Syracuse Lacrosse Destroys St. John's, Prepares to Destroy NCAA Tournament

The biggest problem for St. John's on Saturday was that they weren't Syracuse.

That's my expert opinion on the fallout from the Orange's 20-6 decimation of the Johnnies in the Carrier Dome.  4,022 took in the Senior Day festivities and watched a homicide play out right before their eyes:

“Everyone on offense I thought did a great job,” said fellow senior Stephen Keogh (2 goals). “It was a lot of fun watching (John) Galloway make a save and then outlet it and Joel finally finding the back of the net. A lot of fun.”

It was that kind of easy, exhilarating afternoon for the Orange, who tied a season-high by firing 50 shots at St. John’s goalie Jeff Lowman. SU also scored a season-high 20 times.

Tommy Palasek scored twice and assisted twice for the Orange. Fifteen SU players recorded goals against the Red Storm.

The Orange, a team that averages 10.6 goals per game, scored 11 by halftime Saturday. SU players glided into open space against St. John’s and discovered plenty of time to shoot and score. White cranked his 6-foot pole from about 10 yards against Lowman. Nobody was within five yards of him when he unleashed the shot that breezed past Lowman to start the Syracuse scoring.

The win moved Syracuse to 14-1 on the season and secured the Orange's second Big East lacrosse title in as many years as the trophy has been available.  Yippee.

Now the quest for the important title begins. Unsurprisingly, Syracuse earned the overall number one seed in the NCAA Tournament starting this weekend. The Orange will host Siena in a first-round game at 7:30 P.M. on Sunday in the Carrier Dome.  You are expected to attend, mostly because your life is truly boring and it's good to get out of the house.

Here's what Rear Admiral Desko had to say about the Orange:

“I think we had a very tough schedule this year,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “I’m sure a lot of teams that made the playoffs were on our schedule. I hope that prepares us for a new season in the Tournament. I know the feeling our players had walking off the field last year. The seniors have a couple of national-championship rings on their fingers and would like another one.”

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Desko said he believes his team will enter the Tournament playing its best lacrosse of the season.

“I think we saw it a week ago with Notre Dame,” he said, referring to an 11-8 victory over the then top-ranked Irish. “That is the closest to 60 minutes we’ve played all season, and it was against a very tough opponent. And there were no signs of a letdown Saturday (in a 20-6 victory over St. John’s)."

So, that should be a slaughter.  After revoking Siena's living privileges, Syracuse will travel to Foxborough to play either North Carolina or Maryland for the right to manhandle some other meatheads in Baltimore for the Final Four.

You can get your grubby hands on a bracket right here.