May 21, 2006
BUD POLIQUIN
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST http://www.syracuse.com/
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It was an NCAA Division II semifinal affair, with the winner advancing to next weekend's championship bout at Philadelphia's swank Lincoln Financial Field, home of the good and great Donovan McNabb.
So, the logical assumption was that this was going to be, in context, a Godzilla-vs.-Mothra kind of deal.
And why not think that way? Le Moyne and Limestone, alliteratively mixed but not joyfully matched, had played each other four times over these past four seasons . . . and three of the contests had been decided by a single goal.
As such, Saturday afternoon's cold-and-clammy lacrosse scrum - witnessed by 1,381 hardy souls who must have descended from ducks - figured to produce more of the same. You know, tautness . . . acrimony . . . and some serious gnawing of fingernails in that final frenzied minute or so.
Yeah, right. And the moon is made of cottage cheese.
"This," said Le Moyne's Kevin Kohl, "was a mixture of revenge and preparation and all that stuff. The story has to be all about us. We really played our most complete game of the year. I mean, it all came together today."
Like a dropped bowling ball hitting a big toe.
The final score was 22-3, which meant the Dolphins turned the visiting Saints - who'd appeared in six consecutive Division II title affairs - into just another American International or Assumption or Franklin Pierce, three outfits pounded earlier this season by a cumulative 63-4.
Twenty-two . . . to . . . three. Imagine that.
And imagine this, too: If Le Moyne had scored half as many goals and if Limestone, young and thinned by a couple of key expulsions, had tripled its output, the Dolphins would still be bound for Philly.
"I had the feeling all week," said Nate Evans, another of the Fish. "We just had an attitude. After that first quarter, it was what? Seven-to-nothing? That's when I knew. We were holding strong on defense, and they didn't have a lot of personnel to have legs. They were getting tired. I knew we were taking them right then."
The win improved Le Moyne, which has outscored its poor foes by a remarkable 250-61, to 17-0 this season. More stunning than even that, Dolphin seniors such as Evans are now 61-2 across their four years on The Heights, which pretty much has made them the wind and the rest of Division II little more than a screen door.
"That's why I came here," admitted Evans. "When I was in high school, I never liked losing and I knew that this was a great program. And I knew that at Le Moyne you always have a chance to play in a place like Philadelphia at the end of the season, which is what we're going to do now. You can't pass that up."
That Evans and his pals so easily handled Limestone, which defeated the Dolphins on the same Syracuse pitch in the 2005 semis, simply provided more recruiting fodder for the home club. But then, with Le Moyne outshooting the Saints 52-18 . . . and with Le Moyne outdueling the Saints in faceoffs 24-4 . . . and with Le Moyne placing 11 guys in the scoring column to the Saints' four . . . how could this thing have been too much different than 22-3?
Simply, it was a rout, a mismatch, a stampede with sticks. And Kohl and Evans - 400-plus pounds of defensive midfielders, the former from Liverpool, the latter from Canandaigua - had nearly as much to do with it as Mike McDonald, the sophomore who scored seven Dolphins goals.
They may be grunts, sure. They may be the lacrosse equivalent of offensive tackles. They may have combined for all of six goals (including one by Evans against the Saints) and two assists in Le Moyne's 17 games. But understand that winning would be a whole lot more difficult without Kohl and Evans on the wall for the Fish.
"We play defense with three less feet of stick," said Kohl, a junior who'll greatly miss Evans next season. "It's a little bit tougher that way. You have to have quicker feet. One-on-one defense is harder with a shorter stick in your hands."
"People appreciate us," said Evans. "People come up to us constantly and tell us how important we are to the team. All the parents beyond our parents. The coaches. The guys. Everybody. And that's all we care about. We just want to win."
Redundant as it has become for the Dolphins, they did that again on Saturday. And now, they are off to Philadelphia as either Godzilla or Mothra. Or maybe, as the Limestone Saints might swear, as both.
Bud Poliquin's column appears regularly in The Post-Standard (http://www.syracuse.com)and his blog is freshly written every weekday at http://www.syracuse.com. He can be heard on Sports Radio 620 WHEN (AM 620) Mondays through Thursdays between 5-7 p.m. and on the BudCast at http://www.syracuse.com/chatradio every Friday between 12-12:30 p.m.
