FOXBORO, Mass. — John Desko entered Syracuse’s matchup with Providence hoping his second midfield line would get plenty of much-needed experience. SU’s head coach Desko anticipated that No. 1 Syracuse would dominate the lowly Friars from the opening faceoff so the second midfield could get in on the action early.

The dominance didn’t happen. But as it turned out, the second-tier midfielders got their opportunity. Those minutes didn’t come during meaningless minutes in an easy blowout win for Syracuse.

Desko said the Orange ultimately needed its second midfielders Saturday.

‘We were hoping they would get a lot more time today just based on what the scoreboard would read,’ Desko said. ‘But we went to them on necessity.’

Junior Bobby Eilers turned into the unlikely star in Gillette Stadium as Syracuse ran away with a 13-3 win over the Friars. Eilers tallied his first career hat trick as that second midfield group split time evenly with the first midfielders. At the start of the year, the second unit played just two or three possessions per game. On Saturday they were part of multiple new offensive looks for the Orange attack.

‘I thought today they did a good job,’ senior attack Stephen Keogh said of SU’s second midfield line. ‘They’re supposed to be patient out there. That’s what Coach wants, and that’s what they were doing.’

Eilers opened the scoring for the Orange on the second midfield’s first shift of the game. He crashed toward the goal from the top of the box, cutting toward his left and finishing with a shot in the bottom corner of the goal.

Later in the first, Keogh found Eilers all alone just to the left of the crease, and the midfielder fired an underhand shot into the net to tie the game at 3-3.

Before the matchup with the Friars, the midfielder had just one goal in his career — a first-quarter score earlier this year against Duke on April 3.

‘Lately my teammates have been preaching to me about using my size, my speed and just keep going hard,’ Eilers said. ‘Finally I just tried to take it out on the field, and that’s what worked for me today.’

But after the junior led SU to a three-goal first quarter, the offense turned stagnant, as it has many times throughout this season.

That’s when Desko tried multiple combinations on the offensive end, switching up units and rotating players around the field. He said the array of groupings was partly due to the absence of his son Tim Desko, SU’s fourth-leading scorer this year. Desko stayed in Syracuse, nursing a knee injury. But the head coach also wanted to see how certain lines worked together.

Junior Collin Donahue came off the bench to play attack for the entire second quarter. JoJo Marasco moved to midfield, as he has many times this year, and took reps with both the first and second lines. Josh Amidon, a senior starter for the Orange, also played one possession with part of the second group.

‘It becomes more and more difficult in tight games,’ John Desko said. ‘But today we just went with it, and it worked for us.’

Amidon, Jovan Miller and Jeremy Thompson make up the first midfield line for the Orange. Marasco has played both attack and midfield this season. Eilers, Steve Ianzito, Jeff Gilbert and Scott Loy take reps as part of the second grouping.

But Saturday those eight players were thrown together with no set order, at least during the middle of the game. That helped the Orange produce 40 shots, its fourth-highest total this season, against the Friars.

‘It’s just we have so many good offensive players,’ Eilers said. ‘We just have to make sure we get them all in.’

Although Desko said the new looks were successful, it didn’t show on the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. Through 45 minutes, the Orange led just 5-3.

But the Orange exploded for six goals in a five-minute stretch in the last quarter. Eilers added his third goal of the day. Ianzito tallied his third of the year. Donahue dished out one of his three assists in that stretch.

And just like that, the second midfielders combined with some mix-and-match lines to turn around another ugly offensive performance for Syracuse.

‘We’ve got so many people who can put the ball in the net,’ Keogh said. ‘There’s so many talented people on this team. Coach just wants to get them some time on the field.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on April 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm