PHILADELPHIA — Stopping the Virginia offense from scoring poses a similar challenge as swimming against an upstream.

Although hard, it may work initially. But eventually the inevitable happens. A 17-10 loss to No. 1 Virginia – the inevitable is far from good for No. 5 Syracuse. The Cavaliers will enjoy Memorial Day with a championship matchup against Massachusetts – an 8-5 winner over No. 2 Maryland. And Syracuse will be forced to see if a team could, for once, stop Virginia.

Virginia’s 16 opponents this season have all realized stopping it offensively proves to be a near-impossible task. SU found itself the victim as the Cavaliers surged with eight first-quarter goals. By the end, five Virginia players finished with multiple goals. But credit Syracuse for at least trying to alleviate the damage in front of 49,562 at Lincoln Financial Field — the most ever to watch a lacrosse semifinal.

‘Usually an offense has one go-to guy,’ said Peter Coluccini, SU’s goalie who registered 10 saves. ‘Virginia has about four or five of those guys on the field at all times. Just to know that each guy on that field is equally dangerous as the next is kind of disheartening as a goalie. You always have to be ready for a good shot.’

The Orange found itself in a surprising position, opening the game with an early Brett Bucktooth score with 14:10 left in the first period. Bucktooth, who scored a team-high two goals along with Brian Crockett, rolled off his defender as he slid to attack midfielder Dan Hardy. That left Bucktooth wide open for the goal.

Virginia didn’t gain possession until the 12:45 mark. On its first series, the Cavaliers fired three shots on three separate possessions, all ending unsuccessfully. After the misses, though, Virginia regained possession off rebounds.

During this time, SU head coach John Desko stood on the sideline bending his knees, closely studying ways Syracuse could hold the Cavaliers.

Moments later, though, SU found out that UVa would score at the flip of a switch. Virginia stormed ahead and closed out the quarter with a six-goal lead. Freshman attackman Danny Glading zipped in front of the crease and scored for the 1-1 tie with 11:24 left.

From that moment on, Virginia prevented any chance for SU to build a momentum with its physical, imposing yet clean nature. After Virginia increased its lead to 6-1, UVa faceoff specialist Drew Thompson won the next faceoff and marched down the field for a goal with 6:13 left, only seven seconds after Virginia previously scored.

‘We talked in practice about the tempo of play and not getting caught by a fast tempo early on,’ Virginia head coach Dom Starsia said. ‘I think we’ve emphasized that and it has helped us get off to better starts.’

Nonethless, Syracuse won the faceoff battle, 30-17, satisfying some of the concerns the SU head coaching staff had coming into the game. In the Orange’s 20-15 loss to Virginia on March 4, SU finished 16-of-39 on faceoffs, allowing Virginia to dominate possession.

Even with the faceoff battle won on Saturday, Virginia defenders swarmed Syracuse and jumped on the chance to pick up any groundball or to knock the ball out of the sticks of SU.

‘They were able to go after us and put the ball back down on the ground,’ Desko said. ‘We needed our attack to get open even more than they did. That’s what Virginia does. They try to create chaos and put the ball back down on the ground.’

Although the tide turned, SU wasn’t about to drown just yet. In a sport that’s a game of runs, the Orange made it a game of quarters. In the second period, SU scored six of the last seven goals to close out the second quarter. One included a behind-the-neck goal by Dan Hardy and a Brian Crockett sling to close out the half.

Freshman midfielder Matt Abbott said the momentum shift caused Syracuse to feel encouraged heading into the locker room. It still faced a 10-7 deficit, but Abbott said the Orange held an attitude that its work it put in the second period could be duplicated again.

But it never was. Virginia attackman Matt Ward tallied two of his four goals to open the third quarter. SU never produced the offensive energy it made in the second period

‘It seemed like anytime we got a little bit of a run going, they’d come right back with a goal,’ Crockett said. ‘It kind of took the wind out of us a little bit.’

Published on June 13, 2006 at 12:00 pm