BALTIMORE – Syracuse men’s lacrosse head coach John Desko has seen it happen too many times this season.

Three times one of his players has fallen to injury early in the first period, making Desko scrap part of his game plan and implement a new one, hoping the revamped strategy will work even with a depleted lineup.

Following No. 13 Johns Hopkins’ 14-9 victory over No. 10 Syracuse, Blue Jays’ coach Dave Pietramala nailed it head-on. The hit Matt Nader inflicted on SU midfielder John Carrozza in the first period proved to be the biggest play along with the Blue Jays’ opening goal.

‘We haven’t hit anybody; it’s about time we hit somebody,’ Pietramala said. ‘I kid you not. Quote me word for word. We haven’t hit anybody. Today we hit three or four people, which was nice because quite honestly a big hit can change the game.

‘I certainly hope (John Carrozza) is OK. I thought it was a good, clean hit. That lifts your team. Unfortunately a boy gets hurt. You never want that. But a big part of that face-off battle is taking one guy out of the equation there.’

Defender Dustin Palmer lofted the ball to Carrozza, following Desko’s strategy to push it up the field to create transition opportunities. But as soon as Carrozza caught the ball, Nader body-checked him, striking him on the right side of his face.

With 8:30 remaining in the first period, Carrozza lay on the field motionlessly as the SU coaching staff and trainers gathered around him to assess his injury.

Minutes later, Carrozza stood up and walked to the bench, slapping his teammates with a high-five before sitting down. It proved, as Desko noted afterwards, Carrozza is ‘probably one of the toughest if not the toughest guy on the team’ with his 6-foot, 207-pound frame. But it wasn’t enough to withstand the direct hit.

Desko couldn’t address specifically how severe Carrozza’s head injury was, but Desko agreed the midfielder’s status may be ‘questionable’ for SU’s next game against Hobart on March 28. Carrozza, however, traveled back with the Orange from Baltimore on the team bus.

Carrozza joins three quality midfielders – Steven Brooks, Greg Rommel and Greg Niewieroski – on the injured list. Brooks sprained his left knee in the first quarter against Army on Feb. 25. Rommel suffered a right thumb injury after being checked in the first quarter during the Virginia game on March 4.

After suffering an ankle injury before SU’s first scrimmage against Fairfield on Feb. 6,Niewieroski played attack for limited minutes against Georgetown on March 10. But afterward, Niewieroski was injured for an unspecified off-the-field incident. Desko said Niewieroski underwent treatment last Thursday and is likely out for the season.

After Carrozza left the game, SU played more zone defense, but that idea was quickly scrapped once Blue Jays attack Paul Rabil scored one of his four goals 20 seconds later to make it 4-1. Johns Hopkins already scored early, but with a team Pietramala thinks has lacked heart and toughness as of late, the hit provided a momentum boost.

Carrozza didn’t start with the first midfield line, but he primarily took care of the face-off duties. Before the hit, Carrozza gained possession on 2-of-4 of the face-offs. By the end, Johns Hopkins won on 18-of-26 face-offs. Before playing JHU, Syracuse went 42-of-88 (47.7 percent) while Greg Peyser and Jamison Koesterer have combined to win 45-of-75 (60 percent) face-offs for Johns Hopkins. Peyser fared well again on Saturday as he went 12 of 16.

‘We felt the guys we (still) have up here, we’re still a very good lacrosse team,’ Desko said. ‘But it was disappointing to see John go down. It’s another injury fairly early in the game, which forces you to adjust personnel wise and strategy wise … now you’re mixing and matching people. It takes awhile to adjust to it.’

Published on March 20, 2006 at 12:00 pm