BALTIMORE — As time winded down in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s NCAA men’s lacrosse semifinals, SU’s fans made it clear who had won.

‘Let’s go Orange’ chants emerged from the 46,293 fans, an NCAA record, scattered throughout M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Earlier, Johns Hopkins fans had dominated the stands, with their ‘Let’s go Hopkins’ cheers. Ultimately, Syracuse got the last laugh.

Syracuse’s revenge from last year’s 19-8 loss against Hopkins in the semifinals came in the form of a 15-9 upset of the Blue Jays on Saturday. It fittingly came on the backs of its seniors. While Hopkins markup defenseman Tom Garvey kept SU’s Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Michael Powell scoreless in the first half, the defense allowed a plethora of SU talent to pick up the slack.

Powell didn’t mind, though. He was content seeing his teammates chip away at the Blue Jays. He knew he couldn’t be silenced for the entire game.

‘I only get frustrated when we’re losing and I don’t touch the ball,’ Powell said. ‘I’ll sit back and watch Kevin Dougherty score five goals any day. And if that’s what it takes to win, if it takes me taking their best defenseman out of the picture, I’ll do that every game. If that’s what it takes to play at your pinnacle.’

Indeed, Dougherty, a graduate student, scored five. Senior Brian Nee added four more, and SU walked off with a shot for the national championship against Navy on Monday.

‘It’s a great feeling (to score four goals in a national semifinal),’ Nee said. ‘We’ve still got one more game left, though.’

While seniors Steve Vallone and Sean Lindsay only scored a goal each in the game, their play was almost as important as Powell’s.

SU’s offense was able to move the ball upfield well in the second half, getting it to Lindsay and Vallone around the 25-yard line. They cycled the ball while valuable seconds ticked off the clock toward SU’s fifth berth to the national championship game in the last six years.

While JHU’s defense paid homage to the dangerous trio of Powell, Lindsay and Vallone, Dougherty and others got good scoring opportunities.

SU sophomore Greg Rommel netted two big goals in the third quarter to help SU change a one-goal lead at halftime into a three-goal lead at the end of the third quarter.

‘We have so many weapons on this team,’ Rommel said. ‘Our first six guys are the best, and when our second line is in there, we just try to pitch in the best we can. And luckily we got a couple today.

‘We’ve really been looking for everything to come together all season. We’ve got such a great senior class, and I’ve been looking up to these guys for a long time. They’re setting a great example.’

As JHU started to spread the wealth of defensemen around, Powell got more touches. He finished the day with a goal and three assists. He now has 301 points in his SU career, 14 more than his brothers, Casey and Ryan, who are tied for second on SU’s career points list.

Hopkins, which gave up double-digit goals only once this season, had an uncharacteristically bad day defensively.

‘(Syracuse) played a wonderful game,’ JHU head coach Dave Pietramala said. ‘They deserved to win this game. Today they were the better team.

‘We’ve always been a team that, when teams focus on one guy, we’ve been able to get offense generated by others. The loss doesn’t lie with the offense. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me. I am the head coach of the defense.’

Meanwhile, SU head coach John Desko credited his staff for the win.

‘The team defense was very good,’ Desko said. ‘I give a lot of credit to our assistant coaches today. Roy Simmons at the defensive end, Kevin Donahue on the offensive end. My hat is off to them because everything worked to a tee today.’

Published on May 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm