ITHACA – Bobby Eilers shook his head as he explained his frustration. Standing in a hallway of Schoellkopf Field, it was painful for Eilers to think about the lack of opportunities for Syracuse’s offense.

Eilers and his teammates found success offensively when they controlled possession, working the ball around and finding holes in the Cornell defense. But those opportunities were few and far between.

‘It hurts because we had some plays, we knew what we had to do to beat their offense,’ Eilers said. ‘We drove down the alleys, threw behind, threw back up top and we’re scoring like we did three times and it worked. So we knew what we had to do to score but we just didn’t have the ball on offense enough to do it.’

Without enough chances offensively, No. 14 Syracuse (5-5, 2-1 Big East) ultimately couldn’t keep up with No. 5 Cornell (9-1, 4-0 Ivy League) on Tuesday and fell to the Big Red 12-6 at Schoellkopf Field. The Orange’s futility in the faceoff X, a yearlong problem, was on display once again as SU went just 8-of-22 on draws. With Cornell controlling the X, it also owned the possession battle and wore down the Syracuse defense as the game progressed.

Syracuse faceoff specialists Chris Daddio and Ricky Buhr handled the bulk of the duties again on Tuesday, but head coach John Desko also sent defenders Ralph D’Agostino and Brian Megill, as well as midfielder Drew Jenkins to the X.

None had an answer for Cornell’s Doug Tesoriero, who lined up against all five throughout the game. And even when the Orange appeared to be in position to take possession off a faceoff, the Big Red – who also boasted a 39-23 advantage on ground balls – had bodies swarming after the loose balls.

‘I thought our faceoff guys, a few times, put it out where we could get it and they beat us to the ground ball,’ Desko said, ‘or we’d pick it up and they’d check our sticks and we missed a few ground balls there.’

Daddio said the missed opportunities on faceoffs and ground balls came down to hustle. The Big Red was first to nearly every ball.

It showed on the first draw of the second half, after Syracuse battled back to knot the game at three going into the break. Daddio lined up against Tesoriero, who kicked the ball out to set off a scramble for possession.

Syracuse midfielder Kevin Drew appeared to have a beat on it, but Tesoriero rushed in to keep the play alive and the ball bounced around on the turf. Cornell midfielder Roy Lang eventually scooped it up and calmly started a Big Red possession around midfield.

Lang then made a dash toward the cage along the left alley, beating SU goaltender Bobby Wardwell high to put his team ahead 4-3, giving Cornell control 20 seconds into the half.

‘It hurts a lot. It’s something that we want to do,’ Daddio said. ‘We don’t want other teams doing that to us, so I guess it’s just something we need to work on more.’

The Big Red added two more goals in the next four minutes and Syracuse fell into an insurmountable hole. The lead grew to four by the end of the third quarter as Cornell outscored the Orange 5-1 – largely due to SU’s 2-of-7 performance on faceoffs in the period.

The Syracuse defense, which held strong despite the team going a paltry 1-of-8 in the X in the first half, wilted. The Orange offense, forced to watch helplessly much of the game, panicked.

‘It doesn’t allow us on offense to be patient,’ Desko said. ‘And I think we feel like we have to catch up and somebody would score a goal and they’d get the ball back.’

The desperation showed in the final quarter after Syracuse cut the deficit to 9-6, when Eilers turned the ball over working against a double team near the cage.

Desperation turned to frustration and disappointment after the game. For Eilers, those feelings started to build at halftime after seeing his team manage only two shots – in just 54 seconds of possession – in the final eight-plus minutes of the half.

‘They held the ball until the end of the half, so that was kind of disappointing,’ Eilers said. ‘We had like a fast-break opportunity here or there, but we didn’t really have any settled offense.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on April 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu