FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Dave Pietramala held up his right arm to display an army-fatigue colored rubber bracelet to the crowd of media assembled in front of him.

Minutes earlier, his fifth-seeded Johns Hopkins team had completed its 10-9 upset of top-seeded Duke. It was the Blue Jays’ eighth consecutive win, a shocking stat for a team that six weeks earlier was 3-5 and losers of five straight.

Around that time, Pietramala’s players gave him the bracelet – colored such to represent the team was on a ‘mission’ to turn its season around.

‘I’m normally not a believer in things like this,’ said Pietramala, the Jays’ eighth-year head coach. ‘But I believed in what it meant to our team.’

Syracuse hasn’t resorted to such symbolic methods – or if the players have they aren’t letting on. But the Orange has made little attempt to veil that this season has been about restoring pride after last year’s 5-8 debacle.

Both teams will have the chance at the ultimate redemption Monday, when they face off in the national championship game at Gillette Stadium (1 p.m., ESPN). It will be the fifth time the two sides have played in the final (the series is tied 2-2).

On one hand, college lacrosse’s showpiece will be a matchup of the veritable old guard of the sport. Syracuse and Johns Hopkins have each won nine national titles – tied for the most all time. Of the last 36 national titles doled out, the two teams have combined to win half. The Blue Jays have won two of the last three titles, including last season’s.

So to hear Pietramala call Monday a ‘unique championship’ might sound strange, but it certainly holds some credence. Both teams have faced adversity, only to regroup and reinvent on their road back to this point.

‘I think we’ve both gotten through a difficult period,’ Pietramala said. ‘You look at them and you see what an excellent job their coaching staff has done. They’ve kind of looked at themselves and made a couple changes and bounce back this year and go to national championship game.

‘You look at us, we did the same thing.’

Certainly, there are differences.

Syracuse’s (14-2) renaissance has been all about offense. There were some defensive tweaks in the offseason, but the primary reason for SU’s success has been an attack among the most prolific in the nation.

That assault is spearheaded by Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Mike Leveille, who tallied five goals Saturday, including the game-winner in double-overtime.

‘He’s unbelievable,’ junior midfielder Matt Abbott said after the game. ‘He’s been doing that all season for us.’

For the Blue Jays (11-5), the last eight games have been all about limiting the opponent. During its five-game losing streak – which included a 14-13 overtime loss to SU on March 15 – Hopkins let up an average of 13 goals a game.

Since? That number has dipped to five in the past eight games.

The easy explanation is improved defense and better goaltending from sophomore Michael Gvozden, who make 17 saves against Duke Saturday.

But perhaps the real key for Hopkins is an offense that isn’t afraid to milk the clock. The Blue Jays held enough of the ball Saturday to bog down the Blue Devils potent attack.

And along the way, Hopkins gets enough offense from experience seniors like midfielder Paul Rabil (30 goals, 13 assists) and attack Kevin Huntley (32 goals, eight assists).

‘I think in this game as opposed to the Virginia game, I think possession is going to be a little more important,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘Hopkins, you watched their tempo yesterday.’

Pietramala knows his team will need to control the ball Monday. His team will also need to shut down SU’s deep midfield corps, something the Cavaliers were able to do. The Orange got just five goals from its middies Saturday, and none from senior Steven Brooks.

But the Hopkins coach watched the SU middies score nine times in the team’s first meeting. Brooks had four of those, including the game-winner in overtime.

‘This is a different team (than Duke) because I think this is a more potent group at the midfield,’ Pietramala said ‘…This is a group that goes six deep at the midfield, and three or four deep at the attack, so the challenge is great, especially in a half-field set.’

But there’s no denying this Jays team is a far cry from the one SU squeaked by in March. After Saturday’s game, the Hopkins players talked about how their early season struggles bought them closer together, made them take more accountability.

Their Syracuse counterparts would know that feeling. And now both teams are one win away from adding a national championship to their own turnaround tales.

‘Our whole motto was last year was sitting in the back of our heads,’ said the senior Brooks, one of the few holdovers from SU’s last national championship team in 2004.

‘All year – 5-8, 5-8. This has been like a dream come true for all of us. This is where we wanted to be starting off at the beginning of the year. We said we needed make it to Foxborough.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on May 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm