, our emotion’s there. It’s just our heads aren’t there.’
Indeed, SU came out sloppy, a disturbing trend this season and one that irks Bliss. As the Statesmen grabbed a 6-2 lead, dominating possession time in the first half and passing with precision, the Orangemen threw away easy clears and played on their heels on defense.
‘Our defense isn’t communicating very well,’ Bliss said. ‘Our offense is still throwing the ball away. Our offense isn’t clicking. We do a good job on defense, and then we throw the ball right back to them.’
Whoa, now. Let’s take those one at a time.
As for the defense, SU head coach John Desko said the unit ‘wasn’t that bad,’ considering that the Statesmen dominated faceoffs and gained momentum early.
‘It seems like every time we play them, they come out slow,’ Hobart goaltender Mike Borsz said. ‘So we knew we had to jump on them early.’
The Statesmen’s patience on offense frustrated Syracuse, which is used to dictating the tempo, into turnovers.
‘We were in a real hurry to clear the ball,’ Desko said. ‘We should’ve been a little more patient.’
It’s almost like Syracuse forgot it was Syracuse, the defending national champions, the team that hasn’t lost two straight games since 1995.
And for good reason. Attacker Mike Powell, the nation’s best player, has played inconsistently at times. (He had one goal and two assists last night.) The Orangemen’s defensive trio of Bliss, Donn Vidosh and Dan DiPietro continues to struggle to gel.
Fortunately for SU, its midfielders bailed it out again last night, as Steve Vallone led the Orangemen with five points.
‘We need to work better as a team together,’ Bliss said. ‘We’ve got to start playing like we’re playing for Syracuse, not like we’re playing for ourselves a little bit. We’re not playing selfish. It just seems like we’re trying to do a little too much for ourselves.’
To be sure, this team lacks one player that can carry it. Double-teams slow Powell. Bliss clearly misses All-American defensemen John Glatzel and Billy St. George, who graduated.
This morning, as word spreads of SU’s near-loss to the Statesmen, the Orangemen’s upcoming opponents are surely salivating. While SU has played titans Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Princeton, road games at Loyola (April 5), Massachusetts (April 26) and Georgetown (May 3) loom before the Final Four in Baltimore, which, for so long, has seemed a given.
‘We can’t look ahead,’ Vallone said. ‘And tonight really proved that.’
‘In the past, we’ve been able to get up on (teams) early,’ Bliss said. ‘And they see that they’re playing a powerhouse. But especially since Hobart played us like they did, every team’s gonna come in and give us their best.’
For all its flaws — yes, SU lacrosse has flaws — the Orangemen need not panic. As Bliss noted, their two losses, to Virginia and Johns Hopkins, have been by a combined two goals.
Just settle down and forget for now about Final Four weekend. It’s still March.
Darryl Slater is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at dpslater@syr.edu.
