Since sophomore midfielder Pat Perritt was suspended for being charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, sophomore Greg Niewieroski has replaced him on the first midfield line. He joined Greg Rommel and Steven Brooks the past two games against Binghamton and Johns Hopkins.

Niewieroski scored two goals against Virginia on March 3 and Georgetown on March 10, but that was when he played at attack. He scored one goal against Binghamton as a midfielder. During Niewieroski’s freshman year, he switched between attack and midfield. Last year, Niewieroski missed SU’s first two games from an ankle injury. But he appeared at attack in a limited role against Georgetown on March 10, 2006. But that night, Niewieroski was involved in an off-campus incident that resulted in skull and facial injuries requiring surgery and a medical redshirt.

Up until Syracuse’s game against Johns Hopkins, Niewieroski played the second attack line, often alongside Kenny Nims and Dan Hardy, who played with him in the Empire State Games in 2003. Given SU head coach John Desko and teammates have labeled Niewieroski one of the top finishers for SU, Desko’s decision to start Niewieroski at midfield has raised questions.

‘He’s been finishing the ball well,’ Desko said. ‘Given that, he had a couple goals in the last couple of games against Georgetown and Virginia. We felt with (Greg) Rommel and (Steven) Brooks out there, we didn’t need Greg to do a heck of a lot with the ball.

‘He’s a better finisher than most of the other guys. With Brooks and Rommel doing things, he can get looks in open spots. Having him be an ex-attackman gave us a nice invert with it also. But nothing really went well (against Johns Hopkins). So I don’t know if the game plan will work or not.’

Brendan Loftus, Matt Abbott and Max Bartig make up SU’s second midfield line. Rommel thinks Niewieroski is an easy teammate to play with, but he sees Niewieroski more comfortable at attack.

‘We like having Greg at attack more if we have a choice because he gives us that fourth option,’ Rommel said. ‘He can create a lot of matchup problems for people, especially coming from behind the cage. He has a big body, and playing against a team, their biggest guy will usually go against Hardy. When you throw Greg in there it can cause some problems.’

Little Change in Coluccini Pete Coluccini may not have gotten pulled in the second half against Binghamton, but he didn’t seem to bounce back since Syracuse’s loss to Johns Hopkins. That’s because he gave up 10 goals to the Bearcats, a team that failed to crack double-digits except against Marist. That team has yielded double-digit performances in three of its four losses.

But Coluccini and the SU defense did improve with worrying more about one-on-one matchups than defensive zone packages. But Coluccini still made mistakes and allowed Binghamton to score three straight goals in the fourth quarter to cut SU’s lead to 10-8. Binghamton made four goals on man-up situations. Coluccini finished with 10 saves.

‘You can’t really change your style that you’ve been playing your whole entire life so drastically in one week and expect it to work,’ Coluccini said. ‘You have to do what you’re doing all year round. It’s just a matter of seeing the ball and saving the ball. There were some shots I couldn’t get to and some bad luck.

‘But there were also times where I made saves I shouldn’t have made. In retrospect, as long as you play four quarters of lacrosse, you have an opportunity to win.’

Two weeks, three top 10 opponentsSyracuse will play three top-10 opponents in the next two weeks, including Loyola, Princeton and Cornell. The first test starts on Saturday, when the Orange visits the Greyhounds. At 3-3, midfielder Steven Brooks was pretty blunt with how SU needs to fare in its remaining games.

‘We have to win out the rest of the season,’ Brooks said. ‘These three early-season losses hurt us pretty well. We have Loyola and a strong schedule coming up. We have to take it one game at a time and win out the rest of the season.’

Published on March 25, 2007 at 12:00 pm