It was just 41 seconds into the Syracuse men’s lacrosse season, but Jovan Miller and his teammates could already breathe a bit easier.

Miller had heard so many questions coming into this year. Questions about SU’s offense. And with one fling into the net against Denver, Miller felt he alleviated a lot of those questions.

The junior midfielder’s goal kicked off the opening contest of the season for the Orange, and the team built on it by racing out to an eight-goal first quarter, en route to a 15-9 season-opening victory.

‘I’d say it was important that we got off to a good start,’ Miller said in the week following that win. ‘More than anything, there was a lot of speculation about how we were going to be when we came into the season. So that was a big point in the game, to come out and answer a few questions.’

With his goal, Miller started a trend that has carried through SU’s seven games this season — getting out to fast starts. The Orange has relied on hot starts all season to put games out of reach early, outscoring opponents 30-10 in the first quarters of the team’s seven contests so far.

And with an inferior opponent in Albany (2-6, 1-0 America East) coming to town to square off against No. 3 Syracuse (6-1, 2-0 Big East) Saturday at 4 p.m. inside the Carrier Dome, SU will look to build on that trend and put any Great Dane upset hopes to bed early.

‘For us to get off to a good start is always a good thing,’ SU head coach John Desko said.

Those good starts have propelled the Orange to its 6-1 start thus far. In each of its seven contests, Syracuse has held a lead at the end of the opening quarter.

Against top competition, it’s about setting the pace and building momentum for the next three quarters. SU carried two-goal and three-goal leads out of the first quarters against No. 1 Virginia and No. 10 Georgetown, respectively.

Against inferior competition, it’s about crushing those teams’ dreams of upsetting the powerhouse. And the Orange has followed that motto as well, sprinting out to a 5-2 opening quarter against Villanova Monday.

‘It’s great,’ SU longstick midfielder Joel White said of his team’s fast starts. ‘It’s really just coming out of the locker room ready to play and coming into the game with the mindset that you want to get on them early and jump on them early. Some teams, if you jump on them early, they’re going to fold.’

Miller has led the rush so far, scoring opening goals in three of SU’s first seven games and getting his team the jump start it needs. But all of SU’s parts have combined to form the early offensive juggernaut, from its superb clearing game to its faceoff specialists in Gavin Jenkinson and Jeremy Thompson, who can keep getting the Orange possession.

‘Our offense is doing a great job settling in quick,’ White said. ‘When you have a couple-goal lead early, it’s going to build confidence for our offense, and that’s something we need.’

The quick leads also resonate well with another member of the Syracuse lacrosse team — junior goaltender John Galloway. Galloway said it makes his job a bit easier knowing that SU has jumped out to early cushions in games.

‘It gives me a sense of comfort,’ Galloway said. ‘I think it really takes the pressure off and allows you to relax a bit and just get back in your game knowing that your offense is already producing for you.’

There is just one caveat in the Orange’s plan — that dominance hasn’t carried over for a full four quarters. Time after time, SU has allowed teams to slowly creep back into contests.

It happened against Army, when the Black Knights came back to tie the game in the third quarter. It happened against Georgetown, when the Orange was blanked in the third period and the Hoyas pulled within one. And it happened at Virginia, when the Cavaliers rebounded from a 4-2 first-quarter deficit to send SU to its only defeat of the season.

So for Desko and company, the next step is carrying that same early mentality and running with it for a full 60 minutes.

‘A number of times it has been big for us,’ Desko said of getting off to those early leads. ‘A number of times the other teams have come back against us, also. So I guess it’s a little bit more important what we’re doing at the end of the game than the beginning.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

 

Published on April 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm