The slaughter ended, mercifully, at 9:50 p.m.

It had been 60 minutes of sheer lacrosse domination, Syracuse-style: run, gun and have some fun against the overmatched Hobart Statesmen, who were given as much a chance as a freshman in a keg-stand contest.

Because the Orangemen are the Orangemen, and Hobart is, well, Hobart. The 19-4 final and the largest margin of victory in Desko’s three-plus years, then, made plenty of sense for No. 1 Syracuse (6-1) and unranked Hobart (3-3), once a Division III power but now just another D-I pawn for SU to toy with.

‘There are some big, fast guys out there for them,’ Hobart coach Matt Kerwick said. ‘And you just have to be able to react and slide, and Syracuse goes off the ball a lot quicker than these guys are used to. Defensively and offensively, they’re a pretty good team.’

Pretty good? SU looked unstoppable at times, building a 6-1 first-quarter lead, extending it to a 13-1 halftime advantage and then reeling off three consecutive goals in the third quarter to stretch it to 16-1. The rout was on for the 5,893 at the Carrier Dome. SU already locked up the Kraus-Simmons Trophy, named for former coaches Babe Kraus (Hobart) and Roy Simmons Sr. (SU), given to the winner of the annual contest. At that point, it was a matter of seeing if the Orangemen would challenge their team record of 30 goals.

They didn’t, of course, because head coach John Desko slid in some of his lesser-used players and gave his freshmen some solid game experience. That was after the damage had been done by his normal offensive complement.

Junior Mike Springer started the scoring just 42 seconds in, a harbinger of the ease with which the Orangemen would tally the rest of the evening. Sophomore Mike Powell hit a cutting Tom Hardy for his second assist on SU’s second goal with 10:37 left in the first quarter.

Three minutes later, Hobart’s Jon Bogosian beat SU goalie Jay Pfeifer.

And then the Statesmen forgot how to score.

For 30:17, to be exact, until Dan Cesere beat Syracuse backup Nick Donatelli. By that time, Josh Coffman had assisted on five SU goals, Spencer Wright had scored three, Powell added another goal and assist and Brian Nee scored a pair. The only things missing were the partridge and the pear tree.

SU 16, Hobart 1.

‘The ball was moving well. Our feet were moving well. Our defense did a tremendous job,’ Desko said. ‘The few opportunities Hobart had in the first half we really shut the door on. And at halftime there was only one goal up on the opposing team’s side of the scoreboard, so we were really happy about that.’

It wasn’t the only thing that made the Orangemen giddy. They played a game at the Dome for the first time since their 18-11 season-opening victory against Army on Feb. 23.

Five road games — including three against top teams Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Princeton — bridged that span. And SU heads right back out tomorrow, busing to Providence, R.I., to face Brown on Saturday.

The games, admittedly, take a toll on SU. The Orangemen have spent so much time on the road, Wright forgot when SU last trudged onto the Dome carpet.

‘Hey, Coff, when was the last time we played here?’ Wright asked Coffman.

‘Army, I think,’ Coffman answered.

Wright sighed.

‘We’re really happy to be in the Dome,’ he said. ‘It feels like we’ve been on the road every weekend.’

They have.

‘The Army game,’ Wright said, ‘was a long, long time ago.’

Yet since that game, SU has earned the No. 1 ranking, lost it two weeks later and then regained it. They’ve survived a slump by Springer, who scored four goals and added an assist last night, and relied on the improved play of Wright and sniping sophomore Brian Nee to add some offensive punch. Even freshmen Jarett Park (two goals), Zack Wallace and Kyle Olson (one tally apiece) got a piece of the action.

Granted, this was Hobart, and this was a one-sided game. But Pfeifer, a redshirt freshman, made 10 saves, some spectacular, and allowed just one goal in his 33:35 before yielding to Donatelli. And SU did convert 3 of 8 extra-man opportunities and shut Hobart out on its seven attempts.

Vintage Syracuse. Vintage domination.

‘We were really zipping the ball around,’ Desko said. ‘It’s nice to be back in the Dome. The crowd was into the game. They hadn’t seen us play in a while. Our guys were excited to be back home.’

Published on March 27, 2002 at 12:00 pm