Mike Powell called it a lost art. But during the SU men’s lacrosse team’s 16-7 win over Brown on Saturday, the No. 5 Orangemen found that using attackers to force turnovers, or riding, can work wonders for jump-starting a sluggish offense.

‘Riding’s a lost art,’ said Powell, an attacker. ‘You can get four, five easy goals every game if you’re doing it correctly. We have enough athletes on the offensive end that we can take the ball away from the defensemen or force them to throw bad passes.’

For the game’s first 10 minutes, Syracuse’s athletic offense couldn’t score. With 12:48 left in the second quarter, the Orangemen trailed, 3-1.

At that point, though, SU’s attackers’ defensive intensity overwhelmed Brown.

Brown goaltender Mike Levin snared a Steve Vallone shot from the slot, but as Brown moved upfield, Powell stole the ball and found attacker Brian Nee in front of the goal to cut the lead to 3-2.

That scene would repeat itself several times. While Powell was most effective, fellow attackers Nee, Liam Banks and Mike Springer also harried Brown’s defense.

‘Our attackers did a real nice job riding the ball,’ head coach John Desko said. ‘Those guys are really getting after it when the goalie makes a save or the defense comes up with a loose ball. It picks up the tempo and helps get some unsettled goals for us.’

The intensity was most prevalent in the second half, when Brown was successful on only 5 of 12 clearing attempts. When the pace of the game increased, Brown’s attempts to bring the ball over midfield became chaotic, allowing the Orangemen to outscore the Bears, 9-2, in the second half.

It also enabled the Syracuse attack to give one of its most complete performances of the season. All three starters and Banks, the unit’s key reserve, totaled three points or more. Powell led the group with three goals and three assists.

‘Everyone’s struggled at points this year,’ Springer said. ‘The past two games I’ve struggled. I struggled a little bit today. Once we had the ball a little bit in the second half, I think the offense did pretty well.’

The offense aided its own cause by forcing an assortment of Brown errors. Oftentimes, Levin, unable to find an open teammate, ventured from his crease and began to bring the ball upfield, only to be swarmed by two SU attackers and lose possession. At other times, in a defenseman’s haste to pass the ball, they’d hurl it out of bounds, or, even worse, blindly down the center of the field.

During a 7-1 SU run — which began with 30 seconds left in the second period and ended with a Springer goal with 11:22 to play in the fourth — SU scored three goals off Brown turnovers.

‘We had a few bad clears in the second and third quarter when they got some repeat chances that wore us down,” Brown head coach Scott Nelson said. “We made some poor decisions in the clearing game that cost us a little momentum.’

It also cost them a chance to play the slow-down game that frustrated Syracuse throughout the first half. Rather than playing up-tempo, Brown utilized four-minute possessions, passing the ball around the perimeter and maximizing every opportunity.

After Syracuse’s intensity created a 13-6 deficit, Brown was forced to speed up its game and play right into the Orangemen’s hands.

‘When you’re down three or four, you can continue your game plan,’ Nelson said. ‘When it’s five or six, it gets a little tougher. Once it gets too far out of hand, you can’t get back with ball control.’

Published on March 30, 2003 at 12:00 pm