DURHAM, N.C. – Frustration mounted early for Syracuse as it misfired shot after shot. Through the first 14 minutes, the Orange couldn’t crack the Duke defense.

SU reeled off 11 shots and all 11 missed. And with the Blue Devils already out to a three-goal lead, the Orange showed signs of breaking down early.

JoJo Marasco fired high on a wide-open chance late in the first quarter and Tim Desko failed to finish in transition minutes later on SU’s 11th attempt of the period. Marasco looked to the sky and Desko smacked the ground as their team remained scoreless heading into the final minute.

‘I think offensively we didn’t play a bad game,’ SU attack Tommy Palasek said. ‘I didn’t think it was really a struggle. I think it was probably just not having the ball that often in the beginning.’

But the possession disparity fueled by a poor performance on faceoffs didn’t present itself in the first 15 minutes of the game. During the opening frame, Syracuse held the advantage at the X, going 3-of-5, and attempted 12 shots – six more than the Blue Devils. Despite the offensive opportunities, Duke dominated and took a two-goal lead into the second period that would quickly stretch to four behind a physical defense that challenged nearly every Orange opportunity.

After exploding for 27 goals in two games at the Big East tournament last weekend where seemingly everything worked, SU couldn’t find an answer for the Blue Devils defense.

‘Everybody was just on the same page defensively,’ Duke goaltender Dan Wigrizer said. ‘If something went wrong, right away everybody talked about it, figured out what went wrong.’

Little went wrong for the Duke defense early on as the Blue Devils held the Orange without a goal for the first 14-plus minutes of the game.

Syracuse finally got on the board with 37 seconds remaining in the first period on its 12th and final attempt of the quarter when midfielder Scott Loy took a pass from Palasek and fired into the back of the net.

Before Loy broke through, though, the offense failed to find any success.

On one sequence with under nine minutes to play, Hakeem Lecky missed two shots high and wide and Marasco sent a shot off the post. After a pushing penalty on Duke defender Chris Hipps, Syracuse went on the attack with a 30-second extra-man opportunity.

But Bobby Eilers couldn’t fire his hard shot from straightaway before it was blocked and Matt Walters zipped a hard shot into Wigrizer’s stick for an easy save to end the threat.

‘They were doing a great job at helping down,’ Palasek said. ‘We were pressing the defenders pretty well all over the place but they were doing a good job at sucking all their guys down and covering up the middle.’

The lockdown play by the defense set the tone for the Blue Devils as the entire team came out with energy and intensity.

Following Duke’s stop after the pushing penalty, Blue Devils defender Henry Lobb raised his arms to excite the crowd as he walked to midfield and Duke went on the attack.

With the Blue Devils unit playing with confidence, the Orange never found its comfort zone during the first 15 minutes. More shots were blocked and more drives were stifled by a quick and alert defense.

And before faceoffs came into play in the second half, Wigrizer and the Duke defense kept the same mentality when Syracuse tied the game in the third period.

With the Orange threatening, Wigrizer and the defense settled back down to finish the game and advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

‘Everybody was just engaged and if we felt a little lapse, we made sure to get on each other, get each other up,’ Wigrizer said. ‘Communication, talking, making sure we stick to the game plan and then help me. They gave me shots that I want to see. They just played great as a defense.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on May 12, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu