JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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I meant to do this after the Princeton game but haven't had the time and was letting the final four loss finally fade away.
First of all let me state the obvious, huge win. Locks up a tourney berth barring a total collapse and allows wiggle room for SU to lose a Nova type game during the remaining schedule.
There were a lot more positives the negatives tonight but let me just run through the few issues that still need work.
1. Faceoffs - Not going to beat a dead horse here but we have to get more consistent here. Its been 5 years since Brennan and were still searching for an good faceoff guy, however Daddio seems to be comign into his own (more on him later). Going to be critical we develop Paduda or bring in another FOGO for next year. Also need to work with Conroy to adjust his technique, that on the ground start isnt going to work at the D1 level, he doesnt have the ability to win the draw to himself starting on the ground and good opposing FOGO's have ran rough shot over him.
2. Matt Pratt - Rough game for him tonight, was blown by repeatedly including what honestly should have been the tieing goal by English. Guy hustles hard but has to play better down the stretch, its one thing to get beat but its another for guys to simply just run past you especially that last sequence.
3. EMO- I have no problem with playing Powderly, Dejoe, and Walters on this unit, in fact I like it. Gives the opposing team a new look and us fresh legs. However, we need to run a few plays or have a better game plan then passing the ball around the outside for 25 of the 30 second man up and then having Dejoe or Walters launch from Club 44. Need get Schoonmaker or Cometti in on the EMO and look for Maltz more inside, this will help open up Dejoe/Walters for outside shots that arent as far out.
4. Dylan Donahue - I think he may have hit the freshmen wall a bit, doesn't seem as crisp or as active as he was earlier in the season. He was called for a ward and easily could have been called for two more including one late in the 4th that was pretty blatant. With Maltz being faceguarded we need the other 3 attack guys to provide points to take some pressure of the middies. That said I am very high on Dylan and I think he has a big future here.
Alright on to the positives:
Big shout out to Steve Ianzito, guy has been a rock this year on D. Steve came in with a lot of hype as a freshmen but never really lived up to it on the offensive side, however, in his senior year he has been the best short stick defender by far. He had another great game today and got a goal on a shot from distance. We really need him to continue to play at a high level as our other short stick D guys are either struggling right now or are very young and just getting there feet wet at the position.
Lamo again had a good game, there is no goalie controversy people, Lamo is your guy for the rest of the season. He has absolutely earned it.
Schoonmaker/Cometti - What can you say other then WOW. These two have taken there games to a next level especially Schoonie the last few games. His dodges to the goal have been unreal and dont even get me started on that off hand wrap around goal against Princeton, sick. I hope people dont forget about Cometti either he was carrying a large part of the offensive load early and has been steady all season. If these two keep playing like this, Syracuse is going to be real tough to beat.
Thought Billy Ward really busted his @ss out there tonight, it was clear he was overmatched from a physical standpoint by the Cornell defenders due to his size but he kept plugging away all game and that last goal was needless to say huge. We really need to get a point or two from him and Rice every game to take the pressure off of the middies and Maltz.
JoJo has been good all year, playing within himself and most of the time understanding he needs to be a feeder and not Mike Powell. He hasnt scored a ton the last few weeks but all of his goals have been timely and exceptionally big including the last two games.
Moving forward this win pretty much locks up a tourney berth, but Syracuse still has work to do regarding the Be tourney. Nova is actually in the drivers seat right now for the 1 seed as they are 3-0 but have yet to play ND or St. Johns and have a losing record overall. A win against Rutgers on Saturday should be a lock so that leaves Gtown and ND. SU simply needs to win one of those two to lock in a BE tourney bearth. Right now Providence and Rutgers are near locks to miss the tourney, that leaves one additional team who will be left out as the BE only takes 4 of the 7 teams to the tournament. Pretty wide open right now on who could miss, there are scenarios where ND and even SU could be left out of the BE tourney but granted an NCAA at large berth, crazy. Looking forward to pounding RU saturday and hope to make the game!
