As the first half of Saturday’s Syracuse-Army lacrosse game ended, one thing was certain: The Orange is not the same team that won the national championship in 2004. That’s not to say SU can’t go as far in the NCAA Tournament and that’s not to say this team is worse, but last year’s team never would have played in a half that had five goals scored combined.

So on Saturday, a new Syracuse team found a different way to win, 9-4, against Army at the Carrier Dome in front of 5,685. The No. 3 Orange, which won only once last season when it scored less than 10 goals, found scoring opportunities instead of creating them and locked down No. 14 Army’s two Tewaaraton Trophy candidates on attack.

‘(Our plan) is to pick good opportunities, control the ball and make the other team play defense,’ said SU head coach John Desko. ‘Our offense gets more comfortable and you can figure out what the other team is doing defensively.’

In the first half, both teams were content with controlling the ball in an attempt to feel out each others’ defenses – the two teams took a combined 26 shots. No. 14 Army (0-1) spent much of its time on offense cycling the ball around Syracuse goalie Jay Pfeifer.

Meanwhile, the Orange’s young offense tried set plays instead of isolating key matchups. The Orange’s two first half goals came from long-pole defender Scott Ditzell and midfielder Greg Rommel.

‘We just have to pick and choose our shots and work for a higher percentage shot,’ Desko said. ‘Conditioning is important because the times we did have the ball there was a lot of movement. If we can do that and tire out opposing teams’ defenses, that’ll help us.’

The first half yawned to a close with Syracuse (1-0) leading 3-2. In the locker room at halftime, Desko told his team to find better shots.

‘We felt like we outplayed them in the first half,’ said freshman attackman Mike Leveille. ‘We just didn’t have the number we wanted to on the scoreboard.

‘We were waiting to explode.’

At 12:05 of the second half, junior Brian Crockett whipped around the back of the net on the right side and launched the ball into the goal’s upper-right corner as he was thrown to the ground. The goal gave Syracuse a 4-3 lead and the momentum in the game.

After Army’s Jim Wagner scored a man-up goal to tie the game, Crockett had a chance at another goal at 6:42 as the ball trickled loose in the Army crease. Crockett stretched for it as the ball trickled in, but the goal was called back because of a crease violation.

From there, the Tewaaraton Trophy candidate showed flashes of the offensive domination seen on last year’s team. A minute later, Crockett outran Army defenders down the right side of the field and rocketed the ball into the top right corner for his second goal.

‘We were letting this team hang too close,’ Crockett said. ‘We wanted to get some separation in the third and put the game away.’

From there, Crockett scored two more goals while Army scored none. Pfeifer ended the game with 12 saves and Crockett had four goals and an assist.

‘For the first game we didn’t want to go shot for shot,’ Crockett said. ‘We wanted to control the ball. As the season progresses, we can make changes. For the first game, we wanted to make sure we won.’

Published on February 26, 2005 at 12:00 pm