FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Curtis Holmes went to work against Chris Daddio one more time to open an overtime period that would decide the fate of each of their team’s seasons. Maryland’s faceoff specialist kicked the ball out in front of him, creating a mad scramble for the ground ball.

And as Maryland midfielder Dan Burns scooped up the ball to give the Terrapins possession, the tone for the final period was set. It was a tone Holmes tried to set all game with a dominant performance in the faceoff X.

‘You’re so jacked up on adrenaline, you just have to go out and try and stay calm,’ Holmes said. ‘Obviously, don’t go early because then they get the possession.’

Holmes dominated the X, winning 11-of-14 faceoffs to give Maryland control of possession for much of the game. That possession helped the Terps to a 6-5 overtime win over Syracuse in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals at Gillette Stadium. The sophomore entered Sunday with a 62 percent winning percentage in faceoffs for the season, and the Orange’s faceoff specialists — specifically senior Jeremy Thompson, who was 0-of-4 — never seemed to have a chance.

Maryland won all six faceoffs in the first half, allowing the Terps to keep pace with Syracuse on the scoreboard. With Holmes winning the faceoffs to give Maryland possession, the Terrapins played patiently on offense.

Holmes said he knew limiting the Orange’s possessions was going to be pivotal in the Terrapins’ chances to win. He watched film all week to prepare for Syracuse’s faceoff specialists. And when it came down to applying all that preparation, Holmes executed to near perfection.

‘(Maryland head) coach (John Tillman) harped on that all week, how important possessions were going to be for this game,’ Holmes said. ‘All week just preparation, our scout guys trying to give me the best look I can get. I thought faceoffs were one of the key points of the game.’

Each faceoff win led to long, clock-draining possessions for the Terrapins. Maryland received 10 stall warnings, but the tactic of slowing the game down helped Maryland get through the first half deadlocked at two.

‘It’s a lot to cover,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘You kind of have to pick your poison. If you really go after it too much, and you don’t have those situations cut off, then they’re going to get goals in transition, get goals off their faceoff.’

In the days leading up to the game, Desko said if he knew how to neutralize Holmes, he would have felt better about his team’s chances in the game. Desko and assistant coach Kevin Donahue rotated several players into the game, trying to find some way to steal a faceoff from Holmes. Thompson, Daddio, Ricky Buhr and Josh Knight all got chances.

Thompson entered Sunday having taken and won the most faceoffs of anyone on the Orange. But in his final game, he didn’t win one. Holmes took every faceoff for Maryland, and no SU player won more than 40 percent of faceoffs against him.

‘The kid was a great faceoff guy,’ Thompson said. ‘He got down over the ball. I did the best I could. Coach Donahue got a few guys in there, he kept rotating us through.’

Desko said the biggest challenge going up against Holmes was knowing how much the Terrapins take advantage of faceoff victories.

Maryland’s first goal of the game came off a faceoff win by Holmes. With the Orange up 2-0, Maryland’s Drew Snider took a pass at the crease, and put the ball past SU goaltender John Galloway to pull the Terrapins within one with just under four minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Holmes then won the ensuing faceoff, setting up a goal from midfielder Scott LaRue about two minutes later that tied the game.

The Terps’ bench exploded in emotion. The momentum shifted to Maryland’s side, in part because of Holmes’ two faceoff victories.

Holmes was as dominant at the end of the game as he was at the beginning. When it was all over, ‘frustrating’ was the word used most to describe SU’s struggle to gain possessions. For Desko, when Syracuse did have the ball, it played well enough to win.

But the Orange didn’t have the ball nearly enough to capitalize on the scoreboard. It didn’t have possession enough to win.

‘I’m not unhappy with how we played,’ Desko said. ‘We just couldn’t keep possessions. … It’s a little frustrating not having the ball.’

 

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on May 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman