By Mike LickerStaff Writer

Princeton, N.J. – John Desko saw it coming all week in practice. The SU men’s lacrosse head coach thought midfielder Kevin Dougherty’s shot looked good. The graduate student, playing in his first season at Syracuse after spending four at Hofstra, was due for a strong performance.In the second half of Syracuse’s 14-12 win over Princeton on Saturday, Desko and the Orangemen were the beneficiaries of Dougherty’s strong practice week. Dougherty scored four goals, three coming in the second half. His final two scores tied and retied the game in the fourth quarter, paving the way for SU’s victory.’I wanted to go to him more in the first half,’ Desko said. ‘We talked about it at halftime and triggered the offense so he could get the ball on the wing and dodge. I thought he came up pretty big for us.’Coming into the game, Dougherty had scored three goals in SU’s first four games. But the left-hander found himself at an advantage against Princeton’s right-handed goalie, Dave Law. Desko said that Dougherty’s shots all went to Law’s off side.Dougherty scored SU’s first goal of the game off an assist from senior Sean Lindsay but was then silenced for the rest of the first half. Trailing, 7-4, at halftime, Lindsay urged his midfield unit to play more aggressively. They knew Dougherty could continue to get open with the Princeton defense focusing on Lindsay, Steve Vallone and Michael Powell.Because Syracuse has so many scoring options, Dougherty drew a short-stick defender. Typically, long sticks are more suited for defenders and are harder to score against. With the long-stick defenders guarding SU’s more potent offensive threats, Dougherty took advantage of the short-stick defender in the second half.’When they see all those other guys (Lindsay, Vallone and Powell) out there, they look at them first,’ Desko said. ‘He’s been getting the short stick and he’s been a real team guy and not selfish in any way. We wanted him to be a little more selfish today and go to the goal when he had the opportunities.’Said Lindsay: ‘They weren’t really sliding well. Last week we didn’t get the ball that much and maybe (Princeton) didn’t think our midfielders are capable, but we are. We take stuff like that personally and we started taking the ball to the goal real, real hard in the second half.’For Dougherty, it was finally the breakthrough game he has been looking for since joining the Orangemen. After spending three seasons at Hofstra, he sat out last year after suffering a season-ending ankle injury, leaving him with one year of eligibility. The Syracuse native chose to come home and finish his career.Dougherty’s last two goals came at the perfect times. His third score tied the game at 10 with 14:29 remaining. After the Tigers’ Mac Bryson gave Princeton an 11-10 advantage, Dougherty answered again with his final score, tying the game at 11 with 8:49 to play.’I’ve been wanting to beat these guys for three years and haven’t been successful,’ Dougherty said. ‘I don’t know. I might have put my socks on a different way this morning. I like having the ball all the time. I just try to get myself in the right position and play to what’s happening with the defense.’