PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers midfielder Sean Battoni walked off the field late in the first half and looked down at his broken titanium lacrosse stick, crack running down the shaft. When he got to the bench, he snapped the stick over his right knee, breaking it into two pieces.

Battoni had reason to be mad. It was the stick that won him seven straight face-offs to open the game. Syracuse won almost half the face-offs in the game, but it only won two of seven in the first quarter, when Rutgers built its lead in its 14-10 win over Syracuse.

‘Face-offs in the first half just killed us,’ SU midfielder Sean Lindsay said. ‘They were able to score and get the ball right back. It was tough to get in a groove offensively.’

The Orangemen began the game with Geoff Keough taking face-offs. When he proved ineffective, Jake Plunket replaced him for a while in the second quarter before long-stick defender Steve Panarelli replaced him. Syracuse tried freshman Danny Brennan at the X in the third quarter before settling on freshman Jon Jerome for the rest of the game.

Jerome was the most successful Orangeman on the draw, winning seven of 10 face-offs in the third and fourth quarters. He almost facilitated a Syracuse comeback, winning multiple face-offs in a row, which allowed it to reel off three straight goals.

Stone cold

Rutgers goalie Greg Havalchak is used to hearing praise. Last year he was named the ECAC Rookie of the Year, the Inside Lacrosse Top Freshman in the Nation and the ECAC Defensive Player of the Year.

But it all means a little more when it’s coming from opposing coaches.

‘He’s terrific,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘He was definitely the best performance I’ve seen this year.’

Havalchak notched 21 saves, one short of a career high, and stopped SU’s high-powered offense for most of the day. At 225 pounds, he’s the third-heaviest player on RU’s roster.

‘It’s tough to score on a goalie that big,’ Lindsay said.

In one three-second stretch in the first quarter, Havalchak made two diving saves to stone both Kevin Dougherty and Brian Nee.

‘He made some terrific saves,’ Desko said. ‘At that point, it just didn’t seem like the ball would drop in the goal for us today.’

Drop it like it’s hot

Syracuse had an unusually large amount of drops Saturday, some of which negated potential scoring opportunities. Michael Powell uncharacteristically dropped an easy outlet pass at midfield, which led to a lengthy RU possession. Brennan also dropped a pass that could have led to an SU breakaway.

‘At times, we take our possessions for granted,’ Dougherty said. ‘(Rutgers) was very efficient with its possessions while we were turning the ball over a lot, and it came back to bite us.’

This and that

Desko picked up a technical foul for yelling at the referees late in the fourth quarter. … Powell attempted two over-the-shoulder shots. Havalchak stopped the first one, the second flew wide of the goal. … Referees checked the sticks of Nee and RU’s Dan Achatz before the fourth quarter started. The referees ruled that both sticks were legal.

Published on April 18, 2004 at 12:00 pm