WASHINGTON –Cal Paduda and Chris Daddio held their own against a faceoff specialist ranked among the top 10 in the country.

Syracuse won 9-of-20 faceoffs and held the ball for crucial stretches as the freshman Paduda battled Georgetown’s Tyler Knarr. Daddio chipped in, taking 1-of-3 to break up the GU specialists’ momentum and swapped notes with Paduda as SU fought to a team-wide 45-percent performance at the X.

Paduda went toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s best, a long-pole too, but had ample help from wings like Matt Harris and Steve Ianzito.

“Watching him on film he’s actually pretty quick too,” Paduda said. “So it was definitely an awesome and unique experience to go against a long pole who has some tendencies of a short-pole FOGO … but all the credit goes to our wings, they were great today.”

While Paduda won five ground balls on his own, Harris won four and Ianzito chipped in two. Paduda’s grinding style prolonged the duels for possession – only truly struggling when Knarr pinned Paduda’s stick.

Paduda, Daddio and faceoffs coach Lelan Rogers talked about ways to leverage against Knarr’s long pole. Knarr displayed an instinctive anticipation of the whistle at times though – and SU had no answer for it.

“On the one that he beat Daddio cleanly was he just got a good read on the whistle and there’s no defense for that,” Paduda said.

Fatigue delayed SU’s control of the game, taxing Syracuse’s wings and the whole team. But Paduda’s ability to delay Knarr’s rushing style at the X gave SU enough opportunities to ultimately bury the Hoyas.

Said defender Brian Megill: “It’s great when we can score and have almost a 60-40 chance at the faceoff.”

Published on April 20, 2013 at 7:09 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_