Sergio Salcido realized in fall ball that defenses wouldn’t sag off him this season. His 2016 breakout — from five points in two seasons to 53 in one — made him a target. Defenses slid harder and earlier and, often, with a double-team.

The 5-foot-7 midfielder came from a non-lacrosse hotbed of Winter Park, Florida. He walked on at Syracuse. He tore his ACL freshman year. He has constructed a career by bulldozing expectation and an extra defender wouldn’t change a thing.

So, Salcido said he forced shots, trying to fulfill the role he’d flourished in the season prior. Then, Salcido said, team director of operations Roy Simmons III sat him down before the season and told the redshirt senior he was the No. 1 concern for opposing defenses. Salcido needed to adapt his game.

“(Defenses) don’t want me to score because they know I’m the motor of the offense,” Salcido said. “You got other guys, Jordan (Evans) and Nick (Mariano) and Nate (Solomon) and (Brendan) Bomberry, all those guys are doing great, but they don’t want me to score. They don’t want me to get things going, so it’s a maturity thing. If you got to be a feeder then you’ve got to be a feeder.”

Salcido understood his role had evolved, so he looked up the SU midfielder single-season assist record — which JoJo Marasco set at 42 in 2013, Salcido’s redshirt season — and made it his goal. Despite missing about the first six weeks of practice with right foot and ankle injuries this season, Salcido compensated by adding new workouts, learning to mask dodges and exploiting aggressive slides for 28 assists, two of which won overtime games. His 2.5 dimes per game are on pace to challenge Marasco’s record if No. 1 Syracuse (10-1, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) plays deep enough into the postseason.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever had a player come as far as Sergio has,” said SU head coach John Desko, who’s been with the program 37 years. “He has a great first step, drawing the defender’s slide early. That’s why you’re seeing his assists up.”

Salcido honed that first step this offseason, knowing he needed to cut faster and accelerate and decelerate quicker within dodges. He went to Jon Davis, his trainer in high school whom Salcido still talks to before every game, and Davis instructed Salcido to do squats with 200 pounds on the bar and 100 pounds hanging off it on hooks. Then, when he descended, the hook weight slid off and Salcido exploded upward.

This season, head coaches from Army, Johns Hopkins and Duke have cited Salcido’s quickness and change of direction as the reasons why he’s a matchup issue.

Once Salcido dodges a defender with that first step, he forces the defense to decide: Leave Salcido open from about 15 yards, where he scored the majority of his 29 goals last season, or slide aggressively and shut off shooting lanes, which in turn opens passing lanes.

The trick, attack Jordan Evans said, is that Salcido hasn’t allowed defenses to settle on him as a feeder after dodging by appearing like he’s cutting to score. Because sometimes he is. Salcido has 12 goals on 65 shots (.185 percentage) this season, and presenting a two-pronged problem only ups sliding urgency.

“We’ve been saying this for years as analysts that (midfielders) need to improve the passing game,” ESPN lacrosse analyst Mark Dixon said. “If you’re just a one-trick pony and you’re dodging to shoot, you become much easier to defend.”

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As soon as Salcido sees the slide coming, his inner instinct assumes control. He spends hours per week with assistant coach Kevin Donahue scouting video and reviewing Krossover Film Exchange, which allows players to review every single play they’ve been involved in for an entire game. Salcido scouts himself, then his teammates, then defenses. He also talks to Marasco and ESPN lacrosse analyst Paul Carcaterra about once per week. In each conversation, he hopes to glean a nugget that reveals an edge.

As the defense slides and recovers, Salcido has usually seen it before. Syracuse’s other five shooting threats set up in their spots to stress the defense, and from there Salcido calls it “muscle memory.”

When he dodges down the left alley, one of his most common moves, he looks to roll back. If the slide comes, he said he knows the next open man. If it doesn’t, he has a step on his defender to get a shot off.

“But the way it’s been this year,” Salcido said, “I haven’t been able to come out of a roll and shoot. I keep my head up and the first thing I’m looking for is that slide guy. Either way, I know my backside’s going to be open at a certain point. It all comes down to being a threat.”

On March 18 at then-No. 14 Johns Hopkins, the ball swung to Salcido in overtime. The SU midfielder noticed JHU’s sophomore longstick Robert Kuhn rotate onto him, and Salcido took advantage. He dodged left, gained a step on Kuhn and started his roll back. A glimpse out of the corner of his eye confirmed what Salcido already knew, so he dished to an open Bomberry in front of the net. Bomberry pocketed the game-winner.

That crease feed symbolizes Salcido’s progression as a passer. The most important facet of the role, Salcido said, has been knowing the pass to make and the not to make. Salcido analyzes during a dodge which teammates he sees as well as where they are. Feeds to the crease, where it gets handsy and physical, make Salcido particularly wary. Except to Bomberry, “because that’s his job.”

After his game-winning feed to Bomberry, Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala stared at the postgame statistic sheet searching for answers that wouldn’t come. He rubbed his chin.

“The last one,” he said, “Salcido goes down the left-handed alley, like he always does. He rolls back, and we knew it was coming. We went to it, because we didn’t want to let him have his hands free and shoot. Then he passed.”

Published on April 18, 2017 at 11:56 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR