Syracuse vs. Johns Hopkins Quotes
Johns Hopkins Head Coach Dave Pietramala:
"This was a tale of two halves. Obviously we controlled the first half with the exception of the last 1:58. I give Syracuse credit. I thought their guys did a tremendous job both at the X and on the wings and coming into the game we said for us there were three or four very big keys. One was ground balls. I don't think we won that war. Two was in the goal, and it's no fault of our goalies. Three and four were the faceoff X and our defense and I don't think our defense performed very well in the second half and I don't think we performed very well at the faceoff X. But give Syracuse credit. They showed great character. They are well-coached. It was a very good lacrosse game and there is a good chance we'll see them again in May."
Coach Pietramala on the last 19 seconds of the first half:
"We had mental lapses. I think we grew comfortable. We controlled the tempo of the game for the most part, and then all of a sudden, they pushed a couple forward. We didn't do our job on the defensive end of matching up. Mike Powell snuck up behind us and they came up with a loose ball. They're slick. They are very good at that, but in my opinion, they are great plays by those guys, but they should never happen. There should be sticks and arms on the ground before that happens and we didn't do that."
Coach Pietramala on the "tale of two halves":
"I felt like we dominated them defensively in the first half. They dominated our defense in the second half. If I could have that minute and 58 seconds back, I sure would like to, but they are young men, they make mistakes, and I'm proud of them still. I thought Michael (Peyser) did a nice job of playing Mike Powell man-to-man. Tom Garvey did a nice job on Michael Springer, but we broke down in the team portion on some things and we gave up some goals. But you can't take credit away from a team that deserves some credit, and they battled back to outscore us. They scored 10 goals in the second half. If we hope to win a national championship, then we shouldn't be giving 10 goals to anybody in a half, let alone a game."
Coach Pietramala on the Syracuse-Johns Hopkins rivalry:
"I think this afternoon is a great picture of the rivalry. Different styles to a degree. I think you saw that we weren't afraid to run today. We were willing to get up and down a little bit, and maybe that hurt us, maybe it didn't. But both teams have great tradition. Syracuse honored their '83 team today. It's two very talented teams, two teams that take great pride in their lacrosse program. Two programs that each year are in the Final Four. It's two teams that produce All-Americans and those kinds of things. When you put those kinds of teams on the field, I can't remember the last game that wasn't settled by one or two goals. That's how you develop rivalries. We've been having those rivalries with Syracuse since 1983."
More from Coach Pietramala:
"I don't think the fault falls with our offense today. I think when we had the ball we were able to do some things, we created some opportunities. I think you saw that at the tail end of the fourth quarter as well. I just don't think we did a good enough job of getting our offense the ball today. It's interesting, coming into the game we said if we were struggling defending them, we would be willing to get up and down and try to score some easy goals. But I wouldn't have anticipated us allowing them to go on such a large run. But again I don't think it falls on the shoulders of our offense. If we only could have provided them with the ball and possessions. We put 14 on the board, that's a pretty good day at the office. Unfortunately, Syracuse put 15 on. We just needed to get our offense the ball. If you look at the stats, we were 14 of 33 facing off. That's a lot of ground balls and a lot of possessions for our opponent. When you play against a team as talented as Syracuse you just can't provide them with those kinds of opportunities."
Coach Pietramala on how this loss affects his team:
"You wonder, are we crazy to play these games so early, and the answer is no. A loss like this, does it hurt Johns Hopkins? If we bounce back mentally, no, it doesn't. For the winner, it provides a win over a top four opponent. For the loser, you are losing to a very quality opponent and you're almost better to have that opponent on your schedule and maybe to even have lost than to play a much lesser opponent and won. So I think playing this game, proves to be a great game. Our guys enjoy it, our coaches enjoy it, the Syracuse kids enjoy it, and I don't believe this hurts us. We've got one quality win which is one more win that a lot of other teams have. And we have a one goal loss to the defending national champion that is a top four team. Does it make Virginia and the next few games a little more important, sure. When you have so few games they all mean a little bit more. We'll bounce back. We'll practice hard on Monday and we'll be prepared to go to work for Virginia."
Syracuse head coach John Desko's thoughts on the game:
"We showed some heart and had a little spark at the end of the second quarter. It brought us back and made us feel a little better going into the locker room. We knew we were going to have to play a great second half and win some faceoffs and keep the ball on the offensive end of the field and keep pressure on their defense. I'm extremely happy with the way we played, especially in the second half. I thought Chris Bickel did a terrific job and Jay Pfiefer in the first half made some big saves. The score could have been a little different at halftime. Fortunately, we caught on fire and started shooting better at the goaltender. We were very stagnant in the first half, a lot of standing around. I'm not sure if it was the emotion of the weekend. I told the guys after the game that they didn't have to emulate the '83 team like they did to stage that comeback, but everything worked out okay for the Orangemen today."
More from Coach Desko:
"Fortunately, I think that little spurt in the last couple minutes made us feel better about ourselves and we looked up and saw that coming back was attainable. The guys seemed very excited going into the lockeroom."
Junior Michael Powell on the shift of momentum at the end of the first half:
"I think it was big for us. Chris did a great job pushing it out the front. Luckily, I was the guy that was in the right spot at the right time. There were a lot of unlikely heroes and today I was one of them."
"For me, that's why I play lacrosse. That little rush right there. That's probably the closest I'll get to being a rock star. That's what motivates us to take it to the next level. Once we get on a roll I think we're pretty hard to beat."
Powell on his breakout performance:
"I can't think of a better game to break out in. I played well against Fairfield. But to play against a quality team like Hopkins, it's pretty special to have a good game against a good team."
