Postgame Quotes
Syracuse vs. Johns Hopkins
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Carrier Dome / Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach John Desko
Opening Statement:
“We were on spring break this week so it is always difficult to say. We have had games coming off of spring break where we have not been sharp and we have had other games where we have come off it and played well. I think we did a good job this week of keeping the guys focused. Film work during the day, practice in the afternoon, some community service and team dinners to keep everyone together. I thought the team did a pretty good job of understanding the game, what was going on at the time. I thought the offense did a good job of getting the ball to the other end and being patient and giving our defense a rest. I thought we shot pretty well the second half. We played alright for 55 minutes. It’s disappointing in the end when you want to get the ball back and get some possessions. We gave them a lot of possessions at the end and they were able to score. I wish we would have been stingier on defense at the end. At the end of the day, though, this is a good win.”
On faceoff violations:
“I think some things need to change on the faceoff. Any time you see a game like today, with a lot of faceoff violations, something is wrong. It warrants a lot more discussion and it needs to be cleaned up. It definitely needs to be changed. For now, we just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. I was happier with our wing play today.”
On Josh Amidon’s performance:
“He was one of the guys last year that got out there as a freshman. He is a very good athlete. As you can see, he has a quick release and he can shoot the ball well from the outside. We are prepping him and grooming him. We would like him to do more dodging and be more authoritative. If you look at our roster, he is going to be one of our go to guys next year so we are trying to get him ready.”
On what the team has learned the past three games:
“You learn the most when you play against great competition. Against Virginia, we learned a lot about ourselves and what we needed to work on. Georgetown won all those faceoffs and made us work so hard to get the goals we got. We had to play a lot of defense. Obviously, Johns Hopkins requires you to prepare for a lot of different things. We are just going to keep working on the faceoffs, pounding execution and defense.”
Kenny Nims, Senior, Attack
On refocusing after the Georgetown game:
“Georgetown, all-around, was a rough game for us. We got away from a lot of things we had been doing the first couple games of the season. We had a lot of turnovers. We wanted to come out and start this week going hard to the cage and putting good shots on net. We knew eventually they would drop.”
On the preparation for this game:
“We are really familiar with how they play. We had a great week of practice. We had spring break this week so all we had to concentrate on was lacrosse. Everybody worked hard this week. It showed out there. We wanted to come out and play a sharp game and I think we did that. “
Matt Abbott, Senior, Midfield
On the offensive performance:
“Today we won a lot more faceoffs and we were picking up more ground balls than we have in the past. We have been doing a better job than we have been doing. We worked on them all week. We do faceoffs and ground balls together. A big part of it is communication. We were communicating a lot better today. The faceoff guys were getting the ball a lot more and we were just picking it up. I think the practice contributed to our success today.”
On beating Johns Hopkins three straight times:
“We have just been playing well. Last year we beat them in overtime the first game [in 2008]. In the [2008] championship, we were playing well towards the end of the season and were executing. We both lost a lot to graduation this year and we are two different teams this year. We were just fortunate to get the win today.”
Joel White, Sophomore, LSM
On the defensive performance:
“We have to start coming out a little harder on defense. A couple of times teams have come out on us and scored the first goal. I think a big thing is coming out hard and having good communication. Once our defense settled down we started to play great. I think we are starting to come together and we are getting better every game.”
On John Hopkins’ run at the end of the game:
“You never want to give up like that. You want to keep pushing the whole game. At the same time, we let up and that is something we need to work on. You can never let down and let a team come back. I do not think it was ever a close game, but at the same time you cannot have them coming back. ‘
