A few question marks floated around the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team prior to the season opener, mostly due to the departure of attackman Liam Banks, face-off specialist Chris Cercy and goaltender Rob Mulligan.

Saturday afternoon, the Orangemen put up 18 goals, won 20 of 31 face-offs and starting goaltender Jay Pfeifer stopped seven shots on the way to an 18-11 victory over Army in the season opener. The win, which gives Syracuse some reassurance before it embarks on a five-game road trip, was the 700th all time for the program. Only Johns Hopkins has more all-time wins, with 794.

Any questions?

Not about Mike Powell and the rest of the Syracuse attack. Powell notched a career-high eight points, including five goals, while fellow Carthage native Josh Coffman added seven points. The offense looked seamless despite the absence of Banks, who is ineligible.

Army managed to stay close until the Syracuse offense exploded at the end of the second quarter, scoring three goals in the last 36 seconds from — who else — Powell, Coffman and Mike Springer.

‘(The 700th win) is great for Syracuse University and the lacrosse program, and we’re very excited about that,’ head coach John Desko said. ‘To start our first game of the year, we put up 18 goals against a team that is traditionally very good defensively. We got off and running offensively.’

And the running start for the offense gave a confidence boost to Pfeifer, who made his first career start. The offense was so good he didn’t even have to finish the game, as Alex Mummolo and Nick Donatelli came in for fourth-quarter mop-up duty.

Pfeifer stopped seven shots and allowed six goals in his three quarters. His best save came late in the third when he stopped Army midfielder John Ryan, who took a wide-open shot from less than 10 yards. A follow-up shot hit the post. After the play, Donn Vidosh and Sol Bliss came over to pat Pfeifer on the helmet.

‘They’re always talking to me,’ Pfeifer said. ‘They’re always right there, helping us out. We’re all about supporting each other.’

While Pfeifer impressed his teammates, Army head coach Jack Emmer faulted his team for not taking enough quality shots.

‘I don’t think we tested him enough to draw any real conclusions,’ Emmer said. ‘He’s a decent stopper. His strength looks like he throws the outlet pass pretty well. With confidence, I’m sure he’s going to get better.’

He’ll need to be as Syracuse heads to No. 5 Virginia, which will surely test Pfeifer more than Army did, next weekend. Still, Pfeifer said he was relieved and reassured by his first victory.

The same can be said for junior Chris Bickel and freshman Jake Plunket, SU’s two face-off men who replaced Cercy. After a slow start, Bickel and Plunket dominated face-offs over the last three quarters.

In the first quarter, Army established the advantage, winning 4 of 7. But the Orangemen turned it around in the second to win 6 of 7. Much of that was due to better communication with the wingmen, who picked up several groundballs on scrambles after face-offs. Syracuse recovered 64 groundballs compared to Army’s 43.

‘In the beginning, I felt it was a lack of communication with the wingmen, just getting the ball out and coming up with the face-offs,’ Bickel said. ‘Obviously, we weren’t getting credit for it. As time passed on, we started getting more of the possessions and started getting the balls out to our wingmen in the right area. We did a good job boxing out their man and coming up with the ground ball.’

With offense, goaltending and face-offs all accounted for, only one question remained in the wake of the win.

Where is SU vulnerable?

Said Emmer: ‘I didn’t really see any weakness out there.’

Published on February 24, 2002 at 12:00 pm