MLAX : Syracuse starting defenders Lade, Megill leave game with injuries
Syracuse’s backline was intact to start its game against Cornell on Tuesday in the Carrier Dome. By the beginning of the second half, it had all but fallen apart.
Senior Tom Guadagnolo was the lone holdout from the starting lineup. Alongside him were sophomore Joe Fazio, who had played in only four of the Orange’s nine games this season, and freshman Matt Harris, who also had never started for SU.
Senior All-American John Lade left the game late in the first quarter with a nagging ankle injury. He did not play in Syracuse’s game Saturday against Princeton.
‘I saw him leave, and obviously he wasn’t comfortable,’ said Cornell leading scorer Rob Pannell, who Lade covered before he left. ‘It may not have been in their best interest either, but they put someone else on me.’
When Lade went out, sophomore Brian Megill switched onto Pannell. But the junior attack burned him for two goals in the second quarter. SU head coach John Desko said Megill did not play in the second half because he was also hurt.
Sophomore David Hamlin filled in with Harris for much of the second half, but sat out at the start of the third quarter after being called for a penalty to end the half. Those two combined with Guadagnolo to hold Cornell to four second-half scores.
Desko did not update Lade or Megill’s statuses after the game.
Offense’s struggles finally doom SU
JoJo Marasco recognized Syracuse’s offensive deficiency. As the Orange stared at a 7-2 halftime deficit, its offensive struggles were finally coming back to haunt it.
‘Having only two goals at halftime is tough for our offense,’ the SU attack Marasco said. ‘We really have to start picking it up and help out the defense a little bit.’
It’s been a prevailing theme throughout the season, as Syracuse’s offense has been wildly inconsistent. But coming into its game against Cornell, it was 9-0 and had gone unscathed despite its previous flirtations with defeat. The Big Red, though, was the team to take advantage of the Orange offense’s poor decisions and numerous turnovers. When the night was over, Syracuse had 20 turnovers, giving the Big Red opportunities to have long, drawn-out possessions.
The offense was missing junior attack and starter Tim Desko, who was held out with a knee injury.
When the Orange did have the ball, it wasn’t aggressive in going to the cage. Instead, it passed around the zone trying to find an open look or an opportunity to cut to the inside and score from the crease. But the Big Red defenders wouldn’t let that happen. At other times, they doubled or even tripled-teamed the Orange’s scorers. At one point in the second half, midfielder Jovan Miller ran around the right side of the net to score. But as he approached the crease, three defenders converged on him and forced Miller to lose the ball.
‘I thought their defense was terrific,’ John Desko said. ‘They were very aggressive. They got their stick in, they created some turnovers off our dodges and threw us off our game.’
Perfectly undone
The last time Syracuse went undefeated was in 1990. Now the Orange will have to wait at least another year to battle for that distinction.
‘It’s tough not having an undefeated season,’ Marasco said. ‘But we’ve got a lot of games left to play. We’ll be ready.’
The Orange has been flirting with a loss for weeks now. Of its nine wins, seven have come by two goals or less.
SU needed overtime in Baltimore to hold off Georgetown for a 9-8 win March 12 and played two extra periods to survive Johns Hopkins, 5-4, in the Dome on March 19.
With all the close games, it seemed almost inevitable that someone would be able to pull out a victory against the Orange. But despite the ugly loss, SU is far from panicking at this point in the season.
‘(The media) has been talking about us being about to lose,’ senior goaltender John Galloway said. ‘And we kept saying we’re building. It’s mid-April. The season’s not over for any of us yet. The guys in the locker room know that.’
