As the second quarter came to a close, Syracuse looked to salvage a sloppy first half against Hofstra. Junior Joel White carried the ball into the offensive end and tried to catch the Pride in transition.

As he crossed the 30-yard line, junior attack Stephen Keogh cut toward the Hofstra goal. White saw him take off and tried to feed him in front of the net.

But the pass sailed a little high. Keogh tried to adjust, but it bounced off his stick and sailed over the goal, out of play.

The No. 1 Orange struggled with turnovers and sloppy play for much of the game against Hofstra, the No. 10 team in the country. It was able to overcome the issues and win the exhibition match, 7-6, before easily beating Division II Le Moyne 15-8 in the Carrier Dome Sunday. But were it not for a decent third quarter against the Pride, the offensive struggles may have resulted in an exhibition loss.

‘I just think we were turning the ball over a lot,’ White said. ‘Not even just the offense. I think in transition we turned the ball over a lot, and I think we just didn’t come out hard. We didn’t come out of the locker room hard and ready to play.’

Keogh led the team with two goals against Hofstra. Senior Cody Jamieson tallied three scores and two assists for the Orange against Le Moyne.

But in the first game, SU’s offense looked out of sync for much of the first half against Hofstra. After the Pride jumped out to a quick one-goal lead in the first minute, SU gained possession on a John Galloway save.

As the offense set up on the Hofstra end, head coach John Desko yelled out on to the field, ‘Keogh. What are you doing, Keogh? Run the offense.’

On that possession, Jamieson ended up with the ball just in front of the net. His shot bounced wide, and Hofstra regained control. The Pride scored soon after to increase its lead to 2-0 with less than five minutes into the game.

Throughout the game, bad decisions led to poor passes and Hofstra made stealing the ball look easy. When the Orange wasn’t turning the ball over, the team struggled to put the ball in the net.

After junior Jovan Miller made a leaping, one-handed interception as the Pride tried to clear the ball, he found Keogh by himself on the edge of the crease. Keogh tried to beat Hofstra goalie Andrew Gvozden high, but the keeper read the shot and popped his stick up to make the save.

‘We were just throwing the ball away,’ Keogh said. ‘A little sloppy. I think I should have buried a few goals, but the goalie was playing well. Maybe nerves got the best of me, but I don’t know.’

Syracuse did find somewhat of a rhythm in the third quarter as it outscored Hofstra 3-1 in the period. Senior Tyler Hlawati tied the score at five after Tim Desko found him cutting to the net with a little more than two minutes to play. One minute later, junior college transfer Jeremy Thompson put the Orange in front to close out the quarter.

In the fourth, both teams rotated in some reserves. After the Pride tied the score up early in the period, freshman JoJo Morasco scored his first goal in an Orange uniform with a little more than two minutes to play. That score stood as the game-winner.

‘We weren’t comfortable with one another,’ Miller said. ‘We weren’t comfortable in general. But I think after a while we got comfortable. We kind of got the flow of the offense and stuff like that. I just think we were all kind of nervous.’

Syracuse came out stronger against Le Moyne, outscoring the Dolphins 5-1 in the first and leading 10-3 at halftime. But the Orange will focus more on the struggles against the No. 10 team in the country.

‘Hofstra was big for us because we saw what it was like to go against a bigger team, a more aggressive team,’ Miller said. ‘But I think Le Moyne was the after-product of us getting comfortable with one another. I would have to say Hofstra was (bigger). We learned a little bit more about ourselves from that game.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on February 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm