It starts with a powerful twisting of the forearms. Then a push from the legs and a mean thrust from the upper body.

Chris Bickel contorted himself in such fashion 126 times this season as the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team’s primary faceoff man. Tonight in Geneva at 7, Bickel and the No. 3 Orangemen will be challenged by Hobart, a strong faceoff squad.

“When you go up against a program like Syracuse, you’re happy just to win a couple,” said Princeton head coach Bill Tierney, whose Tigers won nine of 24 faceoffs Saturday in an 11-10 win.

Indeed, Syracuse (3-2) has a long-standing tradition as one of the country’s best faceoff teams. Faceoff domination allows Syracuse to execute its patented game plan — control the ball, control the tempo.

The Orangemen prefer to quicken the pace, and when SU wins draws, it stops opponents from stalling with settled attacks.

But not everyone agrees on a faceoff’s importance.

“Faceoffs are important,” Tierney said. “But — and some would disagree with me — as long as you’re not creating fast breaks off faceoffs, they tend to even out.”

“I totally disagree,” Bickel said. “If you score a goal and you go back and win the faceoff, that can only help you. It gives you a chance to get another goal.”

That’s precisely what Syracuse tries to do. While other teams use draws simply to gain possession, the Orangemen turn them into scoring chances, often scooping up the ensuing ground ball and sprinting toward the goal.

It seems ironic that Tierney would question the faceoff’s importance, given a fourth-quarter faceoff win Saturday allowed his Tigers to salt away the game.

With 2:55 left, right after a Brad Dumont goal gave Princeton an 11-10 edge, Drew Casino beat Bickel on a draw. The Tigers hurriedly called timeout and set up a settled attack that stretched until the game’s final seconds.

“That was a big one,” Bickel said. “I thought I had him and did a good job of stopping him, but I fell. I kind of got caught up and lost my feet.”

As a result, Syracuse lost the game.

Against Hobart (4-1, 3-0 Patriot League) tonight, Bickel will face one of the nation’s most adept faceoff men in Tim Booth, who’s won 62 percent of his draws this season.

Bickel, by comparison, has won 57 percent, but he’s improved since the season’s start. Syracuse won less than half its faceoffs against Army and Virginia but won at least 57 percent in each of the last three games.

“Faceoffs are always important,” Hobart head coach Matt Kerwick said. “But in this game, they’re definitely magnified. We feel like we have one of the best faceoff guys in the country in Tim Booth. That’s going to be one of the key elements in the game.”

Last season, Hobart drew even with Syracuse in faceoffs, with each team winning 13.

The Orangemen own an advantage on the wings, where they should be more athletic than the Statesmen. But Booth pushes forward on faceoffs and often collects ground balls himself.

“I don’t know if there’s a system to it,” SU wingman Matt Bontaites said of the scrum for ground balls that ensues following faceoffs. “Definitely staying in position is important. And it’s important to stay aggressive.”

Said SU head coach John Desko: “Most teams don’t have the athletes to compete with us on the wings.”

Of course, the Statesmen will need more than faceoffs to upset the Orangemen, who have taken 16 straight in the series, including a 19-4 win last season in the Carrier Dome.

“Is there any way to slow (Syracuse) down?” Kerwick wondered. “That’s a tough one. Maybe if their bus gets here late. We’ve got to do a great job of possessing the ball as much as we can on offense.”

Published on March 24, 2003 at 12:00 pm