The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team will face one of the nation’s great lacrosse programs tomorrow, taking on Syracuse for the first time in school history.
The Orange (2-3), tied for No. 14 in the nation with Delaware, will be Binghamton’s third nationally ranked opponent so far this year. BU (1-3) faced current No. 1 Cornell to open the season and beat No. 8 Hobart last year, and with that experience, the team said it feels no intimidation going into the Carrier Dome and playing the nine-time national champions.
‘We’ve prepared the guys for playing games of this caliber over the past few years,’ said Binghamton head coach Ed Stephenson, who has curiously never been to the dome as a player or coach. ‘The guys have been in big games ‘ more than anything I think it’s exciting for our guys from that area.’
Freshman attack Drew Wichmann, a three-year letter winner at Corcoran High School, is one player from Syracuse who has a homecoming tomorrow.
‘Growing up I used to go to games in the dome all the time, and now I’m playing there,’ Wichmann said. ‘It’s weird for me now, but it’ll be great.’
Wichmann is coming off a three-goal, two-assist performance against Marist in the Bearcats’ last game on March 10, an 11-4 BU win. The Bearcats (1-3) have not played a game since ‘ a span of over 2 1/2 weeks ‘ after their match with Sacred Heart last Saturday was canceled due to snow.
Wichmann, who is tied for the team lead in goals with Steve Carlson at four, will have to contend with Syracuse’s All-American defenders, senior Steve Panarelli and junior Kyle Guadagnolo.
In goal for the Orange is sophomore Peter Coluccini, allowing 11.11 goals per game ‘ up almost an entire goal more from last year ‘ and averaging 10 saves. Though outshooting opponents on the year by 18, Syracuse has actually been outscored by six.
Regardless, they remain one of the nation’s best teams.
‘They really don’t have any weaknesses,’ Stephenson said of the Orange.
Syracuse is coming off a 17-9 loss to No. 3 Johns Hopkins last Saturday, in which the Orange allowed the Blue Jays to rattle off streaks of eight and six unanswered goals at different points in the game.
‘We’re coming off a tough loss. The things we want to concentrate on are ourselves,’ said Syracuse head coach John Desko. ‘We know that with the parity in the sport, anybody can beat anybody. I was at the Hobart-Binghamton game last year scouting Hobart, and they probably took Binghamton a little too lightly.’
Junior midfielder Steven Brooks had three goals for Syracuse against the Blue Jays, and is tied with sophomore attack Dan Hardy for the team lead with 10. Hardy also has five assists on the season, tying him for a team-best 15 points with junior attack Mike Leveille.
Leveille is the only starting attack returning in 2007, with All-Americans Brett Bucktooth and Joe Yevoli, who scored 61 combined goals last season, having graduated.
‘I think our defense the past two or three games has really picked up. When you get too excited you tend to overplay,’ said sophomore goalie Larry Kline about defending against the Orange attacks. ‘If we can play disciplined, I think that’s definitely the main issue. Discipline is going to be the word of the day.’
At midfield, Syracuse has another All-American, senior Greg Rommel, who, along with Brooks, missed all of last season. Rommel will be a test for senior midfielder Matt McNamara, another Syracuse-area native, who expressed only excitement for going home.
‘We’re just going to take this like any other game,’ McNamara said. ‘We’re going to attack the midfielders, we’re going to attack the longpoles, we’re going to attack from all over the field.’