The Syracuse men's lacrosse team recently clawed its way back to the .500 plateau at the faceoff X before Tuesday night's contest. When it plays Rutgers Saturday at the Carrier Dome, it will have to try and get back up to that mark again.
Cornell dominated Syracuse inside the X Tuesday night, winning 16-of-27 battles inside the circle. Syracuse had no answer for Cornell's faceoff man John Glynn, who won 15-of-25 faceoffs.
Syracuse used a four-man rotation to try and counter the Big Red in the X, but none of Syracuse's players could find success. Tim Harder won 5-of-11 inside the X, Josh Knight won 5-of-12, and Scott Kahoe and Gavin Jenkinson combined to win 1-of-4.
Though the Orange struggled in the X, only winning 4-of-14 at halftime, it still managed to build an 8-5 halftime lead that ballooned to as much as 11-5 during the contest.
"I think through the faceoff X we felt like we had some opportunities unsettled and in numbers," Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni said. "When their faceoff guy was running on the field, we created 6-on-5's, and Pierre Derkac scored two goals off that. So we felt we wanted to rush the ball. But then, all of a sudden, we stopped making plays."
The key for Syracuse was possessions. Though Cornell threw the ball around the field and had many sloppy turnovers, Syracuse was crisp and methodically worked its offense to ensure the best result of its trips down the field.
"I thought the guys looked like they really wanted to go quickly," SU head coach John Desko said. "We were playing with a fair amount of emotion tonight and I thought we were a little bit sloppy in our execution of the offense, so we wanted to get the ball around a couple of times." Syracuse faces familiar goalie Desko saw that Jake Myers played the last 19 minutes against Harvard in the goal for Cornell. Desko said he also knew Myers would be the most comfortable inside the Carrier Dome Tuesday night as No. 3 Cornell and No. 5 Syracuse faced off. After all, Myers, the Cornell senior is a former Orange. Myers played for Syracuse from 2005-2006 as the backup goalkeeper behind Pete Coluccini. But after his sophomore year, he transferred to Cornell, where he still mostly plays backup goalie. "We certainly thought that was a good possibility we were prepared for either one," Desko said. Senior Kenny Nims was a freshman the last year Myers was at Syracuse. Nims said "we haven't gone against him in awhile and had a lot of respect for him." But that the team just wanted to rebound from Princeton and get some good shots off. Myers made 10 saves as a sophomore and one as a freshman. This season with the Big Red Myers has a 5.43 goals-against average and a .692 save percentage. Hurley hits 100 points Going into Tuesday night's matchup against Syracuse, Cornell attack Ryan Hurley sat at 97 career points. He tallied exactly three in his team's 15-10 loss to the Orange Tuesday, but it put him at 100 career points. Hurley recorded two goals and one assist for the Big Red. He is the third 100-point scorer on the current Cornell roster, joining midfielders John Glynn and Max Seibald. On the season, Hurley has 31 goals and five assists. On the 99th point Hurley registered, Syracuse goalie John Galloway appeared to have made the save, but the referees called it a goal. Galloway got up in the referees faces to confront them. But two of the referees stood in the goal with both hands in the air signifying the goal was good. mrehalt@syr.edu mkgalant@syr.edu
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