The score sheet seemed like a lie. Derek Maltz and JoJo Marasco contributed one goal apiece, but Syracuse knocked off the No. 5 team in the country, 13-8.

“We’ve told these guys since day one, right guys?” SU head coach John Desko said, turning to midfielders Scott Loy and Hakeem Lecky. They both nodded.

“I don’t think anybody can cover Hakeem one-on-one on our team, and Scott’s just been getting better and better,” Desko said.

The score sheet didn’t lie. Lecky, who hadn’t scored all year, and the unheralded Loy crucially boosted the Orange to victory over Johns Hopkins. As the Blue Jays closed off SU’s main threats, Lecky and Loy made them pay, painfully proving once again that the Orange attack is much more than Marasco and an inside game of Maltz and Luke Cometti.

Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said he talked to his players all week about shutting down Cometti, calling him the best off-ball player in the country, adding his players needed to stay focused on Orange cutters. But the Blue Jays put up blinders to the rest of SU’s offense, and paid dearly for it.

“We just got so tied up with our own guys that we saw Hakeem Lecky get his first two goals of the year off of dodge with no slide,” Pietramala said.

Loy was timely, stemming the tide of JHU’s comeback attempts. He and Lecky had scored back-to-back goals nearly within a minute of each other in the first quarter as SU buried Hopkins 6-1 in the opening frame.

After the Blue Jays pulled within three midway through the second quarter, Loy stunted their momentum, chucking in a 15-yard shot with 6:52 left in the half.

With JHU within three again in the closing minutes of the third quarter, Tucker Durkin tripped Loy, drawing a flag. Loy somehow kept the ball, scrambled to his feet, dodged fast and ripped a shot in from the left hash mark to extend the lead to 11-7.

Pietramala praised Loy after the game as a “big, strong athlete.”

And while Loy closed the door on Hopkins, the greatest gain for the Orange may be the boost to Lecky’s confidence. The redshirt sophomore had shot 11 times so far this season — none had gone in.

Though Lecky brushed off the notion of any building pressure, he comfortably looked forward to his future role in the Orange’s ever-expanding offense.

Said Lecky: “I don’t compare or try to rush anything, I just try to keep the offense moving.”

Published on March 16, 2013 at 7:55 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_