WHAT'S WRONG WITH IANZITO?!?!

So today marked the first time in 2012 that Syracuse Men's Lacrosse took the field.  There was a good 3 way scrimmage in the Carrier Dome between Cuse, DII LeMoyne and Hofstra.  I didn't get to see game #1 between LeMoyne and Hofstra, but caught both of the Syracuse games.

As you may have read elsewhere, Syracuse decided to have everyone wear random numbers for the game, making it very difficult to decide on who was doing what.  I was hoping to give you a good write up by position, but most of the first game was spent just sorting out exactly who was playing with who and by the time game #2 against LeMoyne rolled around it was 2nd and 3rd string evaluation time.

To explain the title a little bit, there is nothing wrong with Ianzito (Steve Ianzito R-Jr. from CNS HS), at least nothing I know of.  Instead, during a clear, one of the close defenders made a safe cross-field pass which Coach Desko clearly did not agree with.  Steve Ianzito was in position to take a quick pass and leg it up the field so after the pass across the field, the normally calm and collected Desko came screaming down the sideline exclaiming "What's wrong with Ianzitio?!?!".  Was it the moment of the game?  No.  But it was entertaining anyway.

Rather than going person by person as I had planned, I'll just do a quick rundown of impressions from the game.  Hopefully next week vs. Maryland can offer some more detailed analysis.  Both games had a similar feel to last year.  The defense spent plenty of time with the ball on their end of the field resulting in some stall calls as well.  Given the turnover on defense this offseason, that's an ode to how well many of the guys are stepping up.  I will never believe for a second that a coach would want their team to intentionally stall during an exhibition game so it must mean that SU was largely denying any easy looks or open outlets for the ball carriers.  The biggest question mark has to be in goal coming into the year, but based on today, the most impressive candidate looked like Maryland transfer Dominic Lamolinara.  I'm guessing the name on this based on what Dave Rahme with Syracuse.com was reporting for the goalie rotation.   The main thing you ask of your goalie is to make the saves they should and direct the defense.  Mr. Lamolinara was doing quite a bit of making saves he had no business making.  It may be to his advantage if he sees a good amount of time next week vs. some familiar shooters, but I like what I see so far there.  On offense, most of the goals were created by some moves up top creating space, or picking up some second chance goals off of saves.  Given that this is an exhibition, I wouldn't expect to see many set offenses being thrown out there, so it's good to see a display of outside shooters willing to pull the trigger.  I am definitely going to keep an eye on Derek Maltz going into the season.  He was showing some great potential as a crease attackman for this team.

I hope I have more to offer next week, so let's hope this will keep you busy for now.  Stay tuned for some more this week on this past week's NLL action.