PRINCETON, N.J – Henry Schoonmaker has never had a better day in a Syracuse uniform.

In the middle and final thirds of the field, no player was better.

Schoonmaker crashed in from the left wing on faceoffs to win ground balls no one else could. He sprinted away from defenders to score goals they didn’t know he could score. And by the time No. 7 Princeton figured out what a force he was, most of his damage had already been done. But the redshirt freshman still had enough time, and created enough of his own space for two last crushing blows – one goal and one assist – in No. 8 Syracuse’s 13-12 comeback road win to cap a career-high scoring day.

“We were getting the ball out on the faceoff, but we weren’t doing a good job picking it up and we needed someone that was going to get the ground ball for us,” head coach John Desko said.

Schoonmaker was that someone. With 10:53 remaining, SU trailed 10-9. On the faceoff, Brendan Conroy spun Princeton’s Justin Murphy for the umpteenth time Saturday night, popping the ball toward the Tigers’ goal. Schoonmaker swept in from the left wing, scooped up one of his four ground balls and charged to goal inside the right hash marks.

A Princeton defender jumped up to stop him around the 25-yard line. But not before he tossed the ball to a waiting and wide-open Derek Maltz five yards out on the left of the crease. Maltz buried it to tie the game 10-10, and the Orange re-tightened its grip on the game.

Schoonmaker watched Conroy tie up Murphy nearly all game long. He knew where the ball would be.

“All you got to do is just try to box out your guy as best you can and try to just pop it out to yourself,” Schoonmaker said.

In the early going, the Tigers didn’t give Schoonmaker enough respect. They paid dearly.

Less than five minutes in, he got the ball on the left just above the goal line. He tore through a check from Tom Gibbons, wheeling around the crease. But Gibbons appeared to have done enough, shoving Schoonmaker past the goal.

But, just when Schoonmaker’s shooting window appeared to be shut he jumped over Gibbons and bounced his shot inside the left post to open the scoring.

“He’s one hell of an athlete,” long-stick midfielder and fellow faceoff winger Matt Harris said. “He can run and he can shoot.”

It was that simple at times for Schoonmaker. Collecting a Dylan Donahue pass from just inside the left hash marks about 15 yards from goal, Schoonmaker dashed to his left. Five yards out, he stopped. His defender couldn’t, and he threw an off-pace shot into the upper-right corner of the goal to make it 3-0.

By the start of the fourth quarter, Schoonmaker had three goals and an assist. He was getting the defensive attention he demanded – just as much as the Orange’s best player, JoJo Marasco.

“(We) bumped him in with the first group for a little while because they were pulling him on the second group,” Desko said. “So they had to make a decision who to pull, JoJo or he.”

And that’s when Schoonmaker delivered his second hammer to Princeton’s hopes.

Trailing 12-11, Marasco dodged down the left wing with 4:45 remaining and whipped the ball up to Schoonmaker 15 yards from goal. He ripped his 15-yard shot into the upper-left corner.

Two minutes later, with Schoonmaker again in the first midfield line, Marasco scored what proved to be the game-winner.

Running double shifts, Desko said Schoonmaker tired down the stretch. But with SU holding a one-goal lead with one minute to play, Schoonmaker sprinted from the top of midfield, down the right wing and behind the goal.

On dead legs, no one could catch him.

“Just the fact that he was out there made their matchups change defensively,” Desko said. “We needed him out there and he still performed for us, he’s in great shape and we asked a lot of him today.”

A soft-spoken and humble player, Schoonmaker couldn’t revel in the significance of his performance. He gave “all the credit” to his teammates and referred back to an attack-wide great day off the ball. He said he scored so much because Princeton’s defense was preoccupied with his fellow attacking midfielders. He named every single one he played with on the day.

Yet the player who struggles to keep eye contact when talking about himself didn’t deny that Saturday was a career day for him. He knew he’d never scored so many goals in an Orange uniform.

Said Schoonmaker: “It was nice to feel that groove.”

Published on April 6, 2013 at 10:48 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_