BALTIMORE — Before the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team played Johns Hopkins Saturday, its members gathered together to watch some of their past.

The squad enjoys watching former greats. They appreciate history. And rather than sit idle for an hour and a half before Hopkins, SU watched film of the 1989 national championship game against JHU — a shootout that ended in a narrow victory for the Orangemen.

‘They love watching old Syracuse games,’ SU head coach John Desko said of his current team. ‘And we had an hour and a half to kill before we left to come to the field, so we just set up a projection and the guys picked what they wanted to watch.’

What the team watched was a balanced offensive juggernaut and an attack that exposed a defense led by one of the greatest Johns Hopkins defenders of all time, Dave Pietramala — who is now the school’s head coach. And the No. 3 Orange (4-1) took those lessons to heart Saturday night, riding a balanced offensive attack to a 10-7 victory over the No. 7 Blue Jays (4-3) before a crowd of 6,504 at Homewood Field.

Six different players scored for SU, which included a career-high three goals for senior midfielder Max Bartig. SU had five goals in the first half from five different players. And that harmony led to first-half domination. The Orange controlled the faceoff X, winning 6-of-8 draws before the break, driving SU to a 19-9 shot advantage.

‘I think every time we play Syracuse, we know every player on their offense is a weapon,’ said Hopkins goaltender Mike Gvozden, who finished with 14 saves.

Continuing that balance to start the second half, Bartig notched the first hat trick of his career with two goals to open the quarter, and Stephen Keogh added his second goal of the game to plant the seeds of a blowout. It was 8-1 SU, and the Orange built a cushion it would never relinquish.

It was the theme of balance that caught Pietramala’s eye.

‘If you told me (before the game) we’d hold Keogh to two (goals) when he’s been scoring five and six a game,’ Pietramala said, ‘and you told me we don’t give Daniello a goal, and we hold Cody Jamieson to one goal and Jovan Miller to none, I’d tell you we got a pretty good chance to win the game.’

But that cushion almost vanished as the second half went on. The Blue Jays took advantage of their possessions and showcased a vaunted offensive attack of their own, with senior Steven Boyle adding two goals and leading a charge.

As it has time and time again this season, the Orange failed to take a lead and run with it, instead allowing Johns Hopkins to slowly creep back into the game. Stymied by Gvozden, who made one point-blank save after another, the Orange scored just one goal over the span of a quarter and a half.

‘I thought both teams in the first half and second half had opportunities to score a couple more points,’ Desko said. ‘But I thought the goalies came up big and made some great one-on-one saves and some saves you don’t see every day.’

Fittingly, the game was finally sealed when the Orange’s offensive balance truly came full circle. The Blue Jays crept to within just two at 9-7. Enter junior longstick midfielder Joel White — best known for locking down star JHU midfielder Michael Kimmel Saturday — to the offensive fracas.  

Sprinting in from the ride side after Jeremy Thompson took the faceoff, White grabbed the groundball off the wing and stormed down field. Just seconds after Hopkins had scored its goal, Desko thought about taking a timeout. He knew White was about to shoot.

Luckily for Desko, his longstick midfielder knows his way around the offensive end as well. Back of the net. Nine seconds after the Blue Jays’ goal. Momentum, and game, back in hand.

‘We’ve had different guys contributing all year,’ Bartig said. ‘He’s perfectly capable of doing that. He steps up in big-time situations when we need him to.’

Tingled with shades of 1989, the Orange again walked out of a game with the Blue Jays with an all-around effort on the offensive end.

‘It probably started earlier today when we got to watch the ‘Cuse-Hopkins game at the hotel,’ Jamieson said. ‘Just watching that game gave me inspiration to try something.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on March 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm