No. 2 Syracuse to Play at No. 5 Georgetown in Final Regular-Season Game
5/3/2001 10:22:40 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Game 13: at #5 Georgetown (11-1, 5-1 ECAC)
Sat., May 5, 2001, 2 p.m., (Harbin Field - Grass - 2,000)
Pictured: Josh Coffman
Syracuse, ranked No. 2 in the country for three-straight weeks, takes its five-game winning streak and 10-2 record to Washington, D.C. this Saturday to battle fifth-ranked Georgetown (11-1) in a pivotal game for both teams. The outcome will determine which seed each team receives in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Georgetown is a lock for the tournament by virtue of finishing first in its conference. The ECAC is one of four conferences that is awarded an automatic bid by the NCAA.
The Orangemen pulled out a gritty 9-8 victory at eighth-ranked Massachusetts on April 28. The Hoyas also defeated the Minutemen in Amherst by one goal (13-12 on April 21).
This will mark the ninth meeting between Syracuse and Georgetown. The Orangemen own a 6-2 advantage in the series and have won the last three meetings.
On The Air
Radio
SU’s games are broadcast on the school’s flagship radio station for lacrosse, WFBL 1050 AM. Carter Blackburn handles play-by-play duties, while Syracuse equipment manager Kyle Fetterly serves as the color analyst. The broadcast can also be picked up through www.suathletics.com.
WAER FM 88 has continued its long-standing tradition of broadcasting the games.
Television
Time Warner 13 broadcasted all but one of SU’s eight home games this season. The games were aired on a tape delay basis. Ted DeLuca was the play-by-play man, while Dale Drypolcher provided color analysis.
SU’s May 5th game at Georgetown will be televised on a tape-delay basis and aired by MSG on Sunday, May 6 at 5 p.m. The game will be shown again on the Empire Sports Network at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 9.
Orangemen on the Road
SU owns a 3-1 record in games played away from the Carrier Dome this season. Last year, the Orangemen finished the regular season 7-1 on the road and the year before that they were 3-3. Since he took over as head coach in 1999, Coach Desko’s teams are a combined 13-5 on the road during the regular season, compared to 17-2 at home.
Watch the NCAA Selection Show This Sunday
Selection and announcement of teams participating in the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament will be at 8 p.m. ET on Sun., May 6. The show can be viewed live on Comcast SportsNet (formally Home Team Sports). If you cannot watch Comcast SportsNet/HTS, then you will be able to view using a C Band dowlink satellite dish. The satellite coordinates are: C Band: Telstar 5, Transponder 24 at 97 degrees west (downlink frequency 4180 MHz).
First-round NCAA games from Army and quarterfinal action from Hofstra will be televised LIVE on MSG. The Empire Sports Network will also televise these games.
Syracuse Program Approaching 700 All-Time Wins
The all-time record of the Syracuse men’s lacrosse program is 696-274-15 (.714). The Orangemen need to win four more games this season for the program to reach the 700-win milestone in 2001. Johns Hopkins is the only program in Division I that has won more than 700 games.
Orange Defense Riding High After Strong Performance at UMass
The Syracuse defense did not allow Massachusetts to tie the game in the closing minutes despite the Minutemen’s stronghold on the time of possession. Rob Mulligan made three huge saves and the close defenders and defensive midfielders either deflected shots or forced bad ones. SU is currently holding opponents to 7.58 goals per game, compared to the 8.69 they allowed last season.
Januszkiewicz Nets Game-Winning Goal at No. 8 Massachusetts
Senior midfielder Jason Januszkiewicz (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) has caught fire as of late, scoring five points in SU’s last five games, including the game-winning goal in last week’s 9-8 victory at eighth-ranked UMass.
Januszkiewicz has worked his way from SU’s fourth midfield line (which he played on as a junior), to the second midfield unit this season. He plays alongside sophomore Pat Hogan (St. Louis, MO/DeSmet Jesuit) and junior Tom Hardy (Tully, NY/Tully).
This unit has accounted for 10 goals in SU’s last five games. In fact, 11 of their combined 19 points on the season, have been recorded during the Orangemen’s last five outings.
Januszkiewicz has scored a career-high eight points this season (six goals, two assists). He is the owner of 11 career points (eight goals, three assists).
Another midfield trend includes first-teamer Spencer Wright (San Diego, CA/Junipero Serra) who owns a point-scoring streak of seven games. Wright has six goals and five assists in SU’s last seven games. He is tied for sixth on the team in scoring with rookie attackman Brian Nee. Both players have 15 points on the year. Wright has a career-high 10 goals and five assists.
John Desko: 37-8 as Head Coach, 3-1 vs. Georgetown
Third-year head coach John Desko won his 30th career game at Syracuse when his Orangemen defeated Fairfield, 13-5, on March 12.
With a 37-8 record (6-1 postseason) and two trips to the national title game in two years, it is obvious that the Syracuse program is in good hands.
Last season, Desko guided SU to a 15-1 record (the best finish since 1988), an 18th-consecutive appearance in the final four and the school’s first NCAA championship since 1995.
In 1999, Desko became the third head coach in Division I history to reach the NCAA title game in just his first year at the helm. He led the Orangemen to a 12-5 record and the program’s 10th appearance in an NCAA championship game. It was the first time a No. 8 seed ever reached the national semifinals and finals.
His success after only two seasons has led Desko to opportunities outside of Syracuse. On June 10, 2000, he served as a coach for the north team in the annual North/South Senior All-Star game at Delaware. He is also a member of the NCAA Lacrosse Committee, a group that oversees and regulates rules, championships and other issues pertinent to the sport. Desko was selected to the committee in 1999.
Banks Quarterbacks Offense - Ranks 7th Nationally in Assists Per Game
Junior attackman Liam Banks (Setauket, NY/Ward Melville) has been called the offense’s quarterback by his coaches and teammates. With the game tied 4-4 at UMass last Saturday, Banks ignited the offense in the third quarter, scoring all three of his points (a goal and two assists) to help SU build an 8-6 lead going into the fourth quarter.
At Hobart, Banks led all scorers with five points, including a game-high three assists.
He set a career-high with six assists and posted a game-high seven points against Rutgers on April 14. Banks has strung together eight-straight games with three or more points and is second on the team in assists with 28.
Banks has established himself as one of the best feeders in the game today. This week, he is seventh in the nation in assists per game (2.33), after averaging .75 assists per game in SU’s first four games of the season.
Against Loyola, Banks had a goal and three assists and in the process got his 100th career point. He tied for the team lead in scoring with one goal and three assists in the win against Princeton and had five assists in the win against Brown.
Banks has contributed multi-point performances in SU’s last 10 outings. He is tied with Josh Coffman as the team’s second-leading scorer. Both players have 41 points. Banks’ points are off of 13 goals and 28 assists.
For his career, Banks owns 123 points (60 goals, 63 assists). He has the most career points of any player on the team.
Powell is Team’s Leading Scorer in Win at UMass and Overall
First-year attackman Michael Powell (Carthage, NY/Carthage) is leading the Orangemen in scoring with 53 points (24 goals, team-high 29 assists) or a 4.42 point-per-game average. Powell is tied for fifth in the country in points per game and is fifth in the nation in assists per game (2.42).
He was the game’s leading scorer (five points) at UMass last Saturday. He assisted Jason Januszkiewicz on what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Powell had one assist in the Hobart game -- the fewest amount of points he has scored all season. Prior to that, he had tallied at least three points in his first 10 games.
Powell matched his season-high of six points with two goals and four assists against Brown and Loyola. He had the same numbers against Virginia.
Powell turned in a three-goal, one-assist performance against Princeton. He had two goals and two assists versus Hopkins. With SU trailing the Blue Jays, 11-9, at the two-minute mark, Powell took a feed from Springer and fired a shot into the Hopkins net. The goal put the Orangemen within one with 1:52 left on the clock.
Powell has netted three hat tricks this season (against Princeton, Cornell and Rutgers). The three goals stand as his career high, so far.
Occasionally, Powell serves as a wingman during faceoffs. Against Virginia and Loyola, he collected a team-high six ground balls. He is currently third on the team in ground balls (46).
With his two older brothers, Casey and Ryan Powell, sharing the school record for career points, it is nearly impossible to not draw comparisons between the three. Michael has already surpassed Casey’s freshman assist totals. His 29 assists rank him second on the school’s all-time freshman chart. Casey Powell was the last freshman to lead a Syracuse team in scoring - that was during the 1995 championship season.
The last freshman to rank among the top five point-scorers in the nation was Keith Cromwell (5th) in 1998.
Mulligan Ranks Seventh in the Nation in Goals Against Average
All-American Rob Mulligan (Farmingdale, NY/Farmingdale) stepped up in the final minutes of the Massachusetts game to record three huge saves which would have allowed the Minutemen to tie the game at 9-9. Instead, Mulligan and the rest of the defense held off UMass and escaped with a 9-8 win. Mulligan finished with 12 saves.
Against Cornell, Mulligan stopped 10 shots and in the process surpassed Matt Palumb (1987-90) as the school’s fifth all-time leader in saves.
Mulligan had one of his best days in goal during SU’s 15-4 victory against Brown. He played the first three quarters, stopped 10 shots and allowed just one goal.
A second-team All-American in 2000, Mulligan is the owner of a 7.30 goals against average and a .605 save percentage. He currently ranks seventh in the nation in goals against average and 15th in the country in save percentage, according to the April 29 stats.
Against Princeton on March 24, Mulligan recorded his 500th career save. If he continues the trend of the past two seasons when he recorded more than 200 saves, he will end up at least third on SU’s career list. Mulligan has 127 saves on the season.
Mulligan has eight NCAA Tournament games worth of experience under his belt, including starts in the 1999 and 2000 national championship games.
Career Goaltender Saves at Syracuse
1. 766 Jamie Molloy 1977-80 2. 692 Tom Nims 1981-85 3. 632 Jason Gebhardt 1994-98 4. 612 Paul Bishop 1971-73 5. 577 Rob Mulligan 1998-present
