For Brandon Corp, there really was no way through Sid Smith. The explosive attack tried dodging, tried ducking. But with each move, Smith honed in closer, offering the occasional body-check as a reminder.

‘I knew he was explosive,’ Smith said. ‘He was going to get his chances, but I just think we did a great job. I wasn’t worried about dominating. I was just trying to play some solid defense.’

Coupled with defender John Lade, the duo held Colgate’s two leading scorers to just one goal apiece, propelling the No. 1 Orange (12-2) to a 13-7 victory over the No. 17 Raiders (9-6) at the Carrier Dome in front of 4,442 fans on senior day. The win was the team’s fifth in a row.

The victory marked the end of the regular season. The NCAA tournament begins next week, and Syracuse will learn its first-round opponent around 9 p.m. Sunday night, when the bracket is officially revealed.

‘We were able to play physical with them today,’ Syracuse head coach John Desko said. ‘We played some very good team defense.’

Corp, the Patriot League offensive player of the year and the nation’s leader in points-per-game, struggled against an athletic Orange defense that fronted Smith against him, while adjusting the rest of its formation to make sure Corp couldn’t get near the goal.

While Smith followed Corp everywhere on the field, defender Matt Tierney slid in to fill the vacant spot. At the same time, Lade bodied Raiders leading goal-scorer Kevin Colleluori, completely suffocating a Colgate attack that mustered just three shots in the first quarter.

‘Sid did a great job on (Corp) today,’ Lade said. ‘We didn’t even need to slide that much and even when we did, Tierney stepped up and made sure he didn’t get the shot off. We just played some great team defense today.’

As the Orange built up a three-goal advantage late in the second quarter, a desperate Raider attack tried everything to get Corp and Colleluori away from their defenders and toward the goal.

With 2:13 left to play, Colleluori stood behind the cage and tried to set a screen on Smith in order to free Corp in front of the net. But both lade and Smith squashed Colleluori’s effort. Smith bypassed the pick and rode Corp straight into a charging Jovan Miller, who delivered a vicious hit, knocking Corp to the FieldTurf.

‘(Smith) was really good with his body position,’ Corp said. ‘He was good with throwing clean checks on and off the ball. It wasn’t just him that held me down though, it was the whole defense.’

Even as the Raiders mounted a comeback, both Colleluori and Corp were held silent. Down 6-2 at the half, the Raiders cut the deficit to three midway through the fourth quarter, with a majority of the goals coming from the team’s third attack and midfield.

It wasn’t until 11:59 in the fourth that either Corp or Colleluori scored a goal, when Colleluori took advantage of a 30-second man-up opportunity and inched in a goal off a far-side charge to the net.

Corp followed suit two minutes later, although his goal was slightly more fitting. Seven yards outside the cage, Corp was completely draped by Smith, with no space in between the two. Frustrated, Corp decided just to shoot around Smith, flagging his stick to the right and scoring the blind shot far corner.

‘I was able to get a goal. We don’t really want to shoot in those situations but, I made a play,’ Corp said.

The strong effort for SU marked the second straight contest in which the Orange defense successfully countered a strong attacking duo. During a 10-3 victory over Massachusetts on April 25, Smith and Lade held Jim Connolly and Tim Balise to just two total goals.

For Smith, seeing his defensive that at times struggled during the regular season play its best against Colgate couldn’t come at a better time. The NCAA tournament starts on Saturday for the Orange, and the SU defense is ready.

‘We want to be playing our best toward the end of the year, we want to be peaking right now,’ Smith said. ‘I mean, that’s what it’s all about.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on May 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm