PRINCETON, N.J. — When John Desko made the decision to keep All-American defender John Lade out of the lineup, Lade’s message to his replacement was simple. He didn’t need to give a big speech or any eloquent words of inspiration. Frankly, he hardly needed any words at all.

‘He just said it was my turn,’ said David Hamlin, Lade’s sophomore replacement.

Though the message was simple, it proved more than effective. Hamlin wasn’t fazed in his first career start for the Orange, even when faced with the challenge of covering one of the Tigers’ best attack, Chris McBride. He fit in seamlessly and helped anchor a Syracuse defense that preserved a 7-5 win over a disciplined Princeton squad.

Lade participated in pregame warm-ups with his left ankle wrapped after injuring it in last Sunday’s win over Duke. The decision to keep him out of the lineup came just before the game began, Desko said, and Lade’s importance to the team down the road was the main reason why he kept arguably the nation’s best cover man off the field.

‘We felt it was more important to get him 100 percent and healthy,’ Desko said. ‘If today was a national championship game, you probably would have seen John out there today.’

Hamlin proved more than a capable replacement, however. Syracuse goaltender John Galloway said Hamlin entered the 2011 campaign in hopes of earning the third starting spot on the SU defense. It was a spot that ultimately went to senior Tom Guadagnolo, but that hasn’t deflated Hamlin one bit.

He’s seen action in all nine of the games the Orange has played this season, and Galloway said his work ethic and reps with the first unit in practice made the transition a smooth one on the field.

‘He’s been at practice every day, working as hard as anybody else,’ Galloway said. ‘And we try to rotate him in as much as we can with the starters, because we know how capable he is and what he’s going to do down the road for us. We didn’t have any lack of confidence in Dave coming in, and you saw that on the field.’

Lade draws the assignment of covering the opponent’s best attacking player in almost every game Syracuse plays. And despite the fact that Hamlin was making his first start, Desko gave him the opportunity to try his hand in Lade’s typical role.

Hamlin spent the majority of the game matched up against McBride, who entered the game as Princeton’s active career leader in goals and assists. McBride netted a goal in the second and third quarters.

But as the game wore on, Hamlin proved up to the challenge. In the latter stages of the second half — when Princeton needed a contribution from its ‘warrior,’ as head coach Chris Bates called him — he couldn’t break free. Hamlin was there to deny passes or poke, prod and push McBride into giving it up when he did corral a pass.

‘We put him on their best attackman — their best dodging attackman — in McBride, and that shows how much confidence we have in Dave,’ Galloway said. ‘He might not say it, but we’re really proud of him.’

What Hamlin did say was that one of his goals coming into the game was to not ‘mess up’ in his first chance to impress the coaching staff. Simply put, he didn’t.

He and the rest of the SU defenders successfully killed off all five man-up opportunities Princeton earned throughout the game. Most often, the Tigers couldn’t get close enough to the goal to even threaten.

But when they did, Galloway (six saves) was there. He fought off three shots on one man-up near the start of the second quarter. Later, he picked off a pass from Luke Armour intended for Cliff Larkin that would have led to a goal. Just before, Larkin broke away from his man and stood alone at the back post.

‘You have to beat (the defense), and you have to beat Galloway in goal, and that’s a trick,’ Bates said.

He added that not capitalizing on man-up chances was probably the difference in the game. Hamlin can exhale because he never made a crucial mistake. He took advantage of ‘his turn.’

Said Hamlin: ‘I was just glad to get a chance to start and to show my stuff.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on April 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13