PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The sloppy play displayed Saturday wasn’t the style that propelled the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team to a No. 3 ranking. If the Orangemen had played to their potential, maybe they would have had a chance against Rutgers at Yurcak Field. Instead, they were left to wonder what exactly went wrong.

In case they didn’t know, SU head coach John Desko could tell them.

‘Everything,’ Desko said.

Including, for only the second time this season, the score. SU lost to Rutgers, 14-10, on Saturday, making it the second straight year that the Orangemen lost to the Scarlet Knights. Last year, Rutgers won, 12-11, in overtime at the Carrier Dome.

No. 15 Rutgers used a blinding offensive performance in the first half to pull away from No. 3 Syracuse and a staunch defensive effort in the second to preserve the win. Syracuse trailed by as many as seven goals, when RU led 12-5 midway through the third quarter.

But, to hear it from Desko, SU gave Rutgers plenty of help.

‘I didn’t think we handled the ball well,’ he said. ‘Face-offs killed us in the first half. We didn’t have a plan defensively. We knew all about (Delby Powless). We wanted to shut him off and not allow him any goals. We look up, and he’s got four goals in the first half. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for us today.’

After taking a 3-1 lead on two Michael Powell goals early in the first half, the Orangemen let their lead slip just as quickly. Rutgers scored four straight goals to end the first quarter, and finished with a 9-2 run, which found it leading, 10-5, at halftime.

Syracuse played uncharacteristically sloppily, and at times looked lackadaisical. SU players said they simply didn’t match the intensity level of Rutgers. But it seemed they didn’t match RU’s skill level either.

The Orangemen (8-2) were outplayed at the face-off X, losing 11 of 17 first-half face-offs. Rutgers took advantage of slow defensive slides with crisp passes around the perimeter. When the Scarlet Knights (7-3) did find an open man, they seemed to blaze a shot into the net almost at will.

Meanwhile, sophomore Rutgers goalie Greg Havalchak deflected SU shots just as easily. His 21 saves fell one short of his career high of 22, set earlier this year.

‘We got down today,’ said SU midfielder Sean Lindsay, ‘and with a goalie like that, it’s tough to come back.’

The Orangemen certainly tried. Three straight third-quarter goals by SU cut the lead to 12-8. But both teams traded goals in the fourth to solidify the loss for Syracuse.

In a spirited effort to come back, the Orangemen racked up five penalties in the fourth quarter. Rutgers converted on four of its nine extra-man opportunities on the day.

‘We were a little frustrated,’ SU midfielder Kevin Dougherty said. ‘We weren’t able at times to keep our composure. That leads to penalties.’

Powell led Syracuse with four goals, and Brian Crockett and Alex Zink both had two each. Rutgers’ Powless, an attackman, also had four goals, all in the first half. Jamie Lovejoy had three goals and an assist.

The Orangemen have won 32 of the 40 games played in the series against Rutgers. But the Scarlet Knights can take credit for knocking off a top 10 SU team for two straight seasons.

‘I find it very surprising,’ Dougherty said. ‘We came into this game a lot like we came into the Cornell game. These are two teams that have historically given this team trouble. And I think we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again like last year. It’s tough right now to even figure out what happened.’

Published on April 18, 2004 at 12:00 pm