It’s a head-scratching puzzle for opposing coaches to solve. The Syracuse offense and its abundance of offensive riches leave opposing head coaches searching for ways to at least slow it. Shutting it down is an impossibility.

Mike Pressler rattles off the numbers of the Orange’s offensive weapons. Kevin Rice’s No. 2. Billy Ward’s No. 3. Derek Maltz’s No. 7. Dylan Donahue’s No. 17. He doesn’t even mention SU’s dynamic midfield line featuring Tewaaraton finalist JoJo Marasco.

Pressler’s team did well on some of them — Bryant kept Maltz off the score sheet and for the most part kept the midfielders at bay. But there’s too much to game plan for. Take away Maltz and Marasco, and Rice and Donahue get open. Take someone else away, and Ward can make a play.

“To win a playoff game, a lot of times it’s got to be the other guys, and we kind of got a handle on the key guys and then ‘Their other guys’ made the plays to win,” Pressler said. “And that’s a tribute to a very good team, which obviously Syracuse is.”

For nearly thirty minutes, though, the Bulldogs had an answer. Their zone defense confounded the Syracuse’s potent offense, keeping the attacks away from the cage and leaving the midfielders to fire long-range shots. It wasn’t until Donahue’s game-tying goal from the crease with five seconds left in the first half that the Orange got a good, clean look inside.

Then the floodgates opened.

No. 1-seed Syracuse (14-3) found an offensive rhythm in the second half of its 12-7 NCAA tournament first-round victory, solving BU’s perplexing zone and scoring seven goals to dash any hope of a Bryant (8-11) upset in front of 2,826 in the Carrier Dome on Sunday. Rice scored a game-high four points, and Donahue added three more to make up for a two-point Marasco outing and a scoreless one from Maltz.

“We had some success playing it different ways in the beginning,” Bryant goaltender Gunnar Waldt said. “A couple times we didn’t play it the way we kind of were thinking we drew it up, but I thought we played well. They had a couple good chances and they capitalized.”

The Bulldogs raced out to a 4-0 lead — its offense led by midfielder Kevin Massa’s spectacular performance at the faceoff X, and its defense stifling in its zone set. For seven and a half minutes, BU shut out the Orange.

Syracuse struggled to get inside, and when it did Waldt was there to gobble up the shot. Midfielder Luke Cometti finally scored on a bouncer from 10 yards out to get SU on the board with 7:29 left in the first quarter. Rice tossed his first goal in off a scramble in front of the net and midfielder Matt Walters cranked a long-range bouncer of his own. SU got goals, but they didn’t come easily.

Until the final seconds of the half when Donahue finally broke through.

The attack got open on the crease to beat Waldt with five seconds left and tie the game at five.

“We knew we were going to get our shots off if we were patient offensively,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said.

The offense came alive. When the Orange dug itself into the early four-goal hole the possessions were scarce and ended abruptly with a turnover.

In the second half the possessions were still scarce, but SU made them count.

Rice opened the frame with a feed from behind the net to Cometti charging to the net. He scored three and a half minutes later, five yards away from the crease on the left side. Donahue scored two more around the cage, and Ward added one off a feed from Rice. After scoring just one settled goal along the crease in the first half, all seven second-half scores came near the net.

“We knew we might get into a situation with limited possessions,” Rice said, “so we knew we had to make the most of those opportunities.”

Bryant’s seven goals came from just three players. Syracuse’s 12 came from eight. Pressler felt his team did a relatively good job on Marasco, Cometti and Scott Loy, but the first midfield line still combined for six points.

Even when the Bulldogs did neutralize that top line, there was someone there to pick the Orange up. With the midfield cut off, Donahue and Rice played their two-man game down low. When the defense keyed on one of them, Ward made a play.

It’s a group that’s impossible to stop; there are too many options. BU could only try to contain it.

“There’s a lot of weapons out there. … In playoff lacrosse, to win, you’ve got to have that,” Pressler said. “And that’s where Syracuse had it today and we didn’t.”

Published on May 13, 2013 at 12:42 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2