MLAX : Syracuse fails to take advantage of man-up opportunities
John Desko doesn’t have an answer. At least not yet.
While Syracuse fought its way to a 10-9 win over Army on Sunday in the Carrier Dome, the Orange head coach had no explanation as to why his man-up unit couldn’t capitalize on six opportunities. In a game in which goals were at a premium since the Black Knights thwarted any potential SU scoring run, coming through on any of those chances would’ve given Syracuse critical scores.
Desko said he needs to look at the game film to see where his players were during the man-up opportunities, but he did say some of them weren’t carrying out their assignments.
‘I’m not happy with that,’ Desko said. ‘I think we came out and we ran a play, and a couple of guys didn’t quite understand our looks on it. So we’ve got to go back and kind of redo what we’ve been doing and try to give those guys a better understanding of it.’
At the end of the first half, a one-minute slashing penalty was called on Army defender Larry LoRusso. Syracuse attack Derek Maltz had what appeared to be a good look, but his shot from the right edge of the crease sailed past the front of the cage and out of bounds.
The Orange maintained possession as Bobby Eilers picked up the ground ball, and the midfielder took a shot that was saved by Black Knights’ goaltender Zach Palmieri. SU’s possession ended with a turnover from JoJo Marasco, giving Army the chance to score with nine seconds left in the half to hold a 5-4 halftime advantage.
Syracuse’s lone man-up goal came just more than three minutes into the second half, after Larry and Brian LoRusso were both called for one-minute illegal body check penalties. SU attack Tommy Palasek fed Maltz a pass, and the attack shot from about 13 yards out into the upper right corner of the cage for the goal.
Scoring only one goal out of six man-up opportunities leads to a bit of a concern for the Orange. The chances were there, but that’s not enough for Desko to feel content with his man-up unit.
‘We had some good opportunities,’ Desko said, ‘but the bottom line is that it doesn’t count unless the ball is in the back of the net.’
Turnovers plague SU offense
Before Desko pointed out the positives after Syracuse’s victory over Army on Sunday, the head coach talked about one statistic that needs to change moving forward.
‘A little unhappy with the number of turnovers that we had today,’ Desko said. ‘We talked about valuing the ball, especially against West Point that is a team that likes to control tempo. We gave up too many there.’
Syracuse committed 25 turnovers in a sloppy performance. Desko said he knows the Orange won’t be able to escape with wins with so many mistakes in the future. And the head coach was disappointed to see SU make so many errors after stressing the importance of ball control against an Army team that likes to slow the pace of the game.
Desko said the high number of turnovers could partly be attributed to poor communication for Syracuse. He said improvement starts at practice.
Whether the team is outside or in the Dome, it forces players to communicate play calls to each other by ‘echoing’ the call until all six players on offense are on the same page.
‘We always talk about what we call echoing it through our players, and once one player brings the play in he has to get it to the next player to the next player to all six guys on offense to know what we’re doing,’ Desko said. ‘And we didn’t do that a few times today, and that didn’t help with some of the turnovers.’
Daddio establishes dominance at X
Finally settling some worry over Syracuse’s futility in faceoffs, Chris Daddio controlled the faceoff X throughout the Orange’s win over Army. The sophomore took every faceoff for SU and won 16 of his 22 opportunities.
Syracuse’s players on the wings, particularly long-stick midfielder Peter Macartney, picked up loose balls Daddio kicked out behind him time and again to greatly improve one the Orange’s weakest traits.
‘We’ve been doing a lot more in practice,’ Daddio said. ‘A lot more drills with coach Donahue. Just working on, first of all, our own play, just the faceoff guys, of getting the ball and trying to get it ourselves before resorting to the wings.’
After Army tied the game at 1-1 with just more than three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Daddio won the ensuing faceoff. SU midfielder Matt Pratt tried to score in transition, but Palmieri stopped it and the ball rolled out in front of the net. Macartney picked up the ground ball and flipped it into the net to answer right back to the Black Knights’ score.
Between Daddio at the X and Macartney on the wing, Syracuse may have found the ingredients for consistent faceoff victories.
‘Pete’s doing a great job, as you can see,’ Daddio said. ‘When I don’t even know where the ball comes out, he comes out and flies out of nowhere, so he’s been real physical lately. He’s been getting every ball that I can’t get myself.’
