VILLANOVA, Pa. – Syracuse is better than Villanova – except at the faceoff X.

Everywhere else, from Dominic Lamolinara’s cage to SU’s four-man attack rotation the Orange appears to have the Wildcats outclassed. But as Villanova proved on March 23, a possession-starved Syracuse attack can stumble and the Orange defense can gradually be cracked.

The two teams meet again at noon Saturday in the Big East tournament championship after Syracuse thrashed Notre Dame 9-3 and Villanova beat Georgetown 15-12 in their respective semifinals on Thursday.

Now the host Wildcats play for their NCAA tournament lives in Villanova Stadium while Syracuse plays for revenge, and seeding. Both start and end at the X. There, SU has to combat Thomas Croonquist’s dominance with an improved performance from first-choice Chris Daddio, the added depth of Cal Paduda and stellar wing play.

“Our wings are going to have to do a tremendous job,” SU defender Brian Megill said. “They’re going to have to have the game of their lives.”

In the first matchup, Croonquist was nearly unstoppable. He won 22-of-24 draws in that game, played on his birthday, taking 12-of-14 against Daddio and all of the remaining 10 against Brendan Conroy and Megill in VU’s 11-10 upset win – just its second of the season at the time.

On the rare occasions Daddio popped the ball back to his teammates, they were beaten to the ball by Villanova’s wings. On the even rarer occasions when an SU player was first to the ball, he’d have it checked out of his stick, often by John LoCascio who caused four turnovers and snared six ground balls.

A miserably silent SU bus ride ensued. But it’s not a night Daddio wants to forget.

“We want to just keep it ingrained in the back of our head and remember,” Daddio said. “I just think that was a mistake that should never happen.’”

In March, Croonquist routinely popped the ball between Daddio’s legs, bowled over top of him and sprinted downfield either for quick-strike goals or long stretches of possession that frustrated SU’s otherwise hyper-efficient attack.

When the Wildcats’ wings got the jump on SU’s, there was no time to catch up. Either Croonquist was already breaking on goal with the ball or it was rolling into a VU stick. SU head coach John Desko said Daddio will start again Saturday, but in March, Syracuse was crucially without Cal Paduda.

Paduda stars at tying up opposing faceoff specialists, allowing his wings to catch up and crash in to create a more 50-50 fight for possession.

“That’s basically what he does, and now you turn it into a little bit more wing play,” Desko said. “And you try to get the ball out to either your short stick or your long stick and get it to your attack.”

But Croonquist didn’t know Paduda’s name on Friday. The freshman X man missed the regular season matchup while attending a funeral. Saturday, he’s expected to prolong faceoff duels to allow SU wings like Henry Schoonmaker to dive into the play and guard the ball from LoCascio.

And while Villanova head coach Michael Corrado said his team has film on every SU player from the past seven or eight games, he expects his players to adjust on the fly to whatever alternatives Syracuse throws out for faceoffs.

VU has no built-in adjustments should Paduda enter the game, Corrado said.

“He’s someone that our guy – I think they’ll figure out as they go up against him,” Corrado said.

This is the matchup Syracuse wanted. JoJo Marasco said it Thursday between the Orange’s 9-3 win over Notre Dame and VU’s semifinal matchup with Georgetown.

SU’s sharpened its faceoff setups in the past two weeks, drilling communication between its specialists and wings. The Orange knows if it can just stay competitive at the X – Paduda said SU’s shooting for 50 percent – then it should win.

Syracuse is simply too good everywhere else.

“It’s more confidence,” Paduda said. “We know that if our offense and defense plays like they have recently then our wing guys are going to help us out, and we’ll be able to do our job tomorrow.”

Published on May 3, 2013 at 6:40 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_