Central New York fans had their first glimpse of the 2002 Syracuse Orangemen as they handed Navy a convincing 17-9 defeat in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. It was Syracuse's first preseason scrimmage of the season and Navy's second. Both teams seemed a bit rusty and the game lacked some intensity partly because the score was reset after each period.

The starting attack for the 'Cuse of Powell, Springer, and Coffman answered the one question on many fans minds about who would be replacing Liam Banks on attack. The new unit seemed to work well together combining for 9 goals and 20 points total, however from the best attack in the nation this is no surprise. Mike Springer led the Orange with 8 points while Powell and Coffman each had 6. Starting for Navy in net was Jon Higdon and replacing the graduated Rob Mulligan was Jay Pfieffer of the Orange. The longpole Chris Dingman got most of the faceoff duties for Navy and Bickel and Plunkett took turns for Syracuse.

Syracuse started the scoring when Springer intercepted a Navy defenseman's pass and then found Coffman on the crease for the easy finish. After another SU goal making it 2-0, Navy controlled the ball and worked the SU defense and answered back with 2 goals of their own. With the score knotted at 2, each team answered each other's scores twice more making it 4-4 going into the second quarter. Syracuse's third goal came from Brian Solliday with the assist to California native Spencer Wright. This duo needs to be productive at the midfield if Syracuse is to be as good as they want to be this year. A few minutes into the second quarter Springer came up with the ball in a scrum around midfield with a clear lane to the goal and ripped one over the shoulder of the Navy goalie. This was the first of Syracuse's five unanswered goals which all came in the second quarter. This put the game at 9-4. Navy finally answered when Brad Hay found Tully, NY native Dan Eddy in front of the goal for the score. Syracuse's Tully representative Tom Hardy quickly answered Eddy's goal putting the game at 10-5 going into the lockeroom at half time. Returning a few mintues into the third quarter, Alex Mummolo replaced goalie Jay Pfieffer who put up a solid performance in his first starting performance for the Orange. It seems as though the goalie situation still may not be solved as Navy was held scoreless in the third by the aggressive Syracuse defense of St. George, Glatzel, and Bliss in front of Mummolo who made some convincing saves. The highlight of the quarter was when defender John Glatzel brought the ball across midfield and found a leaping Mike Powell on the crease for a quick onetimer that went just wide left. Two SU goals later it was 12-5 'cuse going into the fourth. Syracuse seemed to lose their focus going into the fourth when Navy put up 3 goals right out of the gate, two of which came on EMO opportunities. It seemed as if the man down unit for Syracuse was a bit rusty as Navy found the open man quite easily on their two EMO tries. On the second EMO goal, Dave Pittard found Preaseason Honorable Mention All-American Eddie McKinnon on the crease for the nice quick stick goal. At this point with the score 12-8 it seemed as if Navy could a mount a comeback, but Syracuse would have nothing of it. Five unanswered Syracuse goals later and the game was in the books.

All in all this game was pretty heavily dominated by Syracuse and many of Navy's goals were due to mental errors on Syracuse's part. It will be interesting to see how both teams progress as the season gets underway. I never got the official attendence, but I'd estimate that there were about 3,000 fans on hand at the Dome on Saturday. Also, pictures will be up for the next 'Cuse game.

Scoring

NAVY: Hay 1-1, McKinnon 4-1, Eddy 1-1, Holton 1-0, Conklin 2-0, Pittard 0-1

SYRACUSE: Springer 5-3, Powell 2-4, Coffman 3-3, Nee 2-1, Lindsay 1-1, Solliday 1-0, Wright 0-1, Hardy 1-0, Vallone 2-0

Shots
Syracuse: 43
Navy: 22

Faceoffs Won
Syracuse: 13
Navy: 16