Princeton, N.J. – Geoff Keough was embarrassed.

As one of the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team’s primary face-off men – along with Jake Plunkett – the senior was in part responsible for last week’s debacle.

Saturday, he made up for it.

No. 3 Syracuse dominated face-offs, winning 21 of 29, in its 14-12 victory over No. 5 Princeton at Class of 1952 Stadium in Princeton, N.J.

It was a marked improvement from when Johns Hopkins beat SU, 24-4, in face-offs March 20 and lost, 19-8.

‘We talked about it all week,’ Keough said. ‘It was obviously a real low point for us at Hopkins. We thought we were a lot more skilled than that. We had been working this whole week, especially Jake and I, against each other.’

That allowed Keough to win 15 of 22 face-offs, as he began to take over for Plunkett toward the end of the game.

But it wasn’t because of Plunkett’s ineffectiveness. The junior won five of the six face-offs in which he took part.

The reason was the matchup. As Plunkett and Keough faced each other all week, the two also watched video tape. They saw the weaknesses in Princeton’s two main face-off threats: Drew Casino and Ryan Schoening.

Keough matched up with Schoening, a clamper who is comparatively slower off the ball. Keough, much quicker, held a big advantage on those matchups.

Casino, though, was a bigger, stronger threat. He matched up with Plunkett because, as a big defender for SU, Plunkett would be ready to defend Casino if he won the ball.

‘You see the technique,’ Keough said. ‘The angles they take to the ball. The way they go to the ball. Things like that. Watching film is a big help to see what they do.’

Keough also took more face-offs because, while Plunkett stays on the field to play defense after face-offs, Keough usually ran off to make room for senior Sean Lindsay.

Usually, the coaches determine whether Keough or Plunkett will take the face-off. But as the game progresses, the two coordinate who will take which face-off.

‘We felt once we got in a good rhythm during the game, we could definitely dominate these guys,’ Keough said. ‘We’ve got the technique. We’ve got the coaching. We’ve got the film. We just gotta be executing.’

Saturday, they did. Keough’s only faults came during two face-offs, when the referees called him for offsides.

‘I like to be quick, especially after facing the Hopkins guys,’ Keough said. ‘If you don’t get called for a few of those, I don’t think you’re doing it right. But if you get too many of them, then you gotta watch what you’re doing.’

Syracuse did fine, even with long stick defender Steve Panarelli joining the fray and winning a face-off.

Aside from that, SU (4-1), also won 10 more ground balls than the Tigers (3-2), 38-28. Junior Jarett Park won seven as the wing.

‘I got a ton of ground balls today,’ Park said. ‘Geoff and Jake did a great job today. Even if they didn’t get it cleanly, it popped up and found its way in our favor. It’s really about who’s working better on the face-offs. And Geoff just played awesome.’

Lucky for SU, the stats led to success. After Princeton jumped out to a 7-2 lead with 3:58 left in the first half, Syracuse outscored the Tigers, 12-5, the rest of the way. In the second half, Syracuse outshot Princeton, 23-14.

But the real reason SU celebrated Saturday was a recuperation of what was a hobbled face-offs unit.

‘We won a majority of (face-offs) today,’ Plunkett said. ‘It was a big help. We had great wing play with Jarett and Panarelli out there. And pretty much all we had to do was put it in a spot they could pick it up. Our offense got the ball, and when our offense gets the ball, any team in the nation is just gonna be like, ‘Uh oh.”

Published on March 28, 2004 at 12:00 pm