MLAX : Marasco ties career-high with 5 points, provides final assist to clinch Orange victory
Clinging to a one-goal lead with two minutes left, Syracuse needed to hold possession and run time off the clock to secure the victory.
Enter JoJo Marasco.
The sophomore attack took the ball on the restart and began wandering around the offensive zone, not making any moves toward the goal. Army defender Brendan Buckley did everything he could to poke the ball free or knock Marasco to the turf, but Marasco was unfazed.
Finally, Black Knight senior Brandon Butler came at Marasco for a double team. Marasco cut between the two defenders in the middle of the field but got bumped off balance. As he fell to the Carrier Dome turf, he rolled the ball ahead to senior Jeremy Thompson.
The SU midfielder dodged to the front of the crease and buried a shot in the back of the net while an exhausted Marasco watched from flat on his stomach.
That effort gave the Orange the 11-9 final margin as it held on against the Black Knights. Marasco tied a career high with five points on three goals and two assists. He created matchup problems for Army by switching between the midfield and attack positions and powered the Orange offense early on.
‘They put him up in the midfield, and that’s where he did most of his damage,’ Army head coach Joe Alberici said. ‘We were expecting him to move into midfield, but it makes it very difficult to start to make changes on the fly.’
Marasco kicked off the scoring for SU less than 30 seconds in on a flashy goal from the right side. After scooping up a ground ball near the right hash, Marasco darted toward the cage. Two Black Knights collapsed on him, but he dove through the defenders and sent a shot low into the back of the net for Syracuse’s first score.
About seven minutes later, Marasco found senior attack Stephen Keogh cutting through the middle of the zone and sent a pass into his teammate’s stick for a catch-and-shoot tally.
His next two goals added to the Orange’s big early lead, and his last assist sealed the victory.
‘I just tried to use my feet and run as much as I could, protect my stick,’ Marasco said of the last sequence. ‘I saw Jeremy popped out when they doubled me, and just falling down, I was able to just slide it to him. He made a great play and put it in the net.’
Turnovers nearly cost SU win
Syracuse had extra motivation coming into its game against Army. It had reason to be a little more amped up, a little more determined for a win.
It was the first time the two teams played since Army upset Syracuse in a double-overtime win at the Carrier Dome in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season. Coming into the game, every member of the Orange who experienced the loss had a chip on his shoulder. Each wanted to avenge the loss, refusing to fall once again to the Black Knights on their home turf.
And each wanted to get rid of the bad taste in their mouth that the loss left.
When the Orange’s 11-9 win was over, the bad taste of that loss was replaced by a new bad taste of a mistake-filled game that almost let Army walk away with another victory at the Dome.
‘There’s always a bitter taste if you don’t play a perfect game,’ Syracuse goaltender John Galloway said. ‘There’s always things we can work on, and that’s what we’re going to do in the short week.’
As the game progressed, the Orange’s impatient offense wasn’t able to hold onto possessions and gave the Black Knights opportunities to score. And Army did exactly that, closing a seven-goal deficit to a one-goal deficit. While Army did have to beat the SU defense, Orange head coach John Desko wouldn’t call it a defensive breakdown.
Instead, Desko said Syracuse’s impatient offense is what led to Army getting back in the game. The Orange held the ball for almost the entire first quarter, taking nine shots on goal in the period. When that same offense started to yield turnovers, including eight in the second half, Desko said it was simply the Black Knights having more chances to score.
‘I think the impatience in clearing situations and the impatience offensively gave them possessions back and more opportunities,’ Desko said. ‘I think it was more a result of how much defense we had to play.’
