John Desko knows his team consists of some of the most talented athletes he’s had since Syracuse last won a championship three years ago. What the Syracuse men’s lacrosse coach remains unsure of is how the skilled athletes will work together on the field.

He will take a glimpse of his team Sunday when the Orange hosts Hofstra and Le Moyne for a round robin-style scrimmage beginning at noon at the Carrier Dome.Last year Syracuse began the lacrosse season with many of its premiere athletes on the sideline as a result of injury or academic problems.

This season SU appears to be at full strength. However, this will be the first season many of Syracuse’s stars will begin the year on the field together – making chemistry a key issue if the Orange wants to avoid the 1-4 start that began its 2006 campaign.

Although the season commences with the scrimmage on Sunday, the Orange already seems to be on the same page in one area. The leaders of the team maintain the goal of the first scrimmage of the year is to assess the team’s organization out on the playing field.

‘First scrimmage you’re just trying to get out there, get the X’s and O’s out there,’ senior captain Greg Rommel said. ‘Get people in the right spots. Get some guys some experience. Just try to get ready. Just test the waters.’

Rommel, who redshirted last season after suffering an injury, stressed the importance of the new starters on offense learning how each other plays during the course of an actual game.

Desko said it’s been hard to gauge so far how well the team works together because most of its practice time has been spent preparing in a half-field setting. At practices, the team must work around the Carrier Dome’s basketball court which covers up part of the lacrosse field.

‘It’s like practicing basketball on a half court,’ Desko said. ‘To get your conditioning, to get your ups and downs, your fast breaks, you need a full field.’

Desko believes, for the scrimmages, it’s more important to concentrate on how SU is performing than worry about analyzing the opponent, especially since the games usually are shortened and played with a running clock.

Less scouting is done to plan for an exhibition match than a regular season game, Desko said. Instead he hopes the players will put their attention toward making sure they are playing their own game, rather than worrying about stats and skills of their opponents.

One of the areas on the turf Desko will be keeping a particularly close eye will be the Orange’s defense. SU’s fast-paced, up-and-down style of play puts increased pressure on Syracuse’s defense. Over the past couple seasons, the defense has been held responsible for the Orange’s failures, such as SU’s, 17-10 loss to Virginia last year in the Final Four.

Senior defenseman and team captain Steve Panarelli thinks this Sunday’s scrimmage will provide the first test if this year’s defense is up to the task of improving on previous Syracuse team’s defensive disappointments.

‘I think we got a little bit of a chip on a shoulder after last year,’ Panarelli said. ‘We gave up a bunch of goals in a lot of the games that we lost especially in the last game that we lost. We need to move on obviously we weren’t happy with he end result. And now we start Sunday.’

Syracuse players believe they have the talent to win it all this year, and many of them just feel it is a matter of simply spending time together on the field in a game setting.

‘You kind of want to silence the critics a little bit,’ Panarelli said. ‘And show them that we got a legit defense and show them we got some really good players. I think with (goalie) Pete (Coluccini) with a year and all these guys coming back. And there’s no reason we can’t do better than what we did last year.’

Published on February 1, 2007 at 12:00 pm