Kenny Nims popped up from the Carrier Dome turf and jumped into the outstretched arms of a mob of teammates. The Syracuse men’s lacrosse attack had just scored the ninth goal of the first quarter, on a falling-over spin move around a Villanova defender at the 2:07 mark.

‘That was pretty cool,’ Nims said. ‘I was going to wait for (attack Greg) Nierowski to come down and feed it to him, but I just saw the guy backpedaling, I was pretty close to the goal so I thought I could get a good shot off, and it went in.’

The No. 9 Orange would go on to put up a 10-goal barrage on Villanova in the opening quarter, en route to a 21-6 blowout in its season-opener in front of 4,252 fans at the Carrier Dome Sunday.

After a slow start in its most recent scrimmage against Harvard a week ago, when it fell behind 5-2, the SU attack exploded in the opening against the Wildcats. The 10-goal performance was more than it scored in six of its 13 whole games last season.

‘It’s good to bury a team early like that,’ SU midfielder Dan Hardy said. ‘But we were just stressing, especially at halftime, to keep pouring it on. This is just the first game; we’ve got a lot more games to play.’

On the defensive end, freshman John Galloway pitched a first-quarter shutout with three saves in his first period as SU’s starting goalie. The Villanova attack was only able to reel off five shots in the first period, as the Syracuse attack controlled ball for the majority of the period.

Everything clicked for the Orange right from the start, and it was clear the preseason jitters were gone. Greg Niewieroski got the team on the board 13 seconds into the game, on a pass from Steven Brooks. Galloway stopped a shot from R.J. Lyons of Villanova at the 12:32 mark, and Syracuse would score twice again before he would see another shot.

From there the SU attack and midfield scored in quick spurts. After putting up three goals in the opening seven minutes, Syracuse rallied off four goals in the next three minutes to make it officially a rout and put away any nerves the team might have had for its season-opener.

‘Scoring 10 goals in the first period, that was good, to get off to a good start, and I think we relaxed a little bit,’ SU head coach John Desko said.

When the first quarter was in the books, eight Orange players had recorded goals, led by two from Nims, who finished with a career-high six goals, and two from Mike Leveille. The win came at the expense of a depleted Villanova squad, which graduated 12 seniors last year and currently has no scholarship players.

The remaining 45 minutes were hardly more than a formality. Syracuse slowed down the tempo on attack, but still outscored the Wildcats, 11-6, to end up with 21 goals, nine more than it averaged last season. The Orange dominated the box score with a 40-28 shot advantage and a 19-12 faceoff margin.

The 10-goal first period was aided by a solid performance at the faceoff X by Danny Brennan. The senior won 8-of-11 first-quarter faceoffs, many of which led directly to Syracuse goals. As a result, Syracuse controlled possession throughout the opening period and took 18 shots compared to Villanova’s five.

‘It’s tough when you’ve got a good faceoff guy like that,’ Desko said. ‘Villanova did not have the ball very much at their end of the field in the first quarter, and we were able to get comfortable on offense, and he was great just giving our offense all those possessions early in the game.’

Syracuse started the season 2-3 last year, and finished with a disappointing 5-8 mark. The SU players reiterated throughout the preseason how important a fast start was for a successful season, and how it could not spend all of 2008 working from behind.

After the game, Hardy was asked whether he could have asked for a better start to the new season.

‘Absolutely not,’ Hardy said. ‘Ten goals is huge, and other teams are going to look at our scoreboard and say ‘Syracuse came out on fire, and they’re ready to go.”

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on February 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm