Kenny Lassiter’s position switch was only supposed to last for a couple tournaments. At least that’s what his then-club coach told him.

“I just tried it out because my coach really wanted me to be a defender,” Lassiter said. “So I was like, OK, I’ll just try it even though I didn’t like it, and I played decently.”

Syracuse’s coaching staff saw him in his defensive cameo and recruited him to play defense at SU. The problem was that it was only time he played as a defender in his career.

After being listed as a defender and redshirting in his first season at SU, Lassiter switched positions in the spring of his freshman year and now has found a role in the Orange’s offense. His 6-foot-2, 180-pound frame ties him as the third-tallest and eighth-heaviest player, size SU’s forwards have rarely had in past seasons.

But Lassiter has just one goal on five shots and has started only one game. His frame holds potential, SU head coach Ian McIntyre said, but it’s just tough to see until he gets moving.

“He’s a potential enigma for this team,” McIntyre said. “When he turns it on, he can be unplayable; he’s got that physical strength, that power and he’s adding more of a consistency this year.”

Lassiter is the only 6-foot-plus forward the Orange has had in the last two years. McIntyre joked that Lassiter looks even bigger standing next to forward Chris Nanco, almost like two of him.

Size is a quality mostly found in SU’s back line this season and in past years with players like Skylar Thomas, Oskar Sewerin and Alex Bono. Nanco, a fellow forward and also Lassiter’s roommate, said Emil Ekblom was the team’s biggest forward that would hold the ball for SU last season.

Ekblom stood just 5 feet 11 inches and weighed 170 pounds.

“He’s a presence to hold up the ball for us up top so other smaller forwards can run off of him,” Nanco said.

Although Lassiter hasn’t started much this season, that’s just one of the potential roles he could fill.

Losing three of its top five scoring options has put SU in a bind offensively this season. The Orange has scored multiple goals just twice in six games this season. Four of its goals came in one game against UC Riverside.

Lassiter’s size makes him a potential target when SU is on the run and puts another option in the box on set pieces, one place the Orange lost some of its key options, like Thomas, after last season.

“If I can give him a little shove, get him off balance,” Lassiter said of how his size and speed help on set pieces, “or just like move around and just get him out of the way so I can hopefully score a goal.”

But his potential and ability have only matched up and shown on the scoreboard once this season.

Lassiter pushed a backheel from Nanco forward and to his left before ripping a shot to the low, right side of the net from just a few yards out. Although Bucknell goalie Mike Lansing dove and got part his hand on the ball, the ball bounced and its backspin carried it into the net.

The forward has already played in more games this season than in the rest of his career and scored a goal, but his potential is still largely waiting to be fulfilled.

“He’s just awkward, he’s bumbling, he looks like Bambi on ice sometimes,” McIntyre said. “… It’s when that body gets in motion he’s a real handful.”

Published on September 21, 2015 at 8:37 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati