With Syracuse trailing by two goals with a minute remaining, Georgetown midfielder Garrett Wilson was called for a slashing penalty.

It created a man-up opportunity. But Joe Yevoli’s high shot above the bar, Pat Perritt’s wide-right attempt and Brett Bucktooth’s sling at goalie Miles Kass resulted in nothing.

Three perfect opportunities, like so many the whole game when SU had an extra man. But Georgetown made the stops when Syracuse had the advantage. The No. 10 Hoyas survived enough of the No. 7 Orange’s threats and earned a 10-8 victory on Friday afternoon at the Carrier Dome, the first time GU has won in the Carrier Dome in the program’s history.

‘All through the game we were doing a pretty good job in getting our shots, had a number of pipes,’ said Syracuse head coach John Desko. ‘But we missed the cage a couple more times than we normally do. That turned out to be the story of the game.’

Syracuse never led after the first quarter and went only 1-of-9 on man-up opportunities. A Dave Paolisso penalty with 8:55 left in the fourth period gave the Orange (1-2) another chance to come back. Ten seconds into the penalty, attack Kenny Nims attempted a shot from point blank but Kass made one of his 15 saves.

Kass had a simple strategy when the Orange peppered him with shots. He forced the attack to make the play, and resisted making it himself. He figured if he gave SU’s offense more time to hold the ball, it would give the Georgetown (2-1) defenseman more time to come back and defend the attack circle. Particularly with Nims’ play, Kass was able to grab the ball after stalling.

Although Desko said previous tapes showed GU playing more physical, the Hoyas indeed imposed a physical presence as indicated by their nine penalties and their run-and-gun offense similar to what Syracuse employs.

With SU playing at a fast pace as well, the Orange were able to feed off of GU’s aggressiveness. Trouble was, it couldn’t finish.

‘We actually kind of like that style where they press out on us,’ senior attack Brett Bucktooth said. ‘It helps us find the open man. That’s why we were able to find so many open shots. When people put pressure on us, we have good players on our team who can move the ball and create shots for themselves. We were able to do that and get open but our shots weren’t falling today.’

Contrary to the rest of the game, the results came up differently for Syracuse at the beginning. Georgetown attack Brendan Cannon was called for a slashing penalty just 13 seconds into the first period. At the 14:30 mark, Yevoli scored off a Bucktooth pass.

About two minutes later, Mike Leveille tallied a goal to put up SU 2-0. Leveille and midfielder Brian Crockett led the Orange with two goals.

SU failed to carry the momentum as Georgetown’s midfielder Dave Paolisso scored one of his three goals at the 8:36 mark. At the end of the first period, the Hoyas took the lead, 5-4.

The second period proved to be stagnant for both teams. Neither team scored until GU’s Brendan Cannon scored with 3:31 left to make it 6-4.

But in the third period Georgetown used its transition game effectively and built a 9-5 advantage from which SU couldn’t recover. Georgetown went on 21-of-23 clears and out-scooped Syracuse on ground balls, 41-30, for the game.

‘There were a handful of transition goals that came back to haunt us in the fourth quarter,’ senior defenseman John Wright said. ‘You can’t scout transition. It’s all about hustle and we had a hard time doing that.’

On the other hand, SU turned the ball over and rushed on offense too many times. During its nine man-up opportunities, GU defenseman Reyn Garnett thought SU’s plays became easily predictable.

The Hoyas, meanwhile, also perfected what head coach Dave Urick calls a ‘slow break.’ After running transition, GU at times slowed its momentum down and passed the ball around to keep Syracuse guessing.

For example, at the end of the third quarter Perritt was charged for unnecessary roughness. As he sat out the first two minutes of the fourth period, GU worked around the perimeter almost the whole time allotted during its man-up opportunity. After passing the ball around for almost the whole penalty, attackman Andrew Baird scored to increase the Hoyas’ lead to 10-7.

‘I think we play pretty well 6-on-6. We settle down, we get into our sets, then we play real well,’ SU junior defenseman Steve Panarelli said. ‘We match-up well and we scheme well. But it’s the transition thing that’s been getting us last year and this year. It’s not what we’re doing. It’s the way we play. Everybody knows how we play.’

Note: Greg Niewieroski played in the second period at attack against the Hoyas. He has missed the whole season due to an ankle injury. Last year, Niewieroski mixed between midfield and attack, scoring ten goals. At the beginning of the season, Desko planned to shuffle him between midfield and attack. But on Wednesday, assistant coach Kevin Donahue said the coaching staff was planning to move him to the attack position.

Published on March 12, 2006 at 12:00 pm