Army had all the momentum. Three straight goals less than three minutes apart knotted the score at five midway through the third quarter. The Black Knights players and coaches were jumping around and high-fiving on the sidelines.

And then came the ensuing faceoff.

Syracuse junior midfielder Jeremy Thompson pushed the ball forward off the midfield line and took off down the middle of the field. As he sprinted toward the Army goal, he found SU attack Stephen Keogh alone just to the left of the cage. Thompson dished it off to the attack, and Keogh buried the close-range shot, just six seconds after the Black Knights had pulled even with Orange.

That goal ripped away any momentum Army (1-2) had built up as Syracuse pulled away to a 12-7 win on Sunday in front of 4,432 people in the Carrier Dome. SU (2-0) overcame a 21-save performance by Army goalie Tom Palesky and never trailed throughout the game. Thompson’s faceoff win and assist to Keogh proved to be the turning point on the day as the No. 1 Orange finished the game on a 7-2 run.

‘That was really big,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘They had a couple of fast-break goals to tie it up, and Jeremy got the ball at the front and created some offense for us. He had a great assist to Stephen Keogh and really helped get us back on track. It was kind of a momentum-breaker, I think.’

Early on, Syracuse looked like it would have no trouble with the Black Knights. The Orange jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Keogh and senior attack Chris Daniello, who led the Orange with four goals on the day. By the end of the first quarter, Army had registered only three shots on goal, and SU goalie John Galloway turned away all of them.

But Palesky’s play coupled with some inaccurate SU shooting kept the Black Knights in the game. Desko said the Orange’s shot selection was poor early, as the offense settled for outside shots that gave the Army goalie confidence.

And once that happened, he started making difficult saves look easy.

Early in the third quarter, senior attack Cody Jamieson had one of the Orange’s best chances. With Army a man down after a slashing penalty, Jamieson found himself all alone just outside the crease. He pump-faked twice before shooting low on Palesky, but the goalie was one step ahead.

He made the save and triggered an Army transition goal to pull the Black Knights within 5-3.

‘It gets frustrating, but everyone’s just got to keep their head and keep shooting, and that’s what we did and they started to fall for us at the end,’ said Keogh, who scored three goals in the game. ‘You can’t get too aggravated about that. He stood on his head, and he’s a great goalie.’

Before shots started connecting for Syracuse, though, the Orange got a big scare from Army in the third quarter. The man-down opportunity for Jamieson turned into a momentum-builder for the Black Knights.

The Army set-offense had been stagnant all day. But it pulled even with the Orange on two more transition goals as SU’s defense struggled to find its marks.

‘They got a couple fast breaks in a row and got some goals off of that, and I think they had prepared for that,’ Galloway said. ‘They had a couple chances to get some goals in transition, and they did a good job getting up and down the field.’

But Thompson put an end to Army’s hopes of an upset. He followed the faceoff win and assist to Keogh with another faceoff win immediately after the go-ahead goal. Although SU did not score on the ensuing possession, momentum had swung squarely back in Syracuse’s favor, and it never looked back.

The offense finally seemed to solve Palesky in the fourth quarter, tallying five goals in the final period.

‘(Army) wanted to come in here and play and beat us,’ Thompson said. ‘We stuck it out there. Everyone came together as a team and pulled it off there. We came back strong.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm