Everywhere Sean Lindsay looks, he plays second fiddle to Michael Powell.

Powell is the star. Lindsay, the support.

Powell is the favorite to win the Tewaaratan Trophy. Lindsay, the overshadowed All-American, is a long shot for the trophy.

Powell wears No. 22. Lindsay wears 21.

On Saturday, Powell, starting at attack, scored SU’s first goal of the season 58 seconds into the game.

Less than a minute later, with 13:22 left in the first period, Lindsay scored SU’s second goal.

Apparently, even in the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team’s season opener, Lindsay couldn’t escape Powell’s shadow.

By the end of No. 3 Syracuse’s 19-15 win over No. 21 Army before 5,765 at the Carrier Dome, Lindsay again saw Powell outshine him. Powell’s eight points on three goals and five assists led Syracuse. But Lindsay’s four-goal outing still helped secure a victory, even if hardly anybody happened to notice.

Still, that’s fine by Lindsay.

‘I really don’t even think about stuff like that,’ Lindsay said. ‘I don’t even care how many goals I had as long as we get the W. This is my senior year. I don’t have time to worry about stuff like that. I just have one goal, and that’s to win the national championship.’

Lindsay scored two of SU’s six consecutive goals in a 10-minute period, taking Syracuse (1-0) from a 13-12 deficit to an 18-13 lead and eventual win.

Before Lindsay’s scoring spree, Syracuse looked in danger of losing its second consecutive season opener.

‘(In the) fourth quarter, we were up by one, and I just wanted that fourth quarter to fly by,’ Lindsay said. ‘I was thinking, ‘Is this thing ever gonna end.’ Then I think we got five in a row, so after that I was a little more comfortable.’

Lindsay poured in four goals in limited action, playing mostly in the third and fourth quarters, when Syracuse controlled the ball more.

Though Lindsay was announced in the starting lineup, he sat to start the game. The reason? Early in the first half, Army held most of the possession, leaving Lindsay, an offensive-minded midfielder, on the sideline.

‘First half, we only had the ball for a couple minutes,’ Lindsay said, ‘so you can’t really do much. We couldn’t really run. Sure, I would’ve liked to run a little more in that quarter, but I just gotta trust the coaches.’

But by the second half, Syracuse earned most of the possession, putting Lindsay on the field and giving the Orangemen a boost.

‘I knew I could take my guy to the rack,’ Lindsay said. ‘I just needed the ball. When I got it, I just wanted to take advantage of my opportunities. Fortunately, I had great shots and was able to put them away.’

Meanwhile, Powell shined. The senior, playing most of the game, whirled through as many as three Army defenders on his way to the goal, astonishing onlookers for most of the game.

‘I thought he was head and shoulders the best player today,’ Syracuse coach John Desko said. ‘He did a lot of different things in terms of trying to shut them off. He set up eight goals for us, dodging, just created a lot of opportunities.’

Much like Powell outshined Lindsay, Syracuse outperformed Army (0-1). Syracuse won 25 of 38 face-offs and outshot Army, 54-38.

The only major category Army beat SU in was groundballs, in which Army picked up 52 to just 48 for SU.

Despite what looked like a dominating enough effort – at least in the fourth quarter – Desko wants to see more improvement.

‘We have an awful long ways to go,’ Desko said. ‘It’s just going to take a lot of hard work every day. We have to keep improving, and we have to correct our mistakes. We want (our players) to be more patient with it than they were. We want the guys to understand how to play for an entire game.’

Published on February 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm