Four different Syracuse players met Kevin Massa at the faceoff X. All were soundly beaten.

“In the faceoff game, their guy came as advertised and he’s really special,” SU head coach John Desko said. “He gives them an awful lot of possessions.”

He gave the Bulldogs 22 possessions as he won all but one faceoff Sunday night for an unearthly 96-percent win rate. Syracuse sent out myriad combinations of faceoff men and wings to battle Massa. None worked. Massa solved them all. Whether it was first-choice Chris Daddio or long-stick midfielder Matt Harris, Massa came out with the ball.

Daddio came closest to beating Massa, but he fumbled too many ground balls and SU turned to Harris.

Through 16 regular-season and Big East tournament games, Harris took zero faceoffs. He won his first Sunday night. But it was a false hope. There was no formula for beating Massa as he set NCAA records for single-season faceoff wins and ground balls per game.

At best, Harris could flip the ball in the air, forcing a jump-ball situation. But when he did, a Bryant wing swept in to snatch another possession for the Bulldogs. Midfielders Mason Poli, Alex Zomerfield, Colin Dunster and J.K. Poirier combined for 12 ground balls.

“I owe a lot of it today to the wing play. Mason and Zom, Dunster, J.K., all those guys,” Massa said. “They played really well, bailed me out a couple times, made some great plays, so I really owe a lot of it to those guys.”

Syracuse often resorted to sending out an all D-pole faceoff crew of Harris in the middle with Joe Fazio and Peter Macartney on either wing. The setup was designed to force turnovers against seemingly inevitable initial wins by Massa.

But when they swept in to dispossess Massa, he’d turn away, even when they charged him from behind.

“That’s part of his God-given ability to feel people around him,” BU head coach Mike Pressler said. “… He has again and again come through against every ‘wrinkle’ that teams throw against him.”

Published on May 13, 2013 at 1:55 am

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