MLAX : Through 3 games, inaccurate shooting a problem for Orange
Syracuse had the perfect chance to build its lead Friday against Virginia. Early in the third quarter, a 6-on-4 opportunity following two Cavalier penalties was the ideal time to increase its one-goal lead.
All the Orange could muster, though, were two off-target shots that bounced toward the goal.
Still, the Orange had another 30 seconds of 6-on-5 play. But junior Tim Desko’s shot flew right into the stick of UVa goalie Adam Ghitelman, and his team held the ball until the penalty released.
Those represented two of the Orange’s eight failed man-up opportunities in its 12-10 win over Virginia on Friday. The 0-for-8 tally put SU at 2-for-16 in extra-man chances through three games this year. Head coach John Desko pointed to poor shot selection, a couple of good saves by Ghitelman and Syracuse’s late lead as reasons for the lack of success against the Cavaliers.
‘I thought our first couple of man-ups, we took some shots,’ Desko said. ‘And I think a couple times, we just got robbed.’
Two of Syracuse’s first three man-up possessions ended with the senior midfielder Josh Amidon trying shots from long-range. Ghitelman made an easy stick save on the first, and Virginia held possession until the penalty released.
On the Orange’s third chance, Amidon again ripped a shot from 15 yards out, but it was blocked by a Cavalier defender. UVa eventually scooped up the loose ball and ran clock until the penalty expired.
‘I thought, defensively, our man-down, we really got after them and didn’t let them settle in,’ Ghitelman said.
SU did manage to get better looks in extra-man opportunities as the game went on, but Ghitelman stuffed any shots on target.
On Syracuse’s final chance of the night, the Orange chose to hold the ball and let the clock run out rather than attack a Cavalier side with four players off for penalties.
‘We were more concerned about taking time off the clock and finishing the game,’ John Desko said. ‘You can hit the pipe or the goalie can make a save, and they can go down and score. We were playing the percentages.’
Ghitelman keeps Cavaliers alive
In the second half, Syracuse took shot after shot trying to get a lead and hopefully pull away from Virginia.
Down 8-7 coming out of halftime, the Orange took 13 shots in the third quarter but only managed to get the ball by Cavalier goaltender Adam Ghitelman three times. Ghitelman’s performance kept his team in the game, with Virginia always in position to tie the score or take the lead.
‘We came down the field, the defensemen had some high-percentage shots on the goaltender,’ Syracuse head coach John Desko said. ‘We threw it in his stick a few times, and he made some very good saves, too, especially in the second half.’
The Cavaliers had the opportunity to take control of the game, but the Orange defense as a whole did its job of forcing Virginia to take rushed shots. This was the opposite of what Ghitelman faced. He had to make multiple saves on accurate Syracuse shots. In all, he made 15 saves in the losing effort compared to just nine by his counterpart John Galloway.
But there was never a time when the Orange could feel completely comfortable with its lead. The Cavaliers were always right behind SU with Ghitelman keeping his team in a position to climb back into the game.
‘I thought we battled,’ Virginia head coach Dom Starsia said. ‘I thought Adam kept us in the game in the second half. I thought we had a chance to win, right down to the end. I think we felt like we were going to come back and do something with it.’
‘No place like the Carrier Dome’
Virginia head coach Dom Starsia was somewhat helpless from the sidelines. As the largest crowd for a lacrosse game this season chanted and roared throughout the action, it was nearly impossible to talk to his players.
‘You can’t get any communication from the sideline out onto the field in this atmosphere,’ Starsia said. ‘(Coaches) are really not as much help as you’d like to be.’
That atmosphere was created by the 14,340 fans in the Carrier Dome on Friday. It marked the fourth-largest crowd for a regular season lacrosse game in Carrier Dome history. And John Desko said it helped Syracuse pull out the win.
‘It was great,’ he said. ‘I think our guys just fed off of it.’
Throughout the game, Orange players egged on the blue- and orange-clad crowd, flapping their arms up and down to raise the noise level after scores or defensive stops.
And the SU head coach added nothing compares to the Dome with a crowd like the one Friday.
‘This is better than playing in the Meadowlands,’ he said. ‘This is better than playing in Ravens Stadium when you have these kinds of people in here. It’s louder. … There’s no place like the Carrier Dome.’
