John Galloway knows he was a third wheel most of last season. The then-freshman goalie tripped into funks, but was consistently bailed out by the second-best scoring offense in the nation. He beat himself up after games, apologetic for mediocrity.

So this was refreshing. After Syracuse’s double-overtime thriller against Virginia in the national semifinals in which he made a flurry of season-saving stops, Galloway returned to his locker and flipped open his cell phone. His inbox was flooded with text messages.

It was a silent sense of vindication behind closed doors.

‘My phone wouldn’t even hold them anymore,’ Galloway laughed. ‘I think I had 80 text messages. It was unreal.’

As he deleted messages, new ones kept pouring in. Too many to respond to.

Galloway can joke now. But during Syracuse’s title run itself, his ups and downs gyrated at a stock-exchange rate. With the 35th-ranked save percentage in the country, Galloway was the lingering reason to doubt Syracuse. And now, it gets tougher.

Gone are Mike Leveille and Steven Brooks’ 77 combined goals that afforded Galloway comfy leeway all year. Gone are two of Galloway’s three defenders. Evan Brady, the senior that grabbed Galloway’s shoulder after a turnaround game against Albany and said, ‘Look at this kid. Look at this kid. …He wants to win so badly!’ And Kyle Guadagnolo, his resident protector that committed a team-high 11 penalties last season. Both gone.

‘It’s a tough adjustment losing those guys, those senior leaders and defenders,’ Galloway said. ‘To have the seniors we had last year made my job so much easier.’

For Syracuse to defend its title, Galloway knows he needs to elevate his play. He knows he must condense his game, and calm down in the crease. He excelled when incumbent starter Peter Coluccini struggled – late in games. In Syracuse’s thrilling 12-11 semifinal win against Virginia, Galloway made sudden-death saves on two of the best offensive threats in the country. He stoned Danny Glading’s wraparound attempt at the post to force a second overtime and then stopped Ben Rubeor’s point-blank laser from the wing.

But another season with a .534 save percentage and 7.8 goals against average won’t suffice. Coaches say Galloway was overzealous in the cage, often swaying himself out of position.

‘It was tough,’ Galloway said. ‘I went through a lot of tough runs last year where I wasn’t seeing the ball well and I wasn’t making as many saves as I should of.’

Galloway’s cadence speeds into a stutter recalling the days idolizing Syracuse goalies like Rob Mulligan and Jay Pfeiffer. Becoming one of them was ‘a dream come true.’

So he took the turbulence hard. When this dream morphed into a nightmare, Galloway moped. Wins veiled his distress. Behind that gritted postgame smile was a frustrated freshman.

Galloway’s roommate, long-stick midfielder Joel White, saw the aftermath at their South Campus apartment. After the bittersweet wins, Galloway refused to eat. He couldn’t relax, couldn’t move forward in peace. Instead, he’d analyze and re-analyze film in their common room. He searched for answers.

‘John takes it real hard, he takes a lot to heart,’ White said. ‘He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. …To see that, it hurts me but I’ll say, ‘Ahh, come on John!’ and make fun of him or something to get ready for the next one. He had a lot of pressure as a freshman.’

The low point came in a win at Rutgers. Syracuse’s offense churned out 17 goals, its third-highest output on the season. But on the other end, Galloway was a sieve. The freshman allowed nine goals and made only five saves – zero in the fourth quarter.

In the week that followed, Galloway hunkered down. With Kevin Donahue, a volunteer assistant on SU, he practiced with more purpose.

‘It was a frustrating game down in Rutgers,’ Galloway said. ‘I knew I had to do something. Coach Donahue and I really took a couple steps back and realized what we had to change before the playoffs.’

The next week, Galloway brought back an old high school ritual by splattering mud all over his face against Albany. His ethos was rejuvenated. SU won, 10-5, behind Galloway’s 14 saves. Donahue is his escape, a source for answers.

‘There’s some coaches you’re intimidated of and can’t really talk to,’ Galloway said. ‘He’s open to my suggestions and I’m definitely open to his.’

The reason is rooted back at West Genesee Middle School where Donahue was Galloway’s eighth grade science teacher. Donahue saw the signs early. When he witnessed Galloway ride his bike 5 miles to lacrosse practice as a seventh grader, Donahue knew Galloway was wired differently. This pupil was an overachiever – always asking questions in class, adamant at staying in the high 90s, determined to be flawless.

In a sense, that was the core of the problem last year.

Donahue said Galloway approaches lacrosse with the same unconscious pursuit of perfection. The signs were everywhere. Galloway overused his stick trying to make every save – ‘getting a little bit crazy,’ Donahue called it. He’d leave the net to spark rushes, risky decisions that decreased with each scowl from head coach John Desko on the sideline. And almost every goal that leaked past Galloway last year was followed by the same tilt-of-the-head-back look of disbelief.

‘He’s always hard on himself,’ Donahue said. ‘He’s a perfectionist. He’s trying to have a perfect game. That’s his goal. And he believes he’s going to get it.’

Through two scrimmages – albeit against inferior opponents – Donahue and Desko saw the necessary improvement. Galloway didn’t shimmy around the crease without reason. He stayed tight to the pipe on flat angle shots and Donahue saw him ‘trusting his body position,’ as opposed to his stick position.

In short, more disciplined.

‘I thought he did a good job of understanding where the ball was,’ said Desko after Galloway made eight saves and allowed only two goals against Harvard in the Orange’s second scrimmage. ‘A couple times the shooters were flat and he didn’t move, which we don’t want our goalies to do.’

It helped that Galloway approached the sparsely attended scrimmages like a final four clash. Before SU’s three-way scrimmage against inferior Hofstra and Le Moyne, he was breaking down film in his apartment. His roommate was baffled.

‘John, it’s a scrimmage,’ White told Galloway.

‘Gotta know man, gotta know,’ the goalie responded.

Just a typical game night on South Campus.

‘He’ll sit there and analyze stuff, and I’ll say, ‘What are you looking at?” White said. ‘It’s crazy what he looks at. He’s a leader on this team and that’s why.’

Galloway’s freshman year was smattered with potholes and soft goals. But he still finished as only the fifth true freshman goalie ever to win a title. Championships tend to put a muzzle on skepticism, even if the other four freshmen goalies failed to repeat.

‘To get the wins,’ Galloway said, ‘that’s all that really matters.’

Even if he was the one player singing the blues after those wins. Last year took its toll, no doubt. In the end, his patchy play didn’t cost Syracuse. But it could this year. His supporting cast is different and questions abound. Transfer John Lade, Matt Tierney and Sid Smith shielded Harvard away from Galloway with ease last weekend, but everyone agrees the goalie-defense rapport takes time.

During the team’s media day, while expressing his desire to roam out of the net more, Galloway paused mid-sentence and pondered. Schoolyard fun can wait. The offseason was one prolonged deep breath for Galloway.

He suddenly realized what’s most important.

‘The best guys in the country are great ball-stoppers,’ Galloway said. ‘Guys like (Princeton’s) Alex Hewit who graduated last year, (Penn State’s) Drew Adams – I want to be a lot more like that. I want to be consistent on a game-to-game basis.

‘I let my team down a lot last year and I want to change that this year.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on February 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm