Stephen Keogh had to watch a film he already knew the ending to, a finale he knew wasn’t good. As Keogh and the rest of the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team watched the film from their 12-8 Saturday loss to Princeton he said knowing the outcome and the mistakes that were about to transpire made the tape difficult to watch.

Normally, that sting of loss would linger with the Orange (7-2) for an entire week. But this time, Syracuse will have a chance to redeem itself just three days later, as it takes on No. 4 Cornell (7-1) tonight in the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m. (TW 26).

Keogh, a sophomore attack, and senior captain Matt Abbott said the team had a ‘sour taste’ in their mouths and are excited to play again almost immediately after its upset loss.

‘Personally, I think that it’s good that we get to go right back out and have a little test tomorrow night. You know we kind of have a sour taste in our mouths from the way we played Saturday,’ Abbott said. ‘And taking nothing away from Princeton, they played great, but we didn’t play our best game. We get a chance to go out tomorrow and prove we can play better than we did Saturday.’

The fallout from Saturday’s Big City Classic and the Orange’s shaky performance against Loyola March 28 showed in this week’s Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll as Syracuse dropped from No. 2 to No. 5.

The ranking dip provides more motivation for the Orange in its short break between games.

The Orange players reflected on their mistakes individually and as a team Monday after watching film from the game. Each player recited the same line, ‘We didn’t give them our best game.’

Keogh said it helps to look back and see what he did wrong in order to better himself. Since he and his teammates can’t go back and fix the game, he said reviewing the errors helps the team look forward, especially with such little time between games.

Syracuse wasted no time trying to fix its mistakes, practicing Sunday and Monday getting in as much field time as possible before facing Cornell Tuesday night.

SU head coach John Desko said he sent a lot of players back with parents after the Big City Classic in an attempt to get them back to Syracuse as soon as possible to fix the team’s mistakes.

But some players did have to take the team bus back. That bus had a fuel leak, delaying the team’s arrival back in Syracuse as it waited for a bus from Schenectady, N.Y. to come rescue them. Desko said the delay only ‘added salt to the wound’ of Syracuse’s loss.

But Desko was more positive than the Orange players. He said one loss has ‘the country and the community trembling in their boots,’ but urged fans not to worry because Syracuse will be back.

Abbott expressed a more somber tone than his coach. He attributed the Orange’s second loss of the season to lack of communication and sloppy play. During Saturday’s game, Abbott picked up a career-high 10 groundballs because of opportunities created by the slapdash performances on the field.

‘We never executed offensively,’ Keogh said. ‘We didn’t do what we usually do, which is throw the extra pass. We got away from our game for a little bit.’

With the short time between games, Keogh said it was back to the basics for Syracuse as it attempts to fix its recent playing slump. The two 14 minute-plus scoring droughts against the Tigers and the 25 goals Syracuse has let up in two games illustrates the crucial aspects that have gone wrong for the Orange as of late.

‘We tried to clear some things up in practice,’ Keogh said. ‘I think it’s just coming down to passing and catching. A few times we just threw the ball away. I think we got away from the basics. I don’t know what the deal was.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on April 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm