With just more than three minutes left in Syracuse’s game Saturday, the box score showed no reason for the Orange defense to be frustrated.

Johns Hopkins had scored four goals on 21 shots. SU caused 18 turnovers and killed off all three of its man-down situations with relative ease. Defenders Brian Megill and John Lade had just forced the Blue Jays to take their final timeout of the game after nearly getting another steal.

But by that time, even with all that success, SU’s defense was irritated.

As both teams jogged to their sidelines for the timeout, Megill’s emotions boiled over. The sophomore lifted his stick above his head and tomahawked it into the Carrier Dome turf.

‘It gets kind of frustrating after a while,’ Megill said.

He was frustrated because not getting that turnover meant the Blue Jays would get to play another game of keep-away. They did it for minutes at a time on most of their possessions.

Even though Syracuse would eventually find a way to pull out a 5-4 win over Johns Hopkins in double overtime, JHU imposed its preferred style of play throughout the game. And that style of standstill, stalling lacrosse got to the Orange defense and nearly allowed the Blue Jays to steal a win.

‘Holding onto the ball at the end for almost five minutes, it kind of makes us a little frustrated,’ Megill said. ‘We were able to keep our composure. … And when it came down to it, we made the plays we needed to make.’

Hopkins’ game plan became clear on its first possession of the game. Already down 1-0 after SU scored just over one minute into the action, the Blue Jays won the ensuing faceoff and held the ball in the offensive zone. With little movement off the ball and no intent of a move toward goal by the ball carrier, JHU drew a stall warning. It was the first of many throughout the night.

Megill eventually intercepted a pass to end that first possession without any semblance of a threat from the Blue Jays. Hopkins wouldn’t register a shot until more than five minutes in, despite having possession for about half that time.

‘We played the way we needed to play it with this young team,’ JHU head coach Dave Pietramala said. ‘We’ve played them differently, and we’ve beaten them differently. With a different team next year and them having the young team and us having a veteran team, maybe we play them differently then.’

Other teams have tried to play this type of game against Syracuse this year, hoping to slow down the Orange’s high-powered attack. But none of them have had the success Hopkins had Saturday.

In the second quarter, the strategy worked to near perfection. Syracuse took just two shots in the entire period. JHU faceoff specialist Matt Dolente won all four faceoffs in those 15 minutes, allowing the Blue Jays to keep the ball for what seemed like an indefinite period of time.

After taking a 3-1 lead, Hopkins won the faceoff and held onto the ball for the next three minutes. By the time Megill forced a turnover with 4:30 left before halftime, SU still hadn’t even taken its first shot of the period.

‘I think Hopkins had a good game plan for them coming in,’ Syracuse head coach John Desko said. ‘I thought they were well coached and did a real nice job of getting the kids to understand to be patient at the offensive end.’

And although SU’s defense did shut down most of the rare advances JHU tried to make, the strategy still frustrated the Orange. Megill said senior goaltender John Galloway resorted to yelling at the Blue Jays to take shots, something he has done throughout his career when teams try to stall.

Hopkins rarely obliged. The Blue Jays took just two shots in the fourth quarter. Their last possession — the one during which Megill slammed his stick into the ground — lasted more than two minutes without the slightest move toward goal.

And though it bothered Galloway, Megill and the rest of the Orange defense, Pietramala said he would not apologize for playing that style, especially because it nearly led to a win.

‘We played the way we needed to play,’ he said. ‘The only thing wrong with today is we came up on the shorter end.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on March 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm