WASHINGTON – Syracuse head coach John Desko gave midfielder Jovan Miller something to think over before going to bed Friday night.

After watching Georgetown’s sharp-shooting midfielders terrorize offenses this season, the coach knew he would need Miller’s athleticism on the field to force the Hoyas away from the goal. So before Miller went to bed Friday, Desko let him know he had to step up.

The message worked, as Miller led an aggressive surge of No. 2 Syracuse (3-1) defense here Saturday, giving the Orange the ability to sneak away with an 8-5 victory over the Hoyas at Multi-Sport Complex in front of 2,942 fans.

‘He came up to me yesterday in the hotel and I was just chilling out, then he told me I was going to have an increased role,’ Miller said. ‘I was pretty excited about that going to sleep. It was a really good opportunity to get out there and show everyone what I could do.’

From the outset, the Orange defense cut the Hoyas at its knees, extending defensive pressure further away from the cage to compensate for the Georgetown’s long-range capabilities.

The defensive core of Sid Smith, Joel White, John Lade and Matt Tierney bullied the Hoya attack, forcing it back outside to Miller and Kevin Drew at the top of the circle who continued to apply pressure.

The tight unit forced almost all of the Hoyas 46 shots from outside the 15-yard range, with goalie John Galloway taking care of the rest. In his strongest performance of the season thus far, Galloway tallied 19 saves.

Despite the savvy defense, the Hoyas continued to bring pressure.

With seconds remaining in the first, and the Orange clinging to a 2-1 lead, the No. 11 Hoyas (1-2) looked to tie things up before the half. But after rounding the cage, Hoya attack Ryan Shuler was leveled by a stealthy Lade who forced Georgetown to reset at the top of the key.

But Lade wasn’t done, chasing down the ball he deflected the final shot of the half, protecting the Orange’s slender advantage.

‘We felt we matched up really well with their midfielders and attack today,’ Lade said. ‘We knew they really liked to take shots so we just wanted to minimize the amount of shots they took.’

As the two teams emerged for the second half, the Hoyas began to challenge an overworked Orange midfield and defense again. The game was still tight, which kept Georgetown’s pressure up.

With the absence of lead face-off man Jake Moulton – who hurt his hand last week at practice and is out for the remainder of the season – Syracuse remained on its heels defensively while going goal-for-goal with the Hoyas in an 8-score third period.

Georgetown went 12-of-17 from faceoffs allowing it to spend most of their time in scoring range, forcing the Orange to dip into its reserve tank in order to apply some defensive pressure, a spark it found in Miller.

Just like he had in the first period, Miller found his groove defensively in the fourth, tirelessly hounding the Georgetown attack. As the Hoya offense crossed midfield, Miller would immediately smother an attack, making it nearly impossible to connect on a shot.

The Hoyas fired off 14 attempts in the final period with none of the shots registering as a goal.

‘He’s one of the better athletes on the team,’ Desko said of Miller. ‘And when you’re going against a team whose scoring strength is in its midfield, you need some athletes to go out and play these guys.’

The Orange took the momentum cooked up by Miller and the shut-down defense and registered two more goals – one by attack Stephen Keogh and one by midfielder Matt Abbott – to ice the game midway through the period.

The defensive pressure was part of the plan engineered by Desko coming off a heartbreaking 13-12 loss to No. 1 Virginia last Saturday. The coach knew he Orange would have to come out strong and take it to the Hoyas early.

It was a message read loud and clear, and after a long night’s sleep mulling over Desko’s challenge, Miller knew it was coming.

‘I was really excited for this game,’ Miller said. ‘It was about my time and with the defense we just made the most out of it.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on March 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm