As Syracuse’s players sprinted onto the field and mobbed each other in front of its net, head coach John Desko met with his counterpart Joe Breschi and admitted what he refused to all week, Breschi said.

Desko’s Syracuse team was celebrating its most crucial win of the season and after blowing three fourth-quarter leads in the past month, thoughts of those past games had crept into his mind.

“‘We needed it,’” Breschi recalled Desko saying.

“You guys keep saying that,” Desko said when a reporter mentioned it was a game SU needed. On Thursday, Desko bluntly said, “No,” when asked if it was a must-win.

Whether or not No. 9 Syracuse (7-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) needed the win over No. 11 North Carolina (7-5, 2-1) the Orange pulled out the 13-7 victory on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome.

By beating the Tar Heels, SU clinched a spot in the ACC tournament. Had Syracuse lost, it would’ve needed help from Duke in its game against Virginia on Sunday. None of that matters now. And the first-line midfield of Sergio Salcido, Nick Mariano and Derek DeJoe combining for six goals and four assists is what did North Carolina in.

“I think they all shoot the ball very well and Nick and (Sergio) have been dodging well,” Desko said. “… They’re all threats from the outside.”

To start the game, Salcido drew North Carolina’s short-stick defender while Mariano, the Orange’s leading goal scorer, attracted the long pole. Less than seven minutes into the game, Salcido blew past UNC’s Brett Bedard, switched to his left hand and ripped a shot past goalie Brian Balkam.

Five minutes later, Salcido made a diagonal cut through the middle of the Tar Heels defense and caught a pass from DeJoe. Salcido, a player known for his speed, created the space, spun around and planted his feet. He put SU up by one with another score.

North Carolina had to adjust. Breschi didn’t want to add another long pole to defend Salcido because that would leave his defense vulnerable to getting beat by SU’s attack. He didn’t want to sit back and let Salcido continue burning his team. So he bumped the long pole from Mariano to Salcido, choosing to leave the lefty sniper against a short stick.

The shift worked, but only to temporarily stop Salcido. He only scored one more goal the rest of the game, but evolved into a feeder, accounting for two assists, while Mariano added three more goals.

“You kind of pick your poison there,” Breschi said, “who you’re going to pole, who you’re going to try and stop.”

North Carolina stopped neither.

Three minutes into the third quarter, Mariano ended up with a short stick defending him. When he curled around the crease, a long pole slid. So he passed to DeJoe at the top of the offensive area, who passed to Salcido on the opposite side. The quick ball movement opened up space and Salcido canned his shot to make it 9-3. Mariano got the hockey assist, DeJoe got the assist and Salcido got the goal.

“We were playing great team offense,” Salcido said. “A lot of other guys created in (several) situations and we put the ball in the net.”

Desko said he used his first-line midfield more than in past games. The trio had more opportunities than usual and it capitalized. There was no reason to go away from what worked and Desko didn’t.

But after taking that 9-3 lead, UNC scored four straight to cut it to two. The memories of a blown three-goal lead at Hopkins, a blown four-goal lead at Duke and a blown two-goal lead at Cornell came rushing back to Desko.

“‘Oh here we go again,’” Desko thought on the sideline.

And that’s when Syracuse closed out the game with four straight goals. That’s when the thoughts subsided. That’s when Mariano capped off the scoring for the first-line midfield with 1:56 left to play. His unit had already done enough. This was the cherry on top.

The holes in Syracuse’s resume could have grown wider on Saturday. Instead its first-line midfield found the holes in North Carolina’s defense.

Published on April 16, 2016 at 6:05 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds