After his Denver team lost to Syracuse on Sunday, iconic head coach Bill Tierney started raving about his counterpart John Desko’s program.

He discussed SU’s consistency from year to year, how difficult it was to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome and the athleticism of this season’s team.

But Tierney kept consistently coming back to one thing: balance.

‘I believe in coaching, the way to prepare your team is the overload principle,’ Tierney said. ‘When you play Syracuse, you’re going to get overloaded. They’ve got great athletes.’

The talent overload has become a trademark of Syracuse lacrosse in recent years. Last year, two players were within three goals of team leader Stephen Keogh’s 31, and six players tallied more than 20 points on the season.

And that same balance showed Sunday against Denver. Five players tallied two goals apiece, showing the well-balanced attack should return in 2011.

‘I think, much like we’ve had the last few years, we’ve had different guys step up in different games,’ said SU head coach Desko. ‘Instead of relying on one person to score five or six goals in a game, we’ve been able to hurt people with a bunch of guys scoring one, two, three goals in a game.’

In 2010, seven different players tallied three goals or more in a game. The Orange thrived as opponents could not focus on shutting down one particular player.

Of that group, Chris Daniello, Cody Jamieson and Max Bartig graduated. Sophomore JoJo Marasco scored a hat trick against Princeton last year and takes over Daniello’s spot this season as the midfielder-attack hybrid. Redshirt junior Tim Desko has filled in for Jamieson at the other attack spot and was one of the five players to register two goals against Denver on Sunday. The Orange also has plenty of experienced midfielders to step in for Bartig, including seniors Jovan Miller, Jeremy Thompson and Josh Amidon.

And that list doesn’t include senior attack Keogh, who will likely find himself ranked among the program’s Top 10 goal scorers by the end of the year.

‘We want to keep it up, and we like to share it,’ John Desko said. ‘I think we’re pretty unselfish offensively. It’s something that makes us hard to cover.’

Despite the offensive display SU put on against Denver, it did take some time for the group to click in the preseason. In an exhibition match against Hofstra on Feb. 5, everyone struggled to score as Syracuse mustered just five goals in a loss.

By the next week, though, those issues were all but resolved as Keogh, Tim Desko and Marasco led the way, combining for eight of the team’s 11 goals in a preseason win over Maryland.

And against Denver, the offense showed it had come together.

‘I think we just had to get comfortable,’ Miller said. ‘I think it was a matter of when we played Hofstra, we still weren’t really clicking as a group. As time goes on, the more you practice, I think everything kind of falls into place.’

SU did just that against the Pioneers, as Denver couldn’t hone in on one player to shut down. None of the Orange players scored back-to-back goals. It wasn’t a hot stick that powered the offense. Rather, it was the players’ ability to capitalize on the opportunities they got.

That is what Denver head coach Tierney raved about most. The six-time national champion coach was fascinated with SU’s selflessness.

And he added that’s the type of performance he prefers.

‘They play so unselfishly, and they care so much about winning, and they don’t mind the extra pass,’ Tierney said. ‘You can see they get real excited when they score. They don’t care about who scores.

‘As a coach, I’d much rather see that than see one guy with seven (goals) and everybody else with nothing.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on February 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm