As Syracuse gets set to start its season, many of its personnel decisions are already set in stone. Bobby Wardwell will start in goal. Ben Williams will almost certainly take the faceoffs. Randy Staats, Kevin Rice and Dylan Donahue will start on arguably the best attack in the nation.

But the midfield lines don’t have the same luxury of certainty. Hakeem Lecky and Henry Schoonmaker will have a spot on the first line. But then there’s Nicky Galasso and Jordan Evans who will be somewhere in the rotation. But everything is far from locked up.

“Some of it could be who plays well that day,” SU head coach John Desko said. “You always kind of think you know who you are earlier in the year, and then as the game goes on and the season goes on, you tend to figure things out. It’s a work in progress, but we’re very comfortable putting any of them out there in a game situation.”

Going into No. 4 Syracuse’s first game of the season on Saturday against Siena in the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m., Galasso and Evans are still fighting for the final spot on the starting midfield line. And because of that, the second line is still in flux with players like Tim Barber, Nick Weston and Sergio Salcido all fighting for a chance.

Last year, Galasso and seniors Billy Ward and Derek Maltz combined for 45 goals from an attack-minded second-line midfield. And while this year’s group will be far less experienced, whoever is on it will try and continue the offensive mindset the position has entailed.

“They tell us all the time, they’re looking for guys that are going to dodge, for guys that can put the ball in the back of the net,” Weston said. “I think that’s basically what it comes down to, whether you can dodge and whether you can score.”

Last year Weston was one of the few freshman midfielders that got to play. He appeared in 15 of the 16 games, and recorded two goals in limited minutes. This year, Desko said he liked what he saw in the preseason in regard to his chances of playing on the second line.

In the preseason, Desko said Syracuse fans were going to see the Evans that came out of Jamesville-DeWitt (New York) High School with a world of hype. He also praised Barber, an Onondaga Community College transfer who scored 55 goals in his final season with the Lazers.

On the outside looking in appears to be Salcido, who was primarily a scout team player last season.

“Right now, I think the runs have been a little limited on my half. I’ve been getting stuck on defense a lot,” Salcido said. “… I know a lot of the other guys have been playing together and are starting to get a chemistry together.”

The midfield lines have yet to be solidified, and even after Saturday’s season opener, nothing will likely be set in stone. Desko said he expects to see a lot of zone defenses early in the season, so he plans to mix it up a lot.
Last season, Syracuse had a core group of attacks that couldn’t fit into a jam-packed group of starters. This season, the scoring threat of the second line is far from proven.

But regardless of who gets the reps, it will be determined by who can help an already stacked offense.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to who produces the most,” Salcido said, “who puts the ball in the net the most, who runs the offense the best.”

Published on February 6, 2015 at 5:59 pm

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