John Desko rarely raises his voice.

But before Syracuse’s 15-6 victory over Loyola on Saturday, the normally soft-spoken lacrosse coach decided to add some juice to his typically subdued pre-game speech.

“I basically had to remind them that they had to set their clocks ahead an hour,” Desko said, “because breakfast (Sunday) morning was at 11.”

And with good reason. Syracuse needs to make use of all the time it has to prepare for No. 9 Cornell (7-1), whom the No. 1 Orangemen (8-1) face today at 5 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca after just two days rest.

The Orangemen made one other such turnaround March 27 and 30. SU followed up a 19-4 drubbing of Hobart at the Carrier Dome with a very average performance at Brown, a 14-13 overtime squeaker.

“It’s a real concern,” Desko said Saturday afternoon. “I wasn’t kidding when I told them to set their clocks ahead because we have our breakfast at 11. We want to get on the Big Red as early as possible. We can’t go down to Schoellkopf Field and have a game like we did a couple of years ago.”

That would be two years ago when the No. 1 Orangemen fell, 13-12, to the Big Red. That game proved to be the only blemish in a 15-1 season that culminated with a national championship win over Princeton in College Park, Md.

One big reason SU lost to Cornell in the middle of the 2000 season — in which the Orangemen beat five top-five opponents — was goaltender Justin Cynar, whom Syracuse sees again today. This season, Cynar, a senior, has compiled a 5.97 goals-against average, third best in the nation.

“We felt he might have been the difference in the game a couple of years ago,” Desko said. “We know he’s a solid goalie. I don’t think it’s going to take a lot for our upperclassmen to hear us when we talk about shooting smart on a goalie. We’ve seen him before.”

What Cornell hasn’t seen is SU netminder Jay Pfeifer. The redshirt freshman’s 8.94 GAA (24th in the nation) may not impress the way Cynar’s does, but Pfeifer has played well lately, allowing nine goals or fewer in four of his last five outings.

More than Pfeifer, Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni is concerned with SU’s attack, which has scored more than 10 goals in its last four games.

“They’ve got an awful lot of superstars at an awful lot of positions,” Tambroni said. “You’ve just got to hope that you stick to your game plan. You’ve got to hope Syracuse gives you opportunities to strike at the offensive and defensive ends. They’re as good as any team in the country.

“Having a short week, we’ve only seen them a few times. I think the more you watch, the worse off you get.”

One thing that may make the Big Red better off is that they’ve made the quick turnaround twice already this season. Cornell’s efforts in those two games — especially a closer-than-it-should-have-been 10-9 win over Colgate on March 5 — failed to impress Tambroni, though.

Because of the short week, Tambroni said neither team is likely to tinker with its game plan.

“There’s no extra preparation,” Tambroni said. “You have to rely on what you’ve done.”

That does not, Tambroni said, mean resting on the laurels of what happened the last time SU visited Ithaca.

“It’s certainly not a thought that we’ve brought into this contest,” he said. “It’s a totally different Cornell team.”

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Published on April 8, 2002 at 12:00 pm