Kevin Donahue understood the difficulty and knew time wasn’t on Syracuse’s side. Even with the Orange trailing significantly, the SU assistant coach tried to make it clear that rushing the offense wouldn’t result in quick goals.

‘You’re not going to score an 8-point goal,’ Donahue told his team. ‘We just have to chip at it away a little bit.’

The Syracuse offense may have listened, but its actions indicated the contrary. The Orange lost to Johns Hopkins, 17-9, marking the third time in five games this season in which SU failed to crack double digits.

Although the Orange’s offense lacked the spark that led to 14 goals against Georgetown last week, the attack didn’t exactly struggle. The problem was the Orange didn’t have the opportunity to hold onto the ball. Midfielder Steven Brooks scored his second straight hat trick and Kenny Nims added two goals. SU also finished 17-of-30 on faceoffs. But none of that success built a run because the Orange often lost the ball on wing play.

That resulted in quick scores for the Blue Jays and meant few chances for SU to start its own run, since the ball was kept out of the offense’s hands. Fewer chances resulted in little offensive momentum.

‘More than the possessions, I thought there were some critical possessions. There were times in the game where we really needed to have the ball,’ Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. ‘They were able to go on runs but I don’t think they went on any gigantic runs like they were capable of. There were some critical points where we got possession and we kept possession.’

Syracuse tried to make a run early in the game. Attackman Mike Leveille found Dan Hardy, who ripped a shot for the early 1-0 score at the 13:06 mark in the first quarter. Though JHU attackman Jake Byrne answered two minutes later, Syracuse kept the charge going when Leveille scored 19 seconds later.

It appeared to be the start of a back-and-forth affair. Instead, the Blue Jays ripped off eight unanswered goals. JHU pulled off the offensive surge due to Syracuse’s poor defense. Blue Jays goalie Jesse Schwartzman made 17 saves, but he admitted his team’s offense possessing the ball provided the easiest way for him not to worry about shots coming his way.

‘Our offense is our team’s best defense,’ Schwartzman said. ‘When they have the ball, there is zero chance that the opposing team can score. If we win faceoffs and hold the ball, it’s likely the other team won’t score.’

The offense showed chemistry but forced more shots after JHU’s run. The Orange felt that it had to score any time it possessed the ball. That’s because it knew it had limited chances.

‘It was frustrating watching them with the ball the whole time,’ Nims said. ‘It’s not good for us. Sometimes when we got the ball, we forced it more than we normally would because we felt we had to make something back.’

The Orange wasn’t as lucky as the Blue Jays, which had an ineffective defense to exploit. Johns Hopkins found wide-open shots and SU found a defense that tried to adapt to each individual tendency. Schwartzman acknowledged that preparing for Syracuse involved more than understanding the offense given much of it is predicated on individual creativity. So Schwartzman tried to have his defense force the Orange to its weak hand.

But the JHU defense didn’t have to worry too much. Not when it had an offense preventing the other side from scoring.

‘When you get in a game like this where the margin of goals is pretty lopsided, you’re definitely playing uphill,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘You tend to force it a little bit. We weren’t playing as relaxed and not as confident as we would be if it was even or if we had the lead.’

Published on March 19, 2007 at 12:00 pm