Postgame Quotes
Syracuse vs. Army
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach John Desko
On the toughness of the game:
“That was a very tough game – tougher than the scoreboard indicated.”
On why the team struggled to score early in the game:
“I have to give the goalie the credit on that one. We talked about it before the game, as far as shooting smart on the goaltender and trying to get some high percentage shots early. We didn’t do that. We took some outside shots early. He made some saves that he made look easy. We gave him a lot of confidence early on. He was terrific for four quarters today, and finally we were able to put them (goals) up at the end to win the game.”
On controlling the tempo of the game:
“Army was able to play their tempo. Their goalie allowed them to do that. We have to play that way if we’re going to win games. We have to work for higher-percentage shots against a hot goaltender. We adjusted and did that better in the second half. It’s going to be a different game than the Virginia game (next week), so I’m not sure how well it prepared us for that game. But it helped prepare us for games in the future.”
On how critical Jeremy Thompson’s faceoff win was after Army tied the game:
“That was really big. They had a couple of fast-break goals to tie it up. Jeremy got the ball in front and created some offense for us. He had a great assist to Stephen Keogh and it really helped get us back on track. That was a momentum-breaker.”
On how the team reacted to Army’s physical play:
“We’ve been physical in the scrimmages. We can play that way. When you play an academy team, they’re going to be physical. We knew that coming into the game. We played very well, but we got a couple penalties in retaliation which disappointed me. Other than that we did a pretty good job and no one got hurt.”
On how the team will prepare for Virginia:
“It will be difficult for us to prepare because we won’t be able to get outside a lot, especially on a grass field. I don’t think there’s any way that we can prepare for a grass field going into next weekend. We’re going to be on FieldTurf inside or outside. Everyone looks forward to the Syracuse-Virginia game because of the tempo – it’s more of a high-tempo kind of offense. That’s what we do, and we’ll do our best to prepare for it.”
Stephen Keogh, Junior, Attack
On his thoughts on Army and his play:
"They're a great team and they never give up, but we played kind of sloppy. When we got tired. They got a couple of quick transition goals and I was trying to get the ball in the back of the net to start some momentum for us."
On Syracuse’s dominate offense:
“We played real well. I thought we could have had some better shots though.”
On the importance of Jeremy Thompson at the faceoff X:
“He's a great player. It's huge to have an offensive threat at the X. He does tremendous things for us. He scored a goal for us and if he keeps winning faceoffs we'll get in transition and score a lot of goals off of them.”
On what improvements the team need to make to prepare for Virginia:
“We have to place the ball a little bit better. Some of our shots went wide. We just got to keep trying and put the ball in the back of the net.”
John Galloway, Junior, Goalie
On whether he was seeing the ball well:
“I was seeing the ball well, but I should have made a lot more saves in the second half. I thought I was letting my guys down in the second half when I wasn't making saves and the other goalie (Tom Palesky) was making saves. We need to step up our game and I have to step up my game.”
On whether he saw Army push it in transition:
“They got a couple fast breaks in a row and got some goals off that. They had some opportunities to get up and down the field and got some goals in transition and we expected that from an Army team. They're always well-conditioned and they're always ready to run up and down with us. They did that well today and we played a little sloppy in the second half, but we pulled it together enough to get the win.”
