JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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Like much of this season the only thing predictable about Saturday's game was that it was a one goal win for the Orange. Team keeps finding away to win which is always a huge positive but clearly when you keep playing with fire like this you risk getting burned. Clearly there are two ways to look at all the close wins; One it shows the mark of a championship team and that this team knows how to get things done in crunch time and find a way to win. The other thought would be that eventually the ball is not going to bounce our way and were going to get the short end of the stick at some point ala the Army Game. Still a win is always better then a loss and wef found away despite some big time struggles from our top end players. Lots of takes from this game so I will try to alternate positive negative.
Give Evans credit, thought he played well coming off a less then stellar performance the week before and could have easily have had 4 goals versus the three he did have. His goal at the end of the third was probably the biggest of the year because they really needed a momentum boost at that point. He did have like most of the starters a pretty bad turnover in the second half but when you score 3 goals you can accept that. If Evans can keep playing within himself and not turn the ball over he has the chance to play a pretty big role here down the stretch.
SU can overcome a bad game from one of Mariano, Solomon, and Salcido against an elite team. Its going to struggle mightily if two of them struggle but we have absolutely no chance if all three of them play like that again in a game in the tournament. Mariano was fairly quiet against UNC (for obvious reasons) so I thought he was in for a bigger game especially with Bingo only occasionally double polling. That being said he didn't look like himself at all and really struggled. He stepped in the crease for no reason and also had another bad turnover. Teams seem to be overplaying his left hand when he dodges now (from film I am sure) and based on that he's had some issue dodging for good looks the past few weeks. Mariano needs to keep working off ball as he is at his most dangerous when he's ripping from 15 yards and in off of good ball movement. Salcido has already taken a pretty big beating so I won't rehash everything but man that was brutal. Zero points and 3-4 unforced just brutal turnovers. It appears the emotions of Sr day got to him but Desko needs to do a better job of getting his head into the game. This team needs him, another performance like that will doom this team. I thought Solomon recognized the two top guys were struggling and tried to pick up the slack but wasn't able to cash in. Had a few nice righty dodges from X that resulted in a shot on the back side of the net and a save by the Bingo goalie. This was the first game I can remember where Solomon didn't have multiple goals. He did pick up an assist and was active for most of the game. Not overly concerned by his 1 pt performance but clearly he's an important goal scoring piece on this team.
Simmons and Trimboli were nice bright spots on an otherwise frustrating game. Simmons had an outstanding dodge/move for his first goal and Trimboli picked a corner with insane accuracy on his first as well. Was nice to see the second mid line produce a bit and Simmons has definitely shown some flashes. Trimboli was pretty quiet against UNC so for him to get two goals in a game where the stars struggled was enormous. In a perfect world I would like to see him show a little bit more then just alley dodges at this point but he is still a true frosh who is only going to get better and better and he has made some big plays when needed the most.
Speaking of the midfield thought Desko went deep to the bench way to early in this game. Its one thing when were up a few goals in 80 degree weather its another up a goal in the 1st quarter when we have barely had the ball and you have the third line in who promptly turns it over. The third line has had some bright spots but in a game where Bingo is purposefully taking extremely long drawn out possession there was no way we needed to sub that much. Also frustrating that we can't get some mixing of the second line. Carlin continues to be a non factor while he is drawing the pole I don't think Lane has a goal in six weeks. We need to be giving O'Sullivan and Dearth some runs with Simmons as those have been the most active middies outside the top 3.
Faceoffs, what can you say other then not good. I though the Bingo guy put a valiant effort against Ierlan earlier in the week (as I noted in my preview) but was surprised at how much Ben struggled. Had a hard time winning the initial clamp and like our wings was a mess on Gb's. I did like the staff going to a double pole at the X with Bomberry. Bomberry has excellent stick skills and should be on the wings more often. Schwasnick is out there grinding but we need more consistent play from our wings. They were pretty good against UNC last week but abysmal this past Saturday. Hope Ben just had an off game as he really seemed to be coming into his own the last 3 weeks before that performance. Disappointed Desko didn't look to Varello at all when Ben was struggling, were gonna wear this kid out.
Defensively the team only gave up 8 goals with three of those coming in the second half. That said I was beyond disappointed to see them give up 5 goals to Moore. He is clearly the #1 option on that team and while we did shut down pretty much everyone else it was disheartening to see a teams# 1 option go off for the second straight game against an SU defense that had been elite for most of the year. Perhaps Crease rat or someone else who saw it on TV can comment but it appeared after a lengthy possession Binghamton began to screen and pick for Moore to get him open around the crease while a quicker player initiated from the wing or X. I know Firman wasn't covering him for every goal but he has now given up 11 pts in two games the past two weeks. You have to wonder if the rigors of covering the #1 attackmen every week are starting to wear him out as he is not used to playing this much coming from LSM his firs three years. I thought SU did a nice job of tightening it up in the 2nd half against an opponent who tried to copy Bryant from a few years ago in essentially passing the ball around for a few minutes to try and get SU to fall asleep (figuratively and literally) before initiating. I thought the officials were painfully slow in putting the timer on despite Bingo clearly try to just run clock.
I thought Molloy had another steady game where he did what he had to. He continues to let in a couple he should have had but on most of the goals especially by Moore he had no chance. He had two nice saves late including the last one where he had the pipe hugged and there was little angle for the shooter as he was moving away and couldn't get the proper placement. To me the question is can he turn in an elite level performance or two in the tourney when SU really needs it? Jury is still out on that one. I have to admit it was a bit frustrating to see SU give up that last goal almost as if you knew they would after the offense failed to extend the lead to three.
So what do we take away form this? The main takeaway for me is that this team finds away to win even when their best players are struggling and their clearly not having an A+ performance type of day. That is the mark of a great team, that they continue to somehow find away to win. The concern would be that this game looked an awful lot like the 1st round losses to Bryant and Army and that you could see the blueprint other teams may try to use against SU. The other concerning aspect was that Desko noted the team did not practice well this week and he wasn't overly surprised by the performance. That to me is very concerning, he needs to keep this team firing on all cylinders and playing at a high level especially when the team has turned in similar performances the last few years in the tournament which have led to early exits. Desko and staff have done an incredible job this year with a team most thought would struggle at times this year and has them on the doorstep of a #1 overall seed which is mindboggling when you consider the injuries and graduation losses. That said you got a bit of a bad feeling/deja vu watching this game at times. I am hopeful this game was an aberration due to the emotions of Senior day and SU nearing the end of a brutal schedule where they were likely looking past Bingo. Friday night will tell a lot about this team.
Give Evans credit, thought he played well coming off a less then stellar performance the week before and could have easily have had 4 goals versus the three he did have. His goal at the end of the third was probably the biggest of the year because they really needed a momentum boost at that point. He did have like most of the starters a pretty bad turnover in the second half but when you score 3 goals you can accept that. If Evans can keep playing within himself and not turn the ball over he has the chance to play a pretty big role here down the stretch.
SU can overcome a bad game from one of Mariano, Solomon, and Salcido against an elite team. Its going to struggle mightily if two of them struggle but we have absolutely no chance if all three of them play like that again in a game in the tournament. Mariano was fairly quiet against UNC (for obvious reasons) so I thought he was in for a bigger game especially with Bingo only occasionally double polling. That being said he didn't look like himself at all and really struggled. He stepped in the crease for no reason and also had another bad turnover. Teams seem to be overplaying his left hand when he dodges now (from film I am sure) and based on that he's had some issue dodging for good looks the past few weeks. Mariano needs to keep working off ball as he is at his most dangerous when he's ripping from 15 yards and in off of good ball movement. Salcido has already taken a pretty big beating so I won't rehash everything but man that was brutal. Zero points and 3-4 unforced just brutal turnovers. It appears the emotions of Sr day got to him but Desko needs to do a better job of getting his head into the game. This team needs him, another performance like that will doom this team. I thought Solomon recognized the two top guys were struggling and tried to pick up the slack but wasn't able to cash in. Had a few nice righty dodges from X that resulted in a shot on the back side of the net and a save by the Bingo goalie. This was the first game I can remember where Solomon didn't have multiple goals. He did pick up an assist and was active for most of the game. Not overly concerned by his 1 pt performance but clearly he's an important goal scoring piece on this team.
Simmons and Trimboli were nice bright spots on an otherwise frustrating game. Simmons had an outstanding dodge/move for his first goal and Trimboli picked a corner with insane accuracy on his first as well. Was nice to see the second mid line produce a bit and Simmons has definitely shown some flashes. Trimboli was pretty quiet against UNC so for him to get two goals in a game where the stars struggled was enormous. In a perfect world I would like to see him show a little bit more then just alley dodges at this point but he is still a true frosh who is only going to get better and better and he has made some big plays when needed the most.
Speaking of the midfield thought Desko went deep to the bench way to early in this game. Its one thing when were up a few goals in 80 degree weather its another up a goal in the 1st quarter when we have barely had the ball and you have the third line in who promptly turns it over. The third line has had some bright spots but in a game where Bingo is purposefully taking extremely long drawn out possession there was no way we needed to sub that much. Also frustrating that we can't get some mixing of the second line. Carlin continues to be a non factor while he is drawing the pole I don't think Lane has a goal in six weeks. We need to be giving O'Sullivan and Dearth some runs with Simmons as those have been the most active middies outside the top 3.
Faceoffs, what can you say other then not good. I though the Bingo guy put a valiant effort against Ierlan earlier in the week (as I noted in my preview) but was surprised at how much Ben struggled. Had a hard time winning the initial clamp and like our wings was a mess on Gb's. I did like the staff going to a double pole at the X with Bomberry. Bomberry has excellent stick skills and should be on the wings more often. Schwasnick is out there grinding but we need more consistent play from our wings. They were pretty good against UNC last week but abysmal this past Saturday. Hope Ben just had an off game as he really seemed to be coming into his own the last 3 weeks before that performance. Disappointed Desko didn't look to Varello at all when Ben was struggling, were gonna wear this kid out.
Defensively the team only gave up 8 goals with three of those coming in the second half. That said I was beyond disappointed to see them give up 5 goals to Moore. He is clearly the #1 option on that team and while we did shut down pretty much everyone else it was disheartening to see a teams# 1 option go off for the second straight game against an SU defense that had been elite for most of the year. Perhaps Crease rat or someone else who saw it on TV can comment but it appeared after a lengthy possession Binghamton began to screen and pick for Moore to get him open around the crease while a quicker player initiated from the wing or X. I know Firman wasn't covering him for every goal but he has now given up 11 pts in two games the past two weeks. You have to wonder if the rigors of covering the #1 attackmen every week are starting to wear him out as he is not used to playing this much coming from LSM his firs three years. I thought SU did a nice job of tightening it up in the 2nd half against an opponent who tried to copy Bryant from a few years ago in essentially passing the ball around for a few minutes to try and get SU to fall asleep (figuratively and literally) before initiating. I thought the officials were painfully slow in putting the timer on despite Bingo clearly try to just run clock.
I thought Molloy had another steady game where he did what he had to. He continues to let in a couple he should have had but on most of the goals especially by Moore he had no chance. He had two nice saves late including the last one where he had the pipe hugged and there was little angle for the shooter as he was moving away and couldn't get the proper placement. To me the question is can he turn in an elite level performance or two in the tourney when SU really needs it? Jury is still out on that one. I have to admit it was a bit frustrating to see SU give up that last goal almost as if you knew they would after the offense failed to extend the lead to three.
So what do we take away form this? The main takeaway for me is that this team finds away to win even when their best players are struggling and their clearly not having an A+ performance type of day. That is the mark of a great team, that they continue to somehow find away to win. The concern would be that this game looked an awful lot like the 1st round losses to Bryant and Army and that you could see the blueprint other teams may try to use against SU. The other concerning aspect was that Desko noted the team did not practice well this week and he wasn't overly surprised by the performance. That to me is very concerning, he needs to keep this team firing on all cylinders and playing at a high level especially when the team has turned in similar performances the last few years in the tournament which have led to early exits. Desko and staff have done an incredible job this year with a team most thought would struggle at times this year and has them on the doorstep of a #1 overall seed which is mindboggling when you consider the injuries and graduation losses. That said you got a bit of a bad feeling/deja vu watching this game at times. I am hopeful this game was an aberration due to the emotions of Senior day and SU nearing the end of a brutal schedule where they were likely looking past Bingo. Friday night will tell a lot about this team.
