There was very little to be happy about for the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team at the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Even the outcome, an 8-7 win over Brown, was no reason to be excited.

After the game, Syracuse head coach John Desko sat down at the press table and scoffed.

‘I don’t know where to start,’ he said.

‘I hope this was just a hangover from Tuesday night (SU’s exciting 13-12 victory over Hobart).’

The SU players agreed: too much sloppiness, too many turnovers, too little emotion.

‘You can’t do that and expect to win the game,’ Desko said.

It did, but barely. No. 18 Brown pulled within one goal with 12 seconds left in the game. SU’s Danny Brennan won the ensuing face-off, and the No. 8 Orange wound down the clock. Knowing both teams struggled to score goals, Syracuse tried to employ a freeze for the final 2:30. But it couldn’t maintain possession. SU turned the ball over with 53 seconds left, and Brown capitalized. The Orange (4-3), though, hung on, and seemed more exhausted than elated when the final horn sounded.

Brown staked a 2-0 lead only six minutes into the first quarter, but Syracuse quickly came back, scoring six unanswered goals. The Orange went on its run after Brown sophomore Alex Buckley was called for an illegal stick, ensuring SU a three-minute, unreleasable penalty.

Desko said the officials checked Buckley’s stick randomly after the first quarter. They put a lacrosse ball in his pocket, and then flipped the stick over. The Laws of Physics suggest the ball should have dropped to the ground. It didn’t, and Buckley was penalized.

The Orange scored nearly 30 seconds into the second quarter, then reeled off two more goals during the man-up situation.

‘That was a big swing in the game,’ said SU midfielder Greg Rommel, whose three goals led the team.

Brown head coach Scott Nelson downplayed the significance of the penalty. ‘I don’t think it was devastating,’ he said. ‘It’s something you have to deal with. It’s part of the game.’

But it was more than that. The swing gave the Orange momentum heading into the second half, and a big enough cushion to fend of Brown, even if the Bears made a second-half comeback.

Syracuse, though, through sloppy play and inconsistent offense, allowed Brown to come back. Brown controlled most of the possession in the third quarter and managed 14 shots to SU’s four. But the Bears (3-2) were only able to score two goals during the quarter.

Brown threatened again late in the fourth. Trailing 9-6 with five minutes remaining, the Bears rattled off two straight goals to close to within one. They used outstanding goaltending by Nick Gentilesco to hang with the Orange, and timely goals by Will McGettigan and Chazz Woodson to threaten SU’s two-game winning streak.

But Brown ran out of time, and the Orange, after dropping three straight to open March, has now won three in a row.

‘We played extremely sloppily,’ Desko said. ‘All the turnovers in the second half really cost us. The good thing is we did all that and still won.’

Published on April 2, 2005 at 12:00 pm