Matthew Lerman saw the ball careen off the post adjacent to him on two separate occasions at the start of the first quarter against Hofstra.

In Syracuse’s first exhibition game of the season, he needed some help early to make sure Hofstra’s attack didn’t find the back of the net.

‘I got a little shelled in there against Hofstra right away. I got the first, and that’s the most important thing to me,’ Lerman said. ‘And as we say in practice, ‘The pipe’s not a goal.”

Lerman started in net and played two quarters during SU’s opening scrimmage against Hofstra before playing one quarter in the second scrimmage against Le Moyne. He made just two saves against Hofstra despite a barrage of shots toward the net and allowed three goals. After some tense moments early on, the sophomore goaltender settled down and turned away numerous shot attempts by the Pride players to help Syracuse earn a 7-5 win. The Orange defeated the Dolphins 11-5 in the second game.

‘I was happy with Matt,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘I thought he did a good job, and (it’s) tough on him going out there for the very first time as a starting goaltender, but I thought we got a good performance out of Matt.’

Hofstra came out firing from all directions right out of the gate, and Lerman made his opening save on a shot that bounced off the turf. The Orange got out in transition and midfielder JoJo Marasco scored, giving Lerman an early cushion.

But later, Lerman was forced to stave off a number of man-up situations. After SU defender Brandon Mullins was called for a slashing penalty late in the second quarter, Stephen DiGiovanni got a clean look at the goal from up top in the attacking zone. He fired a blistering shot that ricocheted off Lerman’s chest protector and dropped in front of the crease where Hofstra midfielder Drew Coholan cleaned up the rebound to knot the game at 3.

Lerman was happy with his first opportunity to start for the Orange.

‘It was outstanding,’ Lerman said. ‘To be able to come out here and make the start and play well enough to not really claim my position in there, but to keep things going a little bit going into practice this week.’

Orange struggles in man-up situations

John Desko wasn’t willing to show his hand in SU’s man-up situations in both scrimmages. Despite three man-up situations Sunday, Syracuse only took two shots.

Neither really had a chance end in the goal.

‘To be honest with you, we don’t show a lot this time of year to our opponents,’ Desko said. ‘I think we could have done a better job with what we ran. I was a little disappointed with the number of guys coming back. In man-up situations that either started last year or were backups from last year, we didn’t get good looks off of it.’

Syracuse struggled in its limited opportunities with a man advantage Sunday. With a simplified approach, SU had difficulty cracking through either defense.

After the Orange came up shorthanded in its only two opportunities against Hofstra, Desko inserted his starting group against Le Moyne to try and get results after Dolphins defender Jeff Gildemeyer was assessed a minute penalty for slashing.

Syracuse cycled the ball around the perimeter looking for an opening. Then SU attack Derek Maltz caught the ball high in the attacking zone, stepped beyond the line and Le Moyne was granted possession. As the time remaining in the man-up situation dwindled, the Orange was called for an offsides penalty, and the Dolphins responded scoring a man-up goal of their own.

And the players recognized that despite the limited looks in both scrimmages, taking advantage of those opportunities is something they need to work on moving forward.

‘The first scrimmage of the year, execution, we definitely need to work on that in practice, and man-ups is one thing that we’re going to stress,’ Maltz said. ‘Just moving the ball quicker, getting to our spots and, yeah, just execution overall.’

andtredin@syr.edu

 

Published on February 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm