Syracuse was looking for an answer offensively. Time and time again, it’d been stymied by Army goaltender Tom Palesky. And SU’s lack of offense had allowed Army to creep back and tie the game with three straight goals in the third quarter.

Leave it to one of its most consistent offensive weapons to make everything right for the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team. With the game tied at five, Stephen Keogh finally had enough. Taking it upon himself, he flung Jeremy Thompson’s pass into the net.

It was that simple, just like it was all day for Keogh. It was 6-5 SU, and the Orange never looked back from that point.

‘I thought we played kind of sloppy,’ Keogh said. ‘I just wanted to try to get the ball back in the net to start momentum for us.’

Answering the call offensively for the No. 1 Orange (2-0) were Keogh and senior attack Chris Daniello. In SU’s 12-7 victory over Army (1-2), the duo erupted for seven of the team’s 12 goals. All of their scores came within Syracuse’s first nine goals, keying the Orange to the win.

In an impressive offensive showing for SU, the team outshot the Black Knights 55 to 26. Its offense held possession for long stretches of the clock, forcing Army to cater to SU’s game.

But there was a flaw in the plan – the Orange couldn’t finish. It excelled at running the point and setting up scoring chances, but it couldn’t get the ball past the waiting Palesky, who dominated in net with 21 saves.

‘We played real well,’ Keogh said. ‘I thought we could’ve had some better shots, but their goalie played a great game. I was just happy to come out with a victory.’

Keogh and Daniello were the only two who could consistently find the net. Daniello had a career-high four goals on the day, and Keogh’s three that found the back of the net upped his season total to five.

SU head coach John Desko was impressed with his two sharpshooters, not afraid to say how important the duo was to his team’s offensive success on the day. Especially on a day where preseason All-American Cody Jamieson was not able to dictate the offensive attack like he did in last week’s four-goal performance against Denver.

‘When one guy isn’t getting it done, it’s good to have others step up,’ Desko said. ‘Especially, we’ve seen Keogh. We know what he can do – he’s been a starter for us for three years now. And Daniello is a senior and a captain, and we expect guys like that to step up for us.’

Desko was somewhat troubled that the two players had to carry the load offensively for the Orange, especially after a game against Denver where he saw 11 different players score for his team.

But Keogh isn’t worried about that. Sometimes, you have to ride the hot hand.

‘We tried to do a team effort, but I mean the way (Daniello and I) were shooting we were just getting the ball to fall for us. We just tried to work hard, and luckily, the ball kept falling for us.’

To Daniello, SU’s season offensively thus far has shaped up without the leadership and firepower of the departing Kenny Nims.

Against Denver, it was Jamieson with the prevailing offensive performance. Today, it was him and Keogh. Daniello thinks it’s a good thing that so many different players can erupt and carry the offense on any given night.

‘We have a lot of weapons,’ Daniello said. ‘So whoever’s hot is going to stay out on the field. We have eight or nine middies and five or six attack that can really play, and whoever’s kind of feeling it is going to be left out on the field.’

Palesky now has a long four-hour bus ride back to West Point, N.Y., where along the way he’ll get in a lot of studying for a mechanical engineering test he has on Monday.

He just hopes that test won’t be as hard as the test against the two SU attack on Sunday.

‘(Daniello) played incredible,’ Palesky said. ‘The whole attack did. Daniello can shoot it anywhere. He came to play today. He played like a big boy today.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm