John Desko was very satisfied with Syracuse’s offense on Tuesday. The Orange dispersed goals almost evenly throughout the first three quarters, playing one of its most complete games of the season against Hobart.

SU’s head coach Desko said the offense is ‘pretty close to where it should be right now’ after the win Tuesday. And Syracuse’s loss to Cornell two games earlier might be the reason SU has been able to get there.

‘We’re fired up to play,’ SU goaltender John Galloway said after the 11-6 defeat to the Big Red on April 12. ‘We’re fired up to get to practice. … We’re just going to keep playing. This season’s long from over, and those guys in the locker room know that.’

Amid a three-game stretch against teams with a combined record of nine games below .500, Syracuse could have struggled to find motivation to play its best game. But the goals for the No. 4 Orange (11-1, 3-0 Big East) in this stretch — which includes games against Providence, Hobart and Rutgers — have been to play a complete 60-minute game and to get the offense to the level it needs to be at heading into the postseason.

And with the loss to the Big Red fresh in SU’s minds, the team has been able to move toward those improvements despite playing lesser-caliber teams that may not have garnered Syracuse’s full attention. The Orange will look to continue that trend when it completes tries to win its third straight game against Rutgers (5-6, 0-3) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in East Hartford, Conn.

‘We’ve just got to keep working as a team,’ senior attack Stephen Keogh said after Syracuse’s 13-3 win over Providence on Saturday. ‘We haven’t even played anywhere close to a full 60 minutes. Once we do that, I think it’s going to be scary.’

Providence, Hobart and Rutgers have combined for eight NCAA tournament appearances over the last decade. SU made the field nine times in that span. The Scarlet Knights’ two tournament wins are the only postseason victories for any of those three teams. The Orange’s 11 national championships are the most in the country.

With a matchup against No. 1 Notre Dame on April 30, Syracuse could have waltzed through this portion of the schedule, looking forward to the Fighting Irish’s visit to the Carrier Dome. But with its loss to No. 3 Cornell just before this three-game stretch, SU got the wake-up call it needed.

‘I think that game’s going to serve as motivation for us for the rest of the season,’ Galloway said after the win over Providence. ‘Especially in practice, we saw a huge difference. … And I think it’s going to show as the year goes on.’

Entering the game against Cornell, Syracuse had flirted with a loss many times throughout the year. Seven of its nine wins had been decided by two goals or less, two of them going to overtime.

Opponents stuck with the Orange as SU’s offense struggled. The Orange attack would fail to create any offense early, or it would bust out for multiple goals in a short spurt before floundering the rest of the game. But Syracuse’s suffocating defense managed to hold off other teams and allowed the Orange to squeeze by with ugly offense.

The Big Red solved that defense, at least in the first half, and SU’s sputtering offense couldn’t muster the firepower to forge a comeback.

‘It’s tough,’ sophomore attack JoJo Marasco said after the loss. ‘But it kind of gives us a lesson. We’ll go from here. We’ll learn from it.’

Two games later, the team may be turning a corner. Galloway said the intensity has picked up in practice. In the wins over Providence and Hobart, 16 different players tallied at least a point.

Now Syracuse enters its final game of a three-game stretch against lesser teams looking to build upon its previous two performances. The win Tuesday may be the closest it has come to playing a complete game.

And with undefeated Notre Dame lurking just nine days away, the Orange will look to continue its recent improvements in its final tune-up.

‘We’re not there yet,’ Galloway said Tuesday. ‘But we’re definitely getting there. We’re comfortable knowing that we can learn from these mistakes and have some time going into Rutgers to build on that.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on April 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm