Early in the third quarter of Saturday’s game against Albany, Syracuse men’s lacrosse attackman Michael Powell snuck a shot past the Albany goalie. He stopped 10 yards away from the goal and shrugged his shoulders to the Carrier Dome crowd.

He seemed to say, ‘Why not?’ It was already his third goal of the game, which Syracuse easily won, 18-8. Powell finished with six points on five goals and an assist. But even with that dominant display, Powell felt a little foolish with his pandering to the crowd.

‘After I did it, I felt stupid, to be honest with you,’ Powell said.

No. 5 Syracuse jumped out to an early lead it would never relinquish. It took Albany more than 15 minutes before it could even get on the scoreboard, but by then, SU already led, 4-1. The Orangemen then ran the score up to 7-1.

Albany mounted a comeback late in the second quarter, coming as close as 8-4, but Syracuse pulled away with an eight-goal third quarter.

Earlier this week, Great Danes head coach Scott Marr watched the Syracuse game tapes and determined the best way to limit Powell would be to single-team him. He thought the strategy would limit his passing options. Two weeks ago, when Loyola constantly double-, or triple-teamed Powell, the attackman finished with five assists. That wouldn’t happen again, Marr thought.

The strategy worked to an extent. The Great Danes (8-4) limited Powell to one assist but allowed him to sneak by the single coverage for his five goals.

The resounding margin of victory allowed SU head coach John Desko to substitute freely and give some lesser-used players an opportunity to play. He also allowed Powell to take a face-off, something the Carthage native practiced in the week leading up to the game.

Powell won his only face-off of the day Saturday. It was the first one he’s taken this season.

‘I’m 100 percent,’ Powell said half-jokingly. ‘I dominated out there today. All week in practice we had been working on it. Coach called me over in practice and threw me in there. I had no idea what was going on, I’d never taken one in my life.

‘I give the face-off guys a lot of credit. That takes a different type of quickness, that’s something I don’t have.’

It was the first time in four games that SU (9-2) won the face-off advantage. The Orangemen won 17 face-offs to Albany’s 12.

Also contributing for Syracuse was Steve Vallone, who had four goals, and Brian Crockett, who finished with two goals and two assists. Eleven different players got on the scoreboard.

It was a humbling experience for Albany, which is only in its fifth year of Division I competition. Marr said the objective of the trip to Syracuse was to give his players some national exposure. He said, even in the loss, they gained valuable experience.

‘We were probably playing the best team in the game in the last 25 years,’ Marr said. ‘It is a rite of passage.’

Published on April 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm