Luke Cometti set the tone for Syracuse 47 seconds into the second quarter.

The junior midfielder worked to shake his Albany defender, spinning to his left before planting his foot in the ground and whirling back to his right to sling a low shot toward the goal. The ball skipped by Great Danes goaltender John Carroll to give the Orange its first lead of the game.

Five more goals followed in the period — all by midfielders — as SU took a firm grip on the game behind an offensive outburst.

‘I knew once we started scoring a few goals we’d start rolling, and fortunately, the third goal kind of put us ahead and from there on out we made it 10-2,’ Cometti said. ‘So it was good, I almost sparked it.’

Though star midfielder JoJo Marasco added two of his team-high three goals in the big period, Syracuse saw unsung players off the bench lead the charge. Cometti’s goal started the run, Ryan Barber notched two goals and Scott Loy found the back of the net for the Orange’s sixth and final goal of the quarter.

And adding some intrigue to Cometti’s performance was that he scored against his former team, as the midfielder transferred from Albany after last season.

Going into halftime, Syracuse led 8-2 and the stat sheet was dotted with unheralded names making plays. SU head coach John Desko was pleased to see those players step up with the Albany defense sliding late, which forced the inexperienced group to make plays.

‘That’s common with some teams. They want to see how our middies are going to do, all new groups out there,’ Desko said. ‘And fortunately our guys were shooting the ball pretty well and we got some goals.’

Barber arguably turned in the most surprising and impressive performance in the season-opening victory over Albany. The redshirt junior entered the season with just one goal on seven shots in 20 games played the last two seasons.

He surpassed those statistics quickly Sunday with two goals on six shots.

His first goal came less than three minutes after Cometti’s and exactly one minute after Marasco gave SU a two-goal cushion. Barber sidestepped his defender in the middle of the field, took a step toward the goal and fired the ball into the net just before he absorbed a big hit from the Great Danes’ defense.

Later, Barber beat Carroll in the top right corner of the goal while moving to his left to push the Orange lead to 7-2. The midfielder then backpedaled with confidence as the offense powered Syracuse to a comfortable lead Albany couldn’t overcome.

‘It felt great, get the ball rolling a little bit,’ Barber said. ‘We really picked it up in the second quarter there and it felt great.’

For Desko, the productive performance from Barber and Cometti in the decisive period was encouraging. After losing the entire first midfield line to graduation, the midfield was a position of uncertainty entering the season.

But Cometti said this season’s group has depth that causes different problems for opponents than last year’s talented line. Teams can’t focus on shutting down three or even six midfielders when they take on SU.

The Orange has nine threats ready to make something happen every game. And while the Syracuse players have known what everyone is capable of for a long time, Barber said the rest of the lacrosse world finally got to see a glimpse of that talent and depth Sunday.

‘Everyone gets to see each other play in practice every day and score goals and do great things,’ Barber said. ‘But a lot of people don’t really get to see some kids do that on (Sunday), so being on the big scene and a lot of people stepping up, it was pretty cool.’

By the time Loy scored with 23 seconds left in the half, Albany was demoralized.

And some of those questions hanging over the inexperienced midfield were answered for at least a day. But Cometti knows SU can’t rest on one performance.

The unit has to prove it consistently before the questions can stop and opponents start taking notice.

‘We hit the ball rolling,’ Cometti said. ‘We didn’t even have a scrimmage in the fall, so there were some questions: ‘Are they going to be able to get it together in the beginning?’ … But luckily we started off strong, and hopefully we can just build on that and keep getting better.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on February 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu