John Galloway had finally had enough.

Late in the first half of Syracuse’s matchup with Denver Friday night, the Orange goalie started getting restless. Though the Pioneers had only managed eight shots on goal throughout the first half, Galloway wasn’t necessarily happy with that. He wanted to be a bigger part of the action.

‘He was actually yelling at them to shoot on him because they weren’t really trying anything from the outside,’ senior defenseman Brandon Conlin said.

But the SU defense in front of Galloway proved to be too much for the Pioneers to handle.

At the start of the day, a less-than-dominant defensive performance seemed like a distinct possibility. Returning starter John Lade sat out with an injured thigh. Junior Tom Guadagnolo, who battled all preseason to replace Sid Smith in the starting lineup, didn’t suit up due to an illness.

But in No. 1 Syracuse’s 15-9 win over No. 19 Denver (0-2) at the Carrier Dome, the Orange’s (1-0) defensive depth was on full display. SU held the Pioneers to just five scores through the first three quarters as the offense put on a show at the other end.

‘I think the defense really stepped up, especially missing two of our better players, Tom Guad(agnolo) and John Lade,’ Galloway said. ‘I think we really showed up, and we really proved that we have a lot of defensive depth this year.’

Without Lade and Guadagnolo, senior Brandon Conlin, who had not started a game since high school, and freshman Brian Megill took the field with returning starter Matt Tierney to open Syracuse’s season.

The trio combined with redshirt freshman David Hamlin to shut down the Pioneers’ attack from the start. In the first quarter, Denver had just as many turnovers (six) as it did shots, leading to an 8-2 Orange advantage after those first 15 minutes

For Conlin, this kind of performance in spite of Lade’s absence came as no surprise.

‘They have us rotating through, so it wasn’t any big shocker or anything new, I guess, stepping in,’ he said. ‘Lade is irreplaceable. He’s real quick. He usually guards the small guy, but we had a big group out there today. It was fun.’

But even though Conlin had not started yet in his collegiate career, he had still seen action throughout his three years at SU.

Megill and Hamlin had no experience other than Syracuse’s three exhibition matches earlier this month. It looked like the Pioneers might be able to exploit the youngsters’ inexperience after Denver sophomore attack Alex Demopoulos beat Megill from behind the goal to tally the Pioneers’ first score.

But Megill rose to the occasion. Demopoulos repeatedly tried dodging past the freshman as the game progressed but could not shake the defenseman. The Denver sophomore did finish with four goals, but two of them came in the fourth quarter against SU’s backups.

‘He doesn’t look like a freshman out there,’ Galloway said of Megill. ‘He’s throwing his body around, he’s being tough, he’s communicating better than most of the guys on the field, and it shows a lot about his character and where he’s going to be during the season. We need him, and he’s going to continue to get better as the games go on.’

It was not just the new guys, though, that contributed to the Orange’s defensive efforts. Longstick midfielder Joel White, who finished the day with three forced turnovers, wreaked havoc on the Pioneers’ attack, constantly shutting down passing lanes and knocking the ball free from Denver sticks.

Even when the defense broke down, Galloway was waiting anxiously in net. In the third quarter, Denver conformed to the goalie’s wishes and ripped 11 shots (eight on goal) at the Syracuse cage. But the junior repeatedly turned the Pioneers away, tallying six of his 11 saves in the third before being pulled early in the final quarter.

‘I thought John Galloway was very good all night,’ head coach John Desko said. ‘I think there was a point in the game where they had a couple of one-on-one shots, and I think he made some big saves. I think that stopped any momentum they could have had as a result of scoring.’

Galloway and the rest of the defense put together a shutdown performance without Lade and Guadagnolo. They locked down the Pioneers without seeing any tape of Denver from this year, as its members had not scrimmaged or played prior to their trip to Syracuse. They did it with Megill, Hamlin and Conlin, who have a combined zero career starts.

And now, the defense’s morale is way up.

‘We’ve got great confidence,’ Conlin said. ‘We didn’t really know what to expect. We didn’t really know what they were going to do, and we were able to handle it and put it to them.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on February 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm