Syracuse Lacrosse Ready to Take On "The Army"

They're The Army. The never quit. They're going to keep fighting to the end no matter if they're down by 1, up by ten or down by ten. They're going to give us all they've got for a full sixty minutes. - Defenseman Brian Megill on facing Army.

The theme of Syracuse Orange Lacrosse Media Day? Move on. Move on from the mess that was Albany and move forward to Army, a team with a long history of playing Syracuse Orange Lacrosse to tough finishes. But what exactly went wrong last week? Well, it started with defense and slide packages not working.

When asked how they could improve on the slides, John Desko simply said "Get there." Brian Megill had a little bit more to add saying that a lot of the miscommunication came from "first game jitters." "We just started off really slow," said Kevin Rice. "You can't spot any team in division one lacrosse five goals right off the bat."

So that's now out of the way. Let's move on to Army who will feature a very different style of play due to the Black Knights preference to shoot from the perimeter.

"I think we need to push out a little more and get on their hands," Megill told us. "You really have to get out on their hands and disrupt their shot." "They rotate both [John Glessner and Garrett Thul] up top so it's a really different look for us," said Coach John Desko. "We're going to have close defenders where middies usually play, middies where attackmen usually play, so it's different, they mix it up."

On the more positive side, the attack put up 15 goals including a furious fourth quarter rally. JoJo Marasco was the recipient of some great looks thanks to defense on Derek Maltz. He might face more pressure from Army, but that's ok. "If they bring an earlier slide, that's fine," Marasco said. "I'll kick it behind and let the other guys make a play and I know they will."

While everyone is going to be focusing in on the last Georgetown game, fans should stick around Sunday for what promises to be a great Lacrosse battle.