Upstate Update
SU 10, UVA 11: The Orange Now Look For Answers After a Difficult Loss.
By: James Simmons
We are going to try something new in Update column this week. After mentioning a goal I will place the score in parentheses at the end of the sentence. SU will always be first, because, well, we are just better. Period.
Also, remember to visit twitter.com/orangelax and subscribe to get all of your SU lax updates.
Well, mid-term week is upon us. So in-between studying for those pesky things (and if you are curious, no my hockey class does not have a mid-term, actually still not sure how I’m getting graded in that…huh) and dishing out chicken parm’s and steak n’cheese’s at the local pizza shop up here at the ‘Cuse (someone has to pay the bills), I was graced by a second coming of Christmas, or a belated birthday present, whichever you want to call it, on Sunday. Let’s say it was a b-day present, after all I am the big 22, and of course for SU lax fans there is no holier number; maybe there is a connection? Anyway… In recent times the Syracuse, Virginia match-up has built itself into a premier game lacrosse fans can look forward to every regular season. Even with the new Big East Conference, SU managed to hold onto this gem of a match-up. Today’s game, for the second season in a row, featured the top two teams in the country fighting for the top spot in the polls, and more importantly bragging rights. For the last two years, this game has been decided by one goal; last year SU was edged out giving ‘Ginia the number 1 spot in the polls.
First Quarter
The first five minutes or so of the contest started off very bad for SU. The Virginia offense was clearly in control; even John Galloway who has been known as one of the best clearing goalies EVER had trouble getting the ball out of his end of the field. The Orange finally got their first possession and shot after about 5 minutes of play; by this point Galloway had already made 5, impressive, saves most coming from in close. However, even with the Cavalier’s offensive dominance, the damage during this stretch was limited to only 1 goal, scored after Jovan Miller turned over the ball and Virginia’s Rhamel Bratton capitalized (not to be confused with his twin brother on the team Shamel…seriously?) from about 15 yards out (0-1). The first sign of anything going on offensively for SU was an absolute rocket from Jeremy Thompson which slammed the top pipe. Tim Desko picked up his team with two, back-to-back tallies. The first score came at 9:04, shooting from the far-sideline and hitting low, stick-side. The next goal was recorded just under a minute later from the exact same spot on the field (1-1, 2-1). The only difference being that Desko went low off-stick side instead; they were Desko’s only two points of the game. Both goals were scored on a man-up situation occurring because of an un-releasable, unsportsmanlike penalty on Virginia defenseman Ryan Nizolek at 9:17. Nizolek looked as if he did a little too much talking after the play, and on the broadcast the viewers could hear Coach Starsia chastising the starter in what might be the most intense voice I have ever heard. R. Bratton hit the pipe on a dodge from up top giving quite a scare to the SU defense. The ball was recovered by ‘Ginia, and after a second shot, Medford, NJ native Chris LaPierre was charged with a push with possession acquiring a 30 second timeout in the penalty box. LaPierre who has been heralded as one of the top incoming freshman, committed a penalty which was obvious, stupid and very, well, freshmany; we’ll call it a frosh-penalty…froshalty…fralty? With time running out on the penalty, Stephen Keogh finally took advantage and had the next score at 5:16 on a quick turnaround shot from in close (3-1). Quarterbacking the play was attackman Chris Daniello who gave Keogh the pass as he cut through the middle, took one step, turned and fired tossing the net back. By this point in the game Daniello has assisted on each of SU’s 3 goals and each of those goals has come in man-up situations. Virginia would respond though. Half a minute later, after an illegal procedure penalty on the face-off, the 2009 ACC Rookie of the Year, Steele Stanwick, made a move at the top of the box, going up, curving back down, getting free off of a pick, and put away an unassisted bounce shot on Galloway finding its hole at about stick side high (3-2). An interesting note shown on the broadcast: Stanwick’s stick was shown during the game, and he is one of the few men left using the traditional, leather stringing. The period ended with another SU goal by Daniello off an assist from junior, midfielder Josh Amidon (4-2). Daniello’s goal came from a distance of over 20 yards away from the cage and hit the far-sideline corner dead on; very impressive. Once again it was another man-up goal for the ‘Cuse after Virginia senior, midfielder Mikey Thompson was busted for a very silly interference penalty; haven’t seen one of those calls in a while. The Cavaliers have been riding the SU clear hard all quarter, however it was a little too much, especially at the end of a quarter.
Starting attackman, Chris Daniello was involved on every SU point in the quarter, also not to mention that each of them came on man-up opportunities. The two most interesting statistics after the first period were clearly the face-off and extra-man opportunity numbers. SU went 1-7 at the face-off x, absolutely abysmal, especially for them. However Virginia shot themselves in the foot by giving up 4 extra-man opportunities and allowing the ‘Cuse to take advantage by going 4-4 on those opportunities in the first period. While the numbers say that SU went 5-6 on clears in the quarter, they were in actuality miserable on clears. Another big factor in the first was the play of John Galloway. The junior out of West Genessee High School, notched 8 saves on 10 shots on goal. Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman only had 1 save on 5 shots on net. Both teams missed the cage 3 times. Virginia won the ground ball battle decisively, 12-7. UVA seemed to dominate on time of possession, but again it was the 2:30 minutes of penalties that the ‘Hoos picked up in the first that killed them, especially with SU not having any infractions themselves.
Second Quarter
The second quarter started off a little better at x as Jeremy Thompson won the quarter’s opening face-off. Defensive stud, Bray Malphrus, seemed to force a turnover on the opening SU possession. However, the whistle blew, stopping him in transition, as the refs tagged him for another Virginia penalty, 1 minute for slashing. At this point, if this pattern keeps up, UVA’s penalties could have quickly become the deciding factor in this game. SU took advantage on the man-up with a goal from Thompson, assisted by Amidon, hitting the cage high; following the goal, SU was 5 for 5 on man-up opportunities (5-2).
It seemed as if the Cavaliers were already against the ropes in the second quarter; SU was building upon its lead and Virginia could not shake off the penalty issues. Then set in what we, at the end of the season, may consider the most disastrous quarters of the year for SU. A stretch of 28:23, yes TWENTY-EIGHT MINUTES AND TWENTY THREE SECONDS, where UVA went on a 7-0 run (with 1 of the goals coming in the third period). More importantly than the 7 goals, the time of possession eaten up by Virginia, and Syracuse’s absolute inability to score. The run began with freshman Matt White. White, who came into school as the #1 rated incoming attackman in the country (#4 overall), snuck a worm-burner past Galloway (5-3). The defense really let their goalie down on that score. Freshman Brian Megill decided to go with the stick check instead of the body check and junior Thomas Guadagnolo did not slide early enough allowing for the open shot. Tim Harder received a 1-minute illegal body check penalty. On the extra-man opportunity, Virginia’s Chris Bocklet, an upstate New York native, hit pay dirt at 7:09 going low on Galloway (5-4). Then at 6:55 Jovan Miller is called for an illegal body check, the second such call in a 1:05 span and only the second penalty of the game for SU. However the call was a very, very, questionable whistle as Miller seemed to be well within the rules. The replays showed merely a solid, physical hit on Virginia’s Malphrus. While in the box for a minute, it was Bocklet again on the man-up chance throwing off the Syracuse defense and getting Guadagnolo to jump into the proposed passing lane with an easy ball fake (5-5).
The next goal came from Rhamel as he grabbed the ground ball off of the face-off, charged down the far-side and put it away with force (5-6). UVA was able to then get out of a 30 second pushing penalty, another curious call by the referees, unscathed. Several SU turnovers followed. Brian Carroll picked up a goal and then R. Bratton hit a long, on-the-run shot blowing by Galloway, showing again the Orange goalie’s well-known weakness of stopping long-range shots (5-7, 5-8).
Heading into halftime Virginia led in shots, trampling SU 27-15. Face-offs got a bit better for SU in the second quarter but UVA still took 10 of 15. Galloway made a string of phenomenal saves in the first couple of minutes of the game, and took away 11 in the first half. Virginia was whistled for 5 penalties totaling 4 minutes while SU was called on just 2 penalties for 2 minutes. Combined, the two squads went 7-8 on extra man opportunities, and at the half Syracuse had still not scored an even-strength goal. John Galloway and the Virginia penalties that continue to come, have kept the game from being a blowout.
Third Quarter
The third quarter had little action throughout. The streak was almost broken at 14:20 after Daniello took a shot off the crossbar. Another UVA goal continued the Virginia offensive parade as Carroll hit his second of the game and was assisted by Ryan Nizolek (5-9). THe meat of the period was taken up by back and forth possessions resulting in very little. Finally, with eight seconds left in the quarter, Miller ended the Virginia streak pulling a split-dodge move, heading to the far-side, and hitting the goal on the run (6-9). Six off-net shots were the problem for the SU offense in the third. A promising note for SU in the third was their face-off specialists going 3-3.
Fourth Quarter
After starting the game very unsettled on both sides, the end of the game was characterized by settled possessions. For the Orange to take home the “W” at this point their offense had pick themselves up. R. Bratton hit his 4th goal of the game, burning Joel White with speed and beating Galloway near-side post, low (6-10). Keogh returned the favor to Virginia, taking advantage of a good match-up for him, and forcing his way inside with his speed and size (7-10). Half a minute later, Cody Jamieson, after getting benched for a few minutes after failing to produce any kind of offense, was finally heard from as he battled up and around the crease to put an easy one by Ghitelman (8-10). Now within 2 goals, SU continued to put on the offensive pressure. A battle for possession at midfield ensued before a push without possession was called on SU. An incredible blunder by the officials however, as they gave UVA the ball just above the SU box when play should have been started well back into UVA’s territory. This mistake essentially gave the ‘Hoos a 30 yard head start and leaving the orange players confused as Stanwick took the ball down on what ended up being just about a two-on-nothing lay-up (8-11). Horrible, horrible call by the referees, and unfortunately it was a call that ended up deciding the game. Being now down by 3, the ‘Cuse tried to make another comeback. SU managed a long possession followed by 2 goals within 5 seconds of each other. Daniello hit up Ghitelman with the quick-stick from Jamieson (9-11). Then Thompson did his thing and off of the face-off made Virginia sorry for not covering him, taking a side-armed shot and hitting cage top-corner, off-stick (10-11). Down by 1, SU now had just over five minutes left in the game to beat or tie Virginia. After an SU shot out of bounds Ghitelman beat the Syracuse offense for possession on a very important play. The Orange get the ball back within seconds though, as Guadagnolo made a great defensive play forcing the take-away. After a timeout call by Coach Desko and with just over a minute left in the game, the Orange came out and had some serious trouble, first getting the ball out from behind the cage and then getting a good shot look. Finally the ball was turned over on a poor pass. UVA got the ball back with only seconds left on the clock, and were able to play it out, ending the longest winning streak in the country as well as knocking off the #1 team in the nation.
Take-Away
Well the 7,501 in attendance sure got their money’s worth, although I think we all would have preferred this one go to overtime. This game made it clear that while SU belongs in the top 5 they still have a lot to work on. Face-offs were a problem in the first half, especially in the first quarter, which is actually uncharacteristic of this team. Prior to Sunday’s game, Gavin Jenkinson and Jeremy Thompson were 3rd and tied for 8th respectively in face-off win percentage nationally and Syracuse as a team was third in the category. Turnovers plagued both teams on Sunday, but for the Orange they just seemed to keep coming at the wrong times. John Galloway made a valiant effort in net today and although his defense put more pressure on him than they should have, he managed to pick up 18 saves including 8 in the first quarter. While John Lade did dress, he did not play in the game. Getting the Second Team Pre-Season All-American back on the field is a priority for SU. Another glaring issue from the game was the lack of offensive production from SU at even strength. It was not until Miller’s goal with :08 seconds left in the third quarter until Syracuse scored a goal against an un-penalized Virginia team. Finally, I hate to throw this in there, but I think for anyone watching the game, the most decisive play of the game came just prior to the final UVA goal by Stanwick. While Syracuse squandered plenty of opportunities, I just keep coming back to the fact that the winning goal came on a 2-on-0 play created by a referee mistake or oversight, or whatever you would like to call it.
Syracuse will have a week to digest this loss and prepare to face Georgetown at the Dome at 2PM. They game will be featured on ESPNU.
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