Despite its perfect record, Syracuse’s season has been marred by imperfection. The Orange has flirted with a loss several times, but somehow manages to pull out win after win.

But as the second half of the season progresses, merely scraping by might not cut it. SU needs a more complete effort. And fast.

‘For us to be winning is still a good thing,’ head coach John Desko said. ‘But I’d like to put 60 minutes together. We’ve been getting everybody’s best game. We need to play 60 minutes of lacrosse, and I think we’re capable of doing that and we can get better.’

As No. 1 Syracuse (8-0, 2-0 Big East) heads to Princeton (2-5, 1-2 Ivy) on Saturday, it’s going to look to do something it hasn’t quite been able to do yet. And that’s to put together a complete game of scoring, rather than going on a run early on and slowing down for the rest of the game. Too often, Syracuse has let teams back into the game as the 60 minutes progresses.

Against Duke, SU scored six goals in the first quarter, but mustered only seven more for the rest of the game. That allowed Duke to keep getting closer and get within striking distance to tie the game. The Blue Devils scored five straight goals in the fourth period, while the Orange never found the back of the net during that time. It took only two shots.

It’s not one specific deficiency that led to this trend, although there have been some mental mistakes. With five minutes left against Duke, JoJo Marasco attacked the goal rather than keeping possession and dishing it off to someone else to run clock. His shot deflected off the post of the goal, and Duke took over.

The Blue Devils got two chances on offense as a result of the poor decision by Marasco and scored one goal.

‘It’s just all around, things we need to work on,’ Marasco said. ‘We should be able to do some of those things and cut down on some of those problems.’

If Syracuse does cut down on those problems, its chances of putting together a complete game would get even better. Especially with SU’s second midfield line slowly starting to produce more. Steve Ianzito and Bobby Eilers both scored in the first quarter against Duke.

At the start of the year, the second midfield line was a major concern. The group consistently failed to put the ball on frame, let alone in the back of the net. That lack of production led to more time on the field for the first line, which led to fatigue late in games. Desko said from the start that he wasn’t concerned, knowing that as the season went on, his second midfield line would begin to produce. And lately it has.

Much of the increased scoring out of the second midfield line has to do with a switch of offenses. At the start of the season, Syracuse went more with the 100 offense, which is a freelance, run-and-gun style. That opened the door for turnovers and sloppy play.

So to change that, the Orange increasingly implemented the 300 offense instead. That style of offense employs set plays and puts midfielders at certain spots. With more organization, it has allowed the second-line midfielders to know exactly where they need to be.

It also leads to longer possessions, which give the defense a break. And with longer possessions come more opportunities to score.

‘We get the ball around, everyone touches it,’ Ianzito said. ‘We get a good feel for the offense. We get comfortable with what we’re doing before we do it.’

Going forward, that second line is going to be key for Syracuse. When Desko takes his first line off the field to give it some rest, the Orange needs to continue to get offensive production to keep up the scoring over the whole game.

But despite some of the offensive struggles, SU continues to win. Its head coach knows a complete performance is still possible. And so does Marasco. It’s just a matter of being able to put it all together in a game. From start to finish consistently score the ball and make smart decisions.

‘We’re working on it and we’re going to get it done,’ Marasco said. ‘When we had problems scoring, it was a matter of time before we broke out. It’s the same thing with all 60 minutes.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on April 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman