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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 25, 2013John DeskoDominic LamolinaraDerek MaltzJojo MarascoPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Syracuse – 9 JOE DESKO: I'd first like to congratulate Denver on the year they've had. We watched a lot of film on them and how much they've improved from their first game to their last game, and I thought they played maybe their best game tonight. I thought their defense was terrific, goalie was standing on his head especially in the first half, and I thought the second goalie did a great job, too. Fortunately we found some composure and a couple answers at the offensive end to score some goals at the end of the game, and their defense was just very good all game long, and my hats off to Bill Tierney and his staff. I've known Bill for a long time. They're really noted for the defense and what he's brought to the game, and congratulations to him and the Denver Pioneers for coming as far as they have in all their wins this year. Our guys, it's our 10th one‑goal game, and unfortunately I'm almost getting used to it, but we keep coming out on the right side of it. I think these guys up here have done a terrific job, and to keep their composure and play the way we did at the end of the game, and the way the defense played in the second half was very good, also, and Dom was good in the cage at the end, too. We look forward to playing Duke on Monday at 1:00. Q. Derek, take us through the last play of the game that led to the winning goal? DEREK MALTZ: I think that we worked all week on what if JoJo gets shut off, and Luke had a terrific game, so he took the ball hard to the cage. The ball trickled off the goalie's chest and I was basically just in the right spot at the right time, and I'm just thankful that the ball went in the back of the net and we're moving on to Monday. Q. JoJo, what does this mean for you being a senior, you and the senior class finally advancing to the National Championship which is probably what most players come to Syracuse to do? JOJO MARASCO: Yeah, it's been a goal since I first picked up a lacrosse stick. I always wanted to come to Syracuse. I can't say enough about this team this year coming back in so many close games. It's just a great feeling right now, and right now it's just we're going with it and then tomorrow we've got to wake up and prepare for Duke. But all around really happy for the team again and just really excited to play on Monday. Q. How do you guys manage the emotion of a game like this even though you've been through this time and time again? This one obviously has bigger ramifications than any of the ones in the past, and take us through the communication between the players on the field in the middle of the rally. JOJO MARASCO: You know, just getting in the huddle, the coaches calm us down. You know they've been here so many times and they know exactly what to say and once that happens we kind of relax and as a player, I think it starts with the leadership of some guys from Steve Ianzito and Brian Megil, and these guys really stepping up and we've been in so many close games. They know that they're going to get us the ball on defense and we trust them on offense, and we tell them if you get us the ball, we're going to put the ball in the back of the net and they did that exactly, and at the end they closed out for us, the defense, and that's huge for us. It's just all‑around, just kind of staying relaxed and knowing that we trust everyone on the field and we just have a lot of faith and we believe in ourselves, and I think that's why we've been able to come out on top in so many close games. Q. JoJo or Derek, when a guy is in the cage early and he's robbing you left and right and you come out and you see a different guy to start the second half, do you notice it? Is there a sense of relief or kind of what did you think? JOJO MARASCO: To be honest I was shocked when they made a goalie switch, but they've been doing it all year and we prepared for that all week. When that goalie was making all those saves, the coaches just kept telling us to keep shooting. I think that's the only thing that you can do and they're going to fall. Luckily we had some big goals and some key moments to get us to advance to Monday. Q. Dom, after the third Denver goal it looked like Brian pulled you guys together and had some choice words in the huddle? DOMINIC LAMOLINARA: He just told using to be patient and talk through everything. I think what happened there was, I think it was Pratt who was getting rolled back and forth and we knew that kid was a rice, we knew he was going to eventually come back to his right and we should have had a slide there but nobody was there so we just wanted to get on the same page, see who was supposed to slide, and I think from there on we had the slides when we needed them to, and the talk just got a lot better. Q. JoJo, teams have kind of made a point to try to shut you off lately. You had five points today. What soaped up for you today? JOJO MARASCO: They were switching on all their picks or any time I was even dodging, I got a lot of short sticks and I guess they trusted their defensive middies to cover me, and they weren't really sliding and then I was able to make a good enough move to make them kind of show and then guys all year like‑‑ you know, you've got Luke Cometti and Derek Maltz getting open so much and even guys ‑‑ you know, Scott Lloyd break out the backside, I was just able to see these guys all game, and I really try to be as unselfish as I can and these guys are great shooters and I really trust them, and it's been working out all year, and hopefully it can for one more game. Q. JoJo, being in these one‑goal game situations before, did that help you guys today having been in these situations before, handle the pressure? JOJO MARASCO: We really don't enjoy these one‑goal games. Going into the fourth quarter we've had some close shots. Goalie made one unbelievable save on Derek and then it goes the other way and they score on a couple posts that we had and then they score. Just going to the fourth quarter we just knew that all we needed was the ball. Our face‑off guy Cal came up big and some big wing play, too, plays from Matt Harris and Peter McCartney. We've been so relaxed because we've been playing these games so many times that it just felt like another game. Going out on offense even at the end we tell ourselves we're not going to overtime, let's send this one home early, and just believing in each other, and I think that's been the key to our team all year. Q. JoJo, as a Syracuse player is there pressure either internally to make it to a championship game how do you handle that? JOJO MARASCO: Yeah, I went to Syracuse because they played in the Final Four so many times, and we have 11 National Championships. That's why you go to play there, unbelievable coaches and great team spirit and when you step on that field every time you're playing for the fans, Syracuse community, your families, everyone. It's just expected, and I think that's why we've been here so many times, because we play so hard, and the talent is just‑‑ it rises every time in close games, especially when it comes down to the last four teams in the Final Four. To finally make it here is huge as a senior, and we're really going to get after it tomorrow for focusing on Duke, and hopefully we can pull one out. Q. Coach, Sean Young shut down another great Canadian player. Is it safe to say that's almost his mantra now? JOE DESKO: Well, being from Canada himself, I think he's used to it, covering certain styles. I think he's taken a lot of pride. He's been given an individual match‑up many times playing a player that is mostly an off‑ball player, so he really takes a lot of pride in it, he rises to the occasion. I think the rest of the defense knows his role and can make slides and doubles from different positions knowing that he has a certain responsibility on the field. But he's done a great job with it all year long. Q. Dom, you made two saves in the first half and then came out and made six in the second, some of which were pretty tough and tight. Did you just settle down or what changed for you? DOMINIC LAMOLINARA: I feel like the shots they were getting in the first half were pretty good. I should have had‑‑ I believe there was a fifth one where Cameron Flint came down the alley. But I settled down, talked to my teammates at halftime and they got my confidence back up. That's really what's great about Syracuse is whenever anybody is having an off day you can count on your brothers to pick you up, and that's what they did. I knew the offense was going to make their plays, so I just needed to limit the defensive opportunities, and that's what happened, and it worked out. Q. JoJo, you guys have six goals now in the last three minutes of the last two games. What has happened in the last couple minutes that's allowed you guys to finally get the offense going? JOJO MARASCO: I feel like every game we get these goalies who have been playing amazing, guys making huge plays from Matt Harris in the wing and those little checks that get us the ball in crunch time. We tied it up and then we got the ball again. We won a face‑off, and that's just incredible. These guys, when it's time to step up, they do.  I think just our patience on offense has been so key this year and in these last two games we just had to really relax out there. We knew they were going to find the open shots, we just have to just relax and hopefully one guy will pop out and take a great shot, and that's what happened the past two games. Q. Derek, you guys have had some games where you've struggled on face‑offs in particular, and here you have one where last possession is on that last face‑off. What's running through your mind as everybody is getting set up for that thing? DEREK MALTZ: You know, I'm pretty confident in all of our face‑off guys, and Cal gets in there and just made a great play, and our wing guys like JoJo said, Matt Harris in my opinion is one of the most underrated players in the country, has had a heck of a tournament so far and just an unbelievable game. Getting ground balls, making plays, and when him and 'Zito or Pratt or Peter McCartney, any of these guys on the wing, I'm pretty confident that we're going to get the ball in crunch time. We got the ball, and you're looking at in my opinion the best player in the country and when he gets the ball on the stick he's going to make something happen. Those guys that we had at the wings and doing a good job all day controlling Carraro, I was pretty confident, and luckily it turned out the way we wanted it to. Q. Coach, you shut down Wes Berg who was having a great tournament thus far. Was that by design or just how the pieces kind of fell into place? JOE DESKO: Well, it worked out that way fortunately. Young did a great job on him. We saw in many of the film, especially the last few games, they really look to him, a lot of things they do, carrying the ball, they try to shake him free off the ball. So we made him a focus, and hurt us a couple times because they put him in slide situations where we're supposed to leave him and go help out the dodger with the ball. So it cost us a couple, but I think he was one of our main focuses going into the game. Q. While a lot of people will say that you guys don't have one player in particular who stands out among the rest, it seems like JoJo has put the team on his back at critical points in the season, including the last two games really becoming involved in a lot of the important goals. Talk about JoJo and what he's been able to do this season, especially in crunch time? JOE DESKO: Well, he's made such a big change and jump from a year ago. A year ago I think you'd probably look at his stats, you'd see a number of turnovers in his category. He's got a fraction of the turnovers that he had a year ago. He's one of the captains again. I mention turnovers only because in the past he had those because he was trying so hard trying to make something happen and trying to help the team win, and this year it's just all come together for him. He's a feeder so a big goal at the end of the game when we were man up and we scored, and I think the other players on the team know that when JoJo has the ball and stick they work extra hard to get open because if they do, they know he's going to find them and get them the ball. Like we've seen these last few games, it's been great to have him on the field with all of the experience he has and to make such big plays. Q. How big was it to have Steve Ianzito out there on the field today? JOE DESKO: It was great. He's been one of our strengths. If you follow lacrosse most teams are going to attack the short stick because that's your defensive end of the field, and he's been tested all year, and I think Troy Gerlt and our trainers did a great job of getting him healthy and getting him back because even yesterday he just practiced kind of a half a practice, and for him to be able to go the whole way was great for our defense, especially getting those stops in the second half. Q. Earlier Coach Tierney said that there's no Powells, there's no Gates out there. What is it that makes this team tick? JOE DESKO: Well, I think we were rated anywhere between 14 and 17 to start the year off, and frankly myself, with the season we had a year ago and the number of losses, and with some of the kids that we had graduated, I could see polls or coaches voting us in that category. But especially this senior group took it personally and they thought they were better than that, and they've worked really hard, the seniors and the captains have really been great for us on the field, off the field, in the classroom. So I'm proud of what they've been able to achieve so far. We've worked very hard, they've worked very hard and have gotten better every week, and like I mentioned earlier, this is our 10th one‑goal game and I think a lot of it has to do with their work ethic, their composure and their ability to produce at the end of the game. Q. What can you say about Dom in the second half? He didn't make too many big saves in the first half but in the second half he stopped a few that were in tight, some tough saves. JOE DESKO: Yeah, he's been doing that, especially these last few games. I think that if you watched our Yale game he had a big one‑on‑one save at the end of the game, or we might not have been here being able to play today. And I think the second half you saw him play pretty well. We weren't giving him a lot of help in the first half, and their goalie, as we mentioned, was saving everything, so we were putting all our pressure on our defense. In the second half, I think he really came alive and saw the ball very well. He's very good in the clear and he's a great communicator, which a lot of people know the quarterback position in football because he's calling everything out, he's calling the plays, and in our game the goalie is calling out the defenses and communicating to the rest of the defense on who should be making slides or double teaming the ball, and he does that very well. Q. I know it's what they've done all season, but are you surprised when you see Denver pull LaPlante at halftime? JOE DESKO: No, I know Bill personally and we've watched them a lot on film, and I think somebody asked him after his last game if he would do that, and I think it's predetermined the goalies‑‑ there's a mindset with goalies, you know you're going in for one half and the other guy is going in for the second half, and they mentally prepare for that. Sometimes to leave your goalie in after the first half when we've been switching all year long, all of a sudden it changes their mindset, too. So I think it's something they've done, and I thought he came in the second half and he made some big saves, too. Q. On the last face‑off that Denver won, did you expect if they won this they would take so long to call a time‑out? JOE DESKO: Well, if you've watched Denver they get a lot of offense off of that, and he's not just a face‑off man, he'll get it and he'll go to the goal. He's scored a number of goals off the face off this year. I'm not really surprised. I think their first option was to see if he could dodge, and they probably had a play set up for Berg or someone else coming off a pick, and the way we played him we weren't going to let him get open today. We probably wanted to take it a little bit quicker but they still had enough time to dodge, throw it behind and get a feed off to the inside. Q. Just to follow up on Steven Ianzito, just over two minutes left, you had pulled within one, Denver wins the face off and then he comes with that big check to knock the ball free that gives you the ball back and you end up tying the game. Can you talk about that play in particular and how that kind of defines what Steve is all about? JOE DESKO: Yes. You know, a lot of times when you miss so much practice‑‑ he didn't practice this week, and a lot of it was because of the injury and he needed treatments, and we needed to bring him along slowly so we didn't reinjure his injury. A lot of times someone after not practicing all week they get out there in the game and they've got to work the rust out, and they lost some conditioning, too. So for him at the end of the game to still have enough juice left to make a big play like that is a lot of heart. We go by head, heart and hustle, and he had a lot of it today. Q. What would you take away from this game as you get ready to play Duke on Monday? JOE DESKO: You know, the same thing we've taken out of the last few games. They've been very similar, and I think we're at a point now where we don't even have to really talk about how we won the game or how we played at the end because that's just what we do. So I think we're just going to get together. We'll get together as coaches after this and watch a little more. Duke, the assistant coaches were up in the press box watching and trying to get a scouting report together, and we'll discuss that tonight. We have very little time. We haven't played them this year so we don't know them like some of the other opponents that we have played, and vice versa for them. As a matter of fact for them they were probably scouting Denver so we probably have an advantage. They probably flipped their books over and focused more on them thinking they were going to be the winners. We'll get together tonight and tomorrow and try to get as much information to the team in the next 48 hours here so that we know who they are going into Monday's game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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