PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Luke Cometti called Syracuse’s warm-up sloppy.

While Providence buzzed through its offensive set 40-plus minutes before faceoff Tuesday night, Syracuse slogged around in sweats. With 3-foot banks of snow piled along the far sideline of the AstroTurf at Lennon Family Field and the Orange jogging through its pre-game routine within 10 minutes of faceoff, the trap game SU head coach John Desko had forecast looked to be coming true.

When Andrew Barton bounced a turnaround shot from in close past Dominic Lamolinara’s right shoulder, the 15 or so Friars that formed a mosh pit on the Providence sideline looked sure of it.

But with a vicious first-half attack that included 11 goals, the No. 4 Orange (5-1, 2-0 Big East) cruised to an 18-9 blowout victory over Providence in front of 2,200 fans. It made the second 30 minutes irrelevant, a chance for Desko to play untested depth as the perpetual motion of the Orange offense stranded PC goalie Jack Connelly time and again.

“It was eventually up 6-1 the first, kind of like (Johns) Hopkins,” Cometti said, “but we knew if we kept it on, it could be an easy day for us.”

Two goals in nine seconds made it look easy. SU answered Barton’s early challenge with ruthless ease. After Scott Loy’s gentle toss over Connelly’s right shoulder for the equalizer, long-stick midfielder Matt Harris scooped up Chris Daddio’s faceoff and swept in on goal. Drawing the scrambling defense, he flicked a 7-yard pass to Derek Maltz, who showed no hesitation bouncing a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net.

Providence never led again. SU led 3-1 before the Friars next tested Lamolinara.

Before bussing to Providence for his first start of the season, Lamolinara worried about high bounces off of the rough surface. He’d only played two games in his career on AstroTurf. He’d have to wear sweatpants instead of his usual shorts and throw his body in front of tricky skipping shots.

Instead of fooling Lamolinara, though, the turf only accelerated the Friars’ errant shots and out-of-bounds passes that much more quickly.

“I got in a flow so it was easy,” he said.

Providence’s offense wasn’t entirely poor. The Friars circled the ball around quickly, keeping the SU defense on edge. But the Orange’s was great. It was a blur of passes, cuts and ultimately goals.

In the closing minutes of the first half, leading 10-2, SU’s JoJo Marasco swung down from the left wing and trotted behind Connelly’s already punished goal. It looked as though the motor of SU’s attack was content to run out the half.

But an eight-goal lead wasn’t enough. Marasco stuck a pass over Connelly into the face-guarded Dylan Donahue. The attack caught the ball over his larger defender, spun 180 degrees to his left and chucked his shot into the bottom-left corner.

The jumping, happy punching with which Providence started the game was a distant memory as Chris Gabrielli kept his players on the chilly, windswept field for his halftime talk.

But the biting cold and snowy conditions that threatened to freeze Orange momentum after an emotional victory against Johns Hopkins on Saturday only sped up SU’s dismantling of Providence.

“I was freezing on the sideline, I just wanted to go out there and run,” Syracuse midfielder Henry Schoonmaker said. “So it was just nice to get out there whenever we could, I mean, yeah, those were probably the worst conditions I’ve ever played in.”

But it didn’t matter. Nothing would.

“It was kind of crappy weather, we had a real shaky warm-up, and then I thought everyone played real well, we had a game plan, we executed and got everyone in,” Cometti said. “So it was fun.”

Published on March 19, 2013 at 9:08 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_