First of all let me state the obvious, huge win. Locks up a tourney berth barring a total collapse and allows wiggle room for SU to lose a Nova type game during the remaining schedule.
There were a lot more positives the negatives tonight but let me just run through the few issues that still need work.
1. Faceoffs - Not going to beat a dead horse here but we have to get more consistent here. Its been 5 years since Brennan and were still searching for an good faceoff guy, however Daddio seems to be comign into his own (more on him later). Going to be critical we develop Paduda or bring in another FOGO for next year. Also need to work with Conroy to adjust his technique, that on the ground start isnt going to work at the D1 level, he doesnt have the ability to win the draw to himself starting on the ground and good opposing FOGO's have ran rough shot over him.
2. Matt Pratt - Rough game for him tonight, was blown by repeatedly including what honestly should have been the tieing goal by English. Guy hustles hard but has to play better down the stretch, its one thing to get beat but its another for guys to simply just run past you especially that last sequence.
3. EMO- I have no problem with playing Powderly, Dejoe, and Walters on this unit, in fact I like it. Gives the opposing team a new look and us fresh legs. However, we need to run a few plays or have a better game plan then passing the ball around the outside for 25 of the 30 second man up and then having Dejoe or Walters launch from Club 44. Need get Schoonmaker or Cometti in on the EMO and look for Maltz more inside, this will help open up Dejoe/Walters for outside shots that arent as far out.
4. Dylan Donahue - I think he may have hit the freshmen wall a bit, doesn't seem as crisp or as active as he was earlier in the season. He was called for a ward and easily could have been called for two more including one late in the 4th that was pretty blatant. With Maltz being faceguarded we need the other 3 attack guys to provide points to take some pressure of the middies. That said I am very high on Dylan and I think he has a big future here.
Alright on to the positives:
Big shout out to Steve Ianzito, guy has been a rock this year on D. Steve came in with a lot of hype as a freshmen but never really lived up to it on the offensive side, however, in his senior year he has been the best short stick defender by far. He had another great game today and got a goal on a shot from distance. We really need him to continue to play at a high level as our other short stick D guys are either struggling right now or are very young and just getting there feet wet at the position.
Lamo again had a good game, there is no goalie controversy people, Lamo is your guy for the rest of the season. He has absolutely earned it.
Schoonmaker/Cometti - What can you say other then WOW. These two have taken there games to a next level especially Schoonie the last few games. His dodges to the goal have been unreal and dont even get me started on that off hand wrap around goal against Princeton, sick. I hope people dont forget about Cometti either he was carrying a large part of the offensive load early and has been steady all season. If these two keep playing like this, Syracuse is going to be real tough to beat.
Thought Billy Ward really busted his @ss out there tonight, it was clear he was overmatched from a physical standpoint by the Cornell defenders due to his size but he kept plugging away all game and that last goal was needless to say huge. We really need to get a point or two from him and Rice every game to take the pressure off of the middies and Maltz.
JoJo has been good all year, playing within himself and most of the time understanding he needs to be a feeder and not Mike Powell. He hasnt scored a ton the last few weeks but all of his goals have been timely and exceptionally big including the last two games.
Moving forward this win pretty much locks up a tourney berth, but Syracuse still has work to do regarding the Be tourney. Nova is actually in the drivers seat right now for the 1 seed as they are 3-0 but have yet to play ND or St. Johns and have a losing record overall. A win against Rutgers on Saturday should be a lock so that leaves Gtown and ND. SU simply needs to win one of those two to lock in a BE tourney bearth. Right now Providence and Rutgers are near locks to miss the tourney, that leaves one additional team who will be left out as the BE only takes 4 of the 7 teams to the tournament. Pretty wide open right now on who could miss, there are scenarios where ND and even SU could be left out of the BE tourney but granted an NCAA at large berth, crazy. Looking forward to pounding RU saturday and hope to make the game!
Kids have the stones to win it all.
