Last week, John Desko said his team was prepared to expect anything against Denver and adjust on the fly. So when the visitors from Denver switched up their defense in the second quarter, his team wasn’t surprised.

And though it took a while to adjust, Syracuse eventually proved the words of its head coach to be true.

‘They switched into a zone defense in the second period and slowed the tempo of the game down,’ Desko said. ‘It forced us to be more patient offensively. I thought their zone was very good.’

Syracuse finally found a way to break through Denver’s zone in the second half to pull away from the Pioneers and win its season opener 13-7. The Orange (1-0) started out the game on a scoring barrage, netting four straight goals within the first seven minutes of the game. But when Denver (0-1) switched up its defense, going from man-to-man to zone, Syracuse struggled at first before solving the new scheme late in the game.

The Orange got on the board early, with Jovan Miller registering the first SU goal of the season less than one minute into the game. Miller’s goal was followed by three more to open up the game on a 4-0 run, as it kickstarted SU’s offense.

‘I think it was relieving, just because there’s been a lot of hype around our season,’ Miller said. ‘I think it calmed everybody down and set the tone for the rest of the game.’

The Pioneers scored with 6:49 left in the first quarter, but that was only a quick interruption between SU’s scoring. Syracuse midfielder Jeremy Thompson and attack Tim Desko both added goals before Denver made its defensive change.

Desko’s goal was the last Syracuse got easily against Denver’s man-to-man defense. To stop the Orange, the Pioneers switched to their zone defense temporarily, which slowed down SU.

‘They really made us work hard for our shots,’ John Desko said of the Denver zone defense. ‘When we did get some good shots, the goalie made some saves. They really made us work.’

The Orange struggled to break through the defense and didn’t let the Syracuse offense get close to the net. Instead, Denver forced Syracuse to take shots from the outside, and most of those shots were inaccurate and sailed over the goal or right past it.

In the second quarter, Syracuse took 15 shots, but the Denver goalkeeper only had to make two saves. The rest of the Orange’s 13 shots weren’t close to the net. SU scored once in the second quarter when Stephen Keogh put the ball in the net with four minutes left on an assist from Tom Palasek. It was the lone goal in the entire period after scoring six in the first, leading to a halftime reminder from Desko to his team.

‘Coach Desko brought us into the locker room, and we sat down and went over some of our zone offenses that we’ve really worked on in practice,’ SU attack JoJo Marasco said. ‘He just told us to go out there, relax, be patient, and I think that’s what we went out there and did.’

The second-quarter scoring drought didn’t carry over into the second half, as the Orange returned to the field with a new plan to combat the Pioneers’ zone. Marasco took Desko’s message to heart and spearheaded another SU scoring barrage. He fought around a Denver defender, ripped a shot from 10 yards out and found the lower left corner of the net to send SU up 8-3.

Syracuse scored four more goals in the quarter, including one by Tim Desko that he shot behind his back while falling to the turf. Syracuse would score only once more after that, but it was those five goals in the third quarter that gave Syracuse enough to pull away with a lead and keep Denver from getting within reach.

It didn’t necessarily end up being a perfect — or even easy — win, but with a midgame switch in the game plan, Syracuse did what it needed to pull away for the win.

‘We came out in the second half and got a couple goals early, which helped our cause,’ Desko said. ‘I would’ve liked to shoot better in the second quarter, but we didn’t, and we kept working.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman