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ITHACA, N.Y. – Who knows what would happen if Steven Brooks put his right sock on before his left sock?

The Syracuse midfielder isn’t about to find out. He’ll keep on putting every single piece of his equipment on from left to right. He’ll keep on listening to the same music and praying to his mom. And the Orange will keep on winning.

‘If I don’t put all of my stuff on left-to-right, then I get rattled,’ Brooks said.

Behind the numbing, routine consistency it’s maintained all season, No. 2 Syracuse looked completely unfazed at Schoellkopf Field, trouncing No. 5 Cornell, 15-8, for SU’s seventh straight win.

At some point exhaustion is supposed to set in. The Orange (9-1) is supposed to get a wakeup call. One letdown game. One trap game. One hiccup along a smooth, effortless season – especially after a semi-surprising demotion in the national rankings from first to second this week.

Tuesday night had the makings of such a letdown. In the past four games of the 88-year-old Syracuse-Cornell rivalry, no team has won by more than two goals. The Big Red had been on its own seven game win streak, outscoring its opponents, 87-42, during the span.

But the Orange played with the never-in-doubt confidence it has embodied this season and handed Cornell its most lopsided loss in five years.

‘Coming in here, everybody predicted us to lose,’ Brooks said. ‘I thought it would be closer, but the offense executed well, and the defense played phenomenal against one of the best middie groups in the country.’

Brooks smiled into a squint, turned and pointed to the far-side scoreboard with a suave sense of calm.

‘We came out here and played smart and executed well, as you can see on the score.’

It’s a sense of tranquility the consistent Orange maintained throughout the game. Nineteen seconds in, Cornell’s Rocco Romero fired a shot past SU’s John Galloway. No visible panic. Syracuse answered 90 seconds later when senior Mike Leveille circled around the Cornell cage and whipped a low scoop shot into the net.

Less than four minutes later, Cornell’s Andrew MacDonald was flagged for a slashing penalty. Syracuse’s man-up offense – which has scored a goal in every game this season – began whipping the ball around the attack zone. Kenny Nims nestled into a gap, Leveille found him and Nims easily flushed it.

Syracuse never trailed again.

‘We can’t panic,’ Brooks said. ‘You gotta expect that kind of stuff. You’re going to be up, and you’re going to be down. It’s all about how you execute and keep running your offense.’

Syracuse’s defense held Cornell scoreless through the second quarter – a far cry from the punching bag that surrendered 50 shots and 16 goals in last year’s heartbreaking, last-second loss to the Big Red. Behind Leveille (five goals, one assist) and Nims (two goals, five assists), SU methodically built 7-3 and 10-4 leads. Cornell’s John Glynn scored two goals in a two-minute span at the start of the fourth quarter to slice the Orange’s lead to 11-7. But again, no panic.

The Orange lambasted Cornell with four goals in a two-minute stint of its own to secure the win. Despite just a two-day layoff from its win over Princeton, Syracuse showed no fatigue. In three of its previous four games, Syracuse has played plodding, slow-it-down offenses. Through it all, SU’s approach never changed.

The offense hasn’t let up – Syracuse has taken at least 40 shots in every game this season. And assistant coach Lelan Rogers’ refined defense remained pickle-lid tight. Cornell’s midfield duo of Max Seibald and John Glynn came into the game with a combined 23 goals. On Tuesday, the duo only had five goals.

‘Last season was a great lesson for us,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘We haven’t had a letdown yet, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do the rest of the season.’

Added Nims: ‘We’re all going toward a common goal, especially after a season like last year. Having to go through the whole summer with people saying, ‘Ahh, what happened? What’s wrong?’ We use it for motivation every game.’

Syracuse is one win away from doubling its win total in 2007, as the payback tour continues. For the fifth time, Syracuse defeated an opponent it lost to last season.

But still, no acknowledge of resurgence. The routine doesn’t change.

‘Any team can easily beat us,’ Brooks said. ‘We’re still the top team. Everybody’s going to come to play. We just need to execute like we did today and just keep winning.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on April 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm