LAZY SATURDAY: Syracuse cruises to easy 10-3 win over Rutgers
John Desko finally found a moment of respite for his starters.
In the fourth quarter of contest Syracuse’s 10-3 win over Rutgers Saturday, the SU head coach allowed his starters to watch the backups fill their shoes. It started with goalie John Galloway watching from the sidelines for the entire fourth quarter. Along the way, Kenny Nims, Dan Hardy, Sid Smith and John Lade all saw time on the bench. That’s what a nine-goal lead for most of the last quarter will allow a coach to do.
‘Going back to the three games in eight days, I’m happy with what we were doing,’ Desko said. ‘We got a lot of people in the fourth quarter and they’ve been working hard all year and they got a reward for all their hard work by playing in a game situation, and that was good too.’
After a rigorous stretch of games, Syracuse finally had a chance to relax, as Syracuse cruised to the win Saturday afternoon inside the Carrier Dome in front of a crowd of 5,112. SU led 5-0 at half and never seemed to sweat as it beat the Scarlet Knights, a future Big East opponent, for the fifth straight time.
‘It’s been a long week and we’ve been banged up a lot and we haven’t had a lot of practice time,’ Nims said. ‘So to come out and have a nice win today and get everybody some playing time is good.’
Saturday’s contest marked the third SU game in the past week. SU lost to No. 5 Princeton last Saturday, then had a quick turnaround to defeat No. 3 Cornell on Tuesday night at the Dome. While Rutgers isn’t the same caliber opponent as Princeton or Cornell, it still marked the last game in a grueling stretch for the squad.
While neither team played a crisp game, SU never seemed in danger of losing. Rutgers tried to slow the Orange’s offense down by standing back in the crease and forming a wall of sorts in front of goalie Billy Olin. SU didn’t help things either by turning the ball over at a high rate. In the first half alone, SU had 9 turnovers to just 12 shots.
‘We try to limit the turnovers every game and I think today we got excited,’ Nims said. ‘We shot the ball a little bit better than we have been especially since the Princeton game, so we always try and cut back turnovers. But at the same time, we’re trying to make plays.’
But once SU broke the seal, the Orange never sweated. Greg Niewieroski opened the scoring at 9:59 in the first quarter and Chris Daniello scored with 5:03 remaining to give SU a 2-0 lead. Niewieroski would leave the game with a left-leg injury and did not return. Daniello, along with Stephen Keogh, paced the Orange with three goals.
Rutgers, meanwhile, looked lost on offense, not scoring in the entire first half, the first SU opponent to do so all year. While the Scarlet Knights struggled, SU found some breaks. With SU leading 3-0 in the second quarter, Joel White attempted to pass the ball to Stephen Keogh. Somehow, along the way, the ball deflected into the net for a score for an unassisted goal for White.
‘Nah, (it was a) pass,’ White said. ‘Keogh stick was there I threw it to him. Actually, it wasn’t a very good pass, he pulled his stick down, the goalie never saw it and it went right in. Lucky.’
Rutgers finally broke through for a score 1:52 into the third quarter to make the score, 6-1. The 31:52 drought was the second-longest of the season for any opponent against SU.
Even with the starters taking in most of the contest late in the fourth, Rutgers still couldn’t close the gap. In his short stint of work, backup goalie Al Cavalieri saved four shots. Galloway had eight saves in his time on the field.
SU will now have a chance to take some time off before its next contest against Albany next Friday in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse will not play another mid-week game the rest of the season, as all of its three remaining contests will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
‘Guys have been getting banged up lately and over the course of the season guys have been playing hurt and been playing inured,’ Nims said. ‘To have time in between games from now on is going to be huge for us and we really went to get to full strength and come out like we know we can for however many games we have left.’
