Radnor, Pa. – The Syracuse University lacrosse team answered the question emphatically on the field. St. John’s coach Jason Milller confirmed it afterward.
“I don’t think any lacrosse coach out there will tell you he wants to see Syracuse in early May,” Miller said. “They just seem to hit another gear, and it has happened ever since I was a little kid.”
It happened again Saturday, as the Orange dismantled the Red Storm 12-4 to win the inaugural Big East men’s lacrosse tournament and with it a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will air at 9 p.m. Sunday (ESPNU), with insiders predicting a first-round game at Massachusetts or North Carolina.
The speculation can wait. Saturday was about an SU team that entered the tournament needing to win to get into the NCAAs. Failure would doom it to the sideline for only the second time since 1982. It responded with its best overall game of the season Thursday in a 15-6 victory over Villanova and then duplicated the effort against the Red Storm (8-7). For the bean counters, SU (9-7) scored 19 goals and allowed 19 in a regular-season split with the Wildcats and Red Storm. It defeated them in the tournament by a cumulative 27-10.
When prodded after his fourth-seeded team stunned Notre Dame 8-7 in Thursday’s first semifinal as to which team he would like to see in the final Miller had said he had a preference, “but I’m not going to tell you.” The scoreboard and his postgame comment regarding SU’s reputation as a May bloomer announced the answer,
“I thought we just played similar today to the way we played against Villanova,” SU coach John Desko said. “The guys came out very well prepared and understanding our opponent with a lot of intensity behind it. The team has really adjusted defensively and offensively. The whole thing is starting to come together for us”
And how. Senior midfielder Bobby Eilers, who scored a career-high four goals Thursday vs. the Wildcats, ripped a shot past Jeff Lowman with 11 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the first quarter, and the Orange was off and running.
“I’m not ready for my college lacrosse career to end,” said Eilers, who finished with two goals and two assists. “Before the semifinal game we said we didn’t want it to be our last practice, and I guess I took it to heart and it seems to be working for me. I just have to keep doing it.”
Eilers’ work up top was complemented by senior attackman Tommy Palasek, who scored six points on three goals and three assists and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
“It’s not me, it’s our whole offense,” Palasek said. “Right from the start of this tournament we were moving well, and that just allows me to do my thing out there. As long as I come out ready to play and on my toes and keeping my eyes on everybody else on the field things are going to click.”
Palasek could have been discouraged early when he made a great face dodge on the wing, streaked inside his defender and across the top of the crease and shot low far side, only to have Lowman kick it out.
“Really, the move that got me there was more encouraging than the shot,” Palasek said. “He made a great off-stick save. He made some great saves throughout the game.”
Palasek tried the move twice more later, each time blistering a high shot past Lowman, who had stymied SU with 15 saves during a narrow 9-8 Orange victory during the regular season.
Lowman (13 saves) was great again, but SU’s pressure at both ends of the field was relentless. While the offense brushed off several rob-jobs on high-percentage shots and methodically built a comfortable cushion the defense was something else, pressing out and challenging Red Storm ball carriers all over the field. The result was a 31-minute shutout to start the game that Miller admitted had his players “scrambling around most of the first half.”
“We’ve been working on that for the last week or so, jumping them with the quick slide when they get adjacent (to the goal),” junior defender Brian Megill said. “That goes with confidence, our slide guys and our (second slide) guys. The talk starts with (goalie) Bobby (Wardwell) and works its way up. We did the right things today.”
Everywhere. SU again topped the 50 percent mark on faceoffs (11-for-20) against a team it went 8-for-21 against in the regular season. It kept its turnovers manageable (12) while forcing 17. Its resurgent man-up unit connected on five of seven chances.
May is here, and so is the Orange.
“You can say what you want about the season,” Palasek said, “but there are still (potentially) four more games left for everybody in the country, and records don’t matter anymore. It feels good we were able to keep the streak alive of getting to the playoffs, but we still have the same goal, getting to the national championship and winning it.”
Note: Making the all-tournament team from SU were Wardwell, Eilers, Megill and Palasek.