AMHERST, Mass. – Head coach John Desko lumbered down the sidelines toward the end of the first half, threw his visor to the ground and screamed at the officials. The calls weren’t going his way, and with a potential All-American goalie staring Syracuse down, SU wasn’t getting the man-up opportunities it needed to be effective.

‘In a game like this when you’re trying to get to their goaltender, you want to get a man up, it’s going to help our cause,’ Desko said. ‘But we weren’t getting any calls, they were whacking us on the head and pushing us with their free hands and we weren’t going to get a call.’

But amid a first-half dogfight, cooler heads prevailed for the Orange, forcing Massachusetts out of its opening-period tempo while ringing Minutemen goalie Doc Schneider out for six second-half goals on its way to a 10-3 win here at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.

‘They were giving us a little slash after the whistle,’ attack Stephen Keogh said. ‘They played good defense but we just stuck with it and got a couple goals.’

Before the Orange could break through, it had to endure a tenacious UMass defensive front. Fueled by its largest lacrosse crowd of 13,722 people in program history, the Minutemen came out from the opening faceoff and began gunning for the Orange midfield and attack.

After a successful scoring drive the possession before, midfielder Patt Perritt was crushed by UMass defenseman Brennan Mack, prompting Perritt and Mack to scuffle before being separated by the officials.

Minutes later, Perritt was tossed to the ground again, this time by defenseman Dennis Lynch. Much to the chagrin of Desko and his players, the officials refused to blow the whistle.

‘You try not to let it affect you,’ defenseman Sid Smith said. ‘It’s in the back of your mind though; you have to play to the officials. It can get frustrating but that kind of stuff is out of our control.’

Without getting the calls (there were zero penalties in the first half), Syracuse couldn’t gain a man-up edge on the Minutemen. And the shots SU was getting off were weak, many went straight into the pocket of Tewaaraton Trophy candidate Schneider, who recorded 17 saves.

After the frustrating first half, Desko talked to his team about keeping its composure. It was obvious the referees were allowing for a physical game, so he adjusted his offense instead.

The free-form attack became more methodical, waiting for the UMass offense to make a mistake, a bad slide and then pounce. Shots from 15 yards out in the first half became close-range strikes – it didn’t need the calls anymore.

Just over three minutes into the second half, midfielder Matt Abbott struck first with a shot past Schneider. The charge was on.

Midfielder Scott Kahoe was up next a minute later, firing a bullet that found the back of the net.

‘We tried not to make mistakes and stop overplaying them,’ Desko said. ‘We tweaked the offense to try and get a couple closer shots on Schneider. It was a nice change up because we got those goals early on in the fourth quarter.’

And with that the aggravated Orange team from the first half emerged level headed in the second half.

Although Keogh admitted the first half was frustrating, he knew his team would pull it out. Dealing with the hacks after the whistle, the no-calls, that’s to be expected, he said. They just needed to remind themselves of that.

‘It’s just part of lacrosse, you know?’ Keogh said. ‘Besides it was a beautiful day and it was a great atmosphere out there.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on April 26, 2009 at 12:00 pm