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The Daily OrangeCRUISING: Syracuse defeats Duke by 10-goal margin to advance to the championship game Monday
By Meredith Galante
Posted: 5/23/09, 5:12 PM EST Section: Sports
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Defeating Duke by 10 goals didn't seem possible to Keogh. He thought the final score would be much closer.
But for the second-seeded Orange, coming out victorious against the third-seeded Blue Devils was too easy. Syracuse dodged, scored and dominated as Syracuse prevailed 17-10 Saturday at Gillette Stadium in front of 36,594 in attendance, sending the 2008 defending national champions back to the title game Monday for a chance to win back-to-back titles and the program's eleventh overall championship.
"We have so much depth on our team, it doesn't really matter who has the ball," attack Keogh said. "I don't think their defense was ready for how many people can step up."
With nine different players scoring, Syracuse's depth proved too much for Duke to handle. The Orange (15-2) led 8-4 going into halftime and never looked back. All of the Orange's normal suspects scored Saturday, which boosts Syracuse's confidence going into Monday's game, Keogh said.
Everything clicked on the field. Attack Kenny Nims scored four goals, receiving the assists this time, instead of his usual role which prompts him to deal them out. At 9:54 in the fourth quarter, Jamieson found Nims, who jumped up in the air and scored from the left pole, putting the Orange up 15-6. By then, the game had already been decided.
"I didn't expect to beat them the way we did," said midfielder Dan Hardy, who tallied three points. "We were clicking everywhere on the field today. It was pretty obvious that all the guys played great today. … It was a great effort by everyone on the team."
SU head coach John Desko said his team's ability to score in "unsettled and settled" situations propelled Syracuse to a win. Desko uses several different types of offensive sets, and the changeup confused Duke (15-4) early.
"We seemed to be out of sorts today," Duke head coach John Danowski. "But maybe it was Syracuse making us out of sorts, opposed to saying it was us."
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