Postgame Quotes
Syracuse vs. Hobart
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
Head coach John Desko
Opening Statement :
“It was another Hobart-Syracuse game and we were playing for the Kraus-Simmons Trophy, and we had two Simmons’ out there. Coach Emeritus [Roy Simmons Jr.] was up in the box watching and Coach Simmons III is on the sidelines. It gives us a little more incentive when going against the Statesmen. I thought we had a little bit of a slow start, although we kept the pressure on with some shooting. We know the goaltender can play well, and physically he’s a good-sized kid so he makes you shoot around him a lot. Once we settled down, and we found some space, some of the guys really shot well to areas in the goal where he was really susceptible. He doesn’t give you a lot to shoot at. Defensively, it was great to be stingy once again. I thought the defense played well. We’re working our way through the faceoff situation and we’re getting better at that. All in all, a good day for the Orange, and to come out with a win like we did in was big for us.”
On Hobart’s defensive scheme:
“When we did have those possessions, we wanted everybody to touch it and get comfortable, make them play defense and put pressure on the goaltender. They play very good team defense, and they really make you work for scoring opportunities. They’re not going to give you a dodge for a score and have a lot of unassisted goals. Our guys did a pretty good job of understanding, especially in a short week, what they like to do defensively. We definitely played within ourselves, especially in the first half.”
On getting off to a strong start:
“Everybody, no matter who you’re playing against, is going to come out and try to show well. We always try to get our runs early, and I think teams are used to that. Again, they play good team defense and made us work offensively for the win. On the other hand, I was pretty happy with our defense and what we’ve been doing so far this year. They did a good job of holding them to four goals today, especially in what could be an emotional game between Syracuse and Hobart.”
On the play of Pat Perritt:
“Pat only has one speed, and he goes hard all the time. He’s really done a great job leading the team by example this year as a captain, and he works very hard. In the previous games, he had been close, and we really saw that he came alive against Hopkins and had a couple of big goals for us. We’re going to be that much more dangerous if he finds his way here.”
Kenny Nims, Sr., Attack
On the strong performance:
“We had a good two days after the Binghamton game, and it really humbled us a lot. We didn’t want to go back to the way we were playing against Binghamton. Like Coach [Desko] said earlier, we were shooting the ball well and were waiting for the right opportunities, and we knew eventually that they would come.”
On changing the offense in the second quarter:
“Anytime that you switch an offensive set it’s just something else to throw at the defense that they have to worry about. We just try to confuse them as much as possible, and when you have as many guys on your team as we do, who are capable of scoring, it’s going to work out.”
On the offense as a whole:
“We’re definitely loaded on the offensive end. I give a lot of credit to our defense for starting fastbreaks for us, and really playing solid. We’re nothing without our defense. We have 10 or 12 guys who are capable of scoring and having a big game. Tonight it was Pat [Perritt], and Greg [Niewieroski] stepping up, and I’m sure next week it will be someone different.”
Sid Smith, Sr., Defense
On the role of the defense historically at Syracuse:
“Everyone looks at our offense right away. That’s how it is at Syracuse. We just talked about coming out and putting a name in for the defense. We wanted people to look at Syracuse and talk about how good the defense is. We just want to keep the pressure on them, and we did a great job of that today.”
On the defensive approach in the game:
“We tried to push out on their attack, and force them into situations that they didn’t really want to be in.”
