John Desko had seen this before.

He saw a shifting Army defense bottling up the attack of his Syracuse men’s lacrosse team, long poles flaring out to clip players and cut off passes.

He saw Army goalie Adam Fullerton blocking shot after shot, racking up 12 saves in the first half.

It was all too familiar.

‘It looked a bit like last year,’ Desko said, referring to Army’s win over Syracuse in week two last season, in which the Orange scored just six times and Fullerton starred.

It was enough to send a shiver of déj vu down Desko’s back – and convince him to change his offense.

Switching to a motion-based attack to open things up in the second half, the Orange held on for an 8-7 win over the Black Knights in front of 4,656 fans at the Carrier Dome.

After trailing 3-2 at the half, Desko switched to a double crease offense, with an emphasis on moving and cutting without the ball, to overcome Fullerton and the physical zone protecting him, after a frustrating first half in which No. 8 Syracuse (2-0) outshot the Black Knights (1-1), 26-12.

With players sifting through the Army defense, the shots came at point-blank range, a difficult task even for Fullerton. The Army goalie had just one save in the second half.

Senior attack Mike Leveille – who else? – led the scoring for the Orange with four goals and two assists, his second six-point game in a row.

Two fourth-period goals by Leveille pushed the Orange lead to 8-5 at 9:17 mark. From there on out, the Orange stalled in its own zone, trying to burn out the remaining minutes.

Even still, Army tucked a pair past freshman goaltender John Galloway, who played the entire game for the first time this season. With the score close, Desko shut down the goalie carousel he’d run for the past three weeks. Junior Pete Coluccini, the starter the past two seasons, did not see the field.

Desko was fine with that.

‘We’re 2-0, and we want to build on it and get ready for (Virginia) next week,’ he said.

Sunday was an important win, considering Syracuse is 2-0 for the first time since 2004. An important win considering who SU plays next week, No. 3 Virginia (2-0) at Saturday’s Face-Off Classic in Baltimore.

And important considering the Orange statistically owned the game.

The only close number was the score. Just like last year, Syracuse controlled the possession. Led by senior Danny Brennan, it won 13 of 18 face-offs. It dominated the midfield game, scooping 38 ground balls, twice as many as the Black Knights.

The problem?

Fullerton – who had 16 saves in the 8-6 win over the Orange last year – and the zone defense were in the way, a tough lock to pick.

‘Fullerton’s a good goalie,’ said junior attack Greg Niewieroski, who had a hat trick. ‘But I think we took some bad shots, made him look good at times too.’

Syracuse did. The zone clamped down and forced bad shots in the first half.

A laser from senior Steven Brooks in the first period flew past Fullerton and knocked down some padding surrounding he field. In the second, junior Pat Perritt corkscrewed in front of Fullerton and flung the ball high, nearly into the second level of seats.

‘I think we started to think about it before we took our shots,’ Desko said. ‘I think guys were starting to think about last year somewhat and how close the game was and low scoring.’

And all the while, the Army defense, led by seniors Jay Larson and Craig Massie, kept after the Orange, hacking and irritating them, shifting to plug up passing lanes.

‘It was physical,’ Brooks said. ‘They come out and play. They’re the Army.’

But Syracuse answered the bell, something it struggled to do last year. Week two of this journey towards redemption wasn’t smooth, but enough to get by.

‘At 2-0, I think we’ll just try to build on that and build our confidence level up,’ Desko said. ‘Obviously we’re going to see things that we need work on and show the guys from the film. But it’s definitely a lot better being 2-0 than 1-1 or 0-2.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on February 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm