It was time, and Rich Scanlon knew it. Time to transform a willowy defense into a unit stout enough to stop one of the nation’s most prolific passers. Time for his young teammates to ditch their training wheels and finally make last season a memory.

So there Scanlon stood before the game, his emotion bubbling over before a pack of frenzied Syracuse football players, tears nearly ready to moisten the black paint under his eyes.

Scanlon inspired the Orangemen’s best performance of the season. SU’s defense and Walter Reyes’s 241 rushing yards led the Syracuse to a dominating, 38-14 win Saturday over Central Florida at the Carrier Dome before a scant crowd of 35,103.

‘I was so fired up before the game I was almost crying,’ said Scanlon, a senior middle linebacker and captain. ‘That was something the young guys needed to see. We want to be a defense that’s nasty and fired up.’

Syracuse’s maligned pass defense held UCF quarterback Ryan Schneider – who entered Saturday averaging 350 passing yards – to 284 on 48 attempts. Syracuse also forced five turnovers, two more than the entire season total entering Saturday.

When SU’s defense appeared ready to fall into a customary collapse, it instead stiffened.

After SU (2-1) scored on its first two possessions on two Reyes touchdown runs, UCF (1-2) quickly knotted the score at 14. A fake field goal run by holder Al Peterson set up the Golden Knights’ first score, which came at the end of the first half.

Using that momentum, UCF marched 83 yards for a touchdown, a drive capped by running back Alex Haynes scampering 13 yards untouched up the middle.

On two straight possessions, the Golden Knights had plowed through SU’s defense. A here-we-go-again groan echoed throughout the Dome.

It would be the last points the Orangemen yielded.

On its next possession, Syracuse crafted a 94-yard drive that lasted 5:02 and ended with Reyes’s third touchdown run. Those were the first seven of 24 unanswered SU points.

‘I thought we had huge momentum on our side,’ UCF coach Mike Kruczek said. ‘We had a chance to win and then the bottom fell out.’

‘It didn’t bother us,’ SU cornerback Steve Gregory said of UCF’s mini-comeback. ‘We knew we could come back and stop them.’

Gregory made sure with the next possession. Facing fourth down and three on the SU 32-yard line, UCF ran an end-around pass. Gregory wasn’t fooled. He knocked away wide receiver Brandon Marshall’s pass to Tavaris Capers at the goal line.

That play highlighted perhaps Gregory’s best game as an Orangeman. As sure a tackler as there is on SU’s roster, Gregory made his first interception of the year, broke up three other passes and recorded 10 tackles.

‘He made some big tackles in the open field,’ SU coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ‘Steve Gregory had a very good day. I think you saw a little glimpse of the kind of corner we think Steven can be.’

Gregory’s secondary teammates showed flashes of their potential, too. Troy Swittenburg drove a dagger through UCF when he picked off Schneider at the UCF 32-yard line and rumbled to the one-yard line. Two plays later, SU quarterback R.J. Anderson plunged into the end zone, giving SU a 31-14 advantage.

Some credit for the secondary’s play belongs to a much-improved pass rush. Though SU has yet to record a sack this season, its front seven – especially Scanlon and defensive tackle Christian Ferrara – was able to pressure Schneider on his three-step drops, a technique designed to avoid hurried throws.

‘(The pass rush) was very important,’ SU defensive tackle Louis Gachelin said. ‘A better pass rush is something we had to do.’

On offense, Reyes upheld the defense’s strongest performance yet this year. He rushed for 241 yards and four touchdowns, giving SU a punishing rushing game to match its suddenly staunch defense. On Saturday, the physicalness that cemented SU’s success in the ’90s returned.

‘We made them quit,’ guard Matt Tarullo said. ‘The thing I liked about today’s game was it was a complete team game – offense, defense, special teams. You saw us hit on all eight barrels today.’

Published on September 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm