May 27, 2000

NCAA SEMIFINAL - Syracuse vs. Johns Hopkins

May 27, 2000 - Byrd Stadium (College Park, Md.)

SYRACUSE HEAD COACH JOHN DESKO ON MAN-DOWN DEFENSE: "I think man-down was huge. Rob Mulligan and the man-down unit really did a nice job, especially on the backside. Hopkins likes to skip the ball from the backside because they do such a great job. Dan Denihan's done a great job, especially the second half of the season in becoming a feeder. To stop (the man-down situations), especially when the game was tied, was huge."

RYAN POWELL ON MIKE SPRINGER'S GOAL TO PUT SYRACUSE UP 13-12: "I was protecting my stick with my body and tried to bull my way in there a little bit by leaning into the cross-check. Even when I threw the pass to Mike, I didn't like it right from the start. I said, 'Oh shoot,' because Mike was covered pretty well. He managed to squeeze by the defenseman and made a great catch and just beat his defenseman and got a great shot off."

DESKO ON FACE-OFF SPECIALIST CHRIS CERCY: "He's gotten better at picking (the ball) up. To get a couple goals out of Chris was huge. It just makes him more dangerous. . To give our offense more opportunities than the other team with those possessions is very big."

CHRIS CERCY ON HIS TWO GOALS: "I had a feeling they were going to hold, which means not slide to me, because we have three of the best attackmen in the country and it's better off (for the defense) in my hands than theirs. I just faked one low (on Hopkins goalie Brian Carcaterra) and just put in up high and it was there. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd score two goals in the final four. It was a great surprise and a great feeling. It gives me a lot of confidence."

JOHNS HOPKINS HEAD COACH JOHN HAUS ON THE OUTCOME: "My team is in a lot of pain right now. They did everything I have asked them to do from Day One. They were focused and they represented our university very well. The way I look at it, it's time for the coach to step up and get the team to the next level. It's all about the players. I feel for them, because of the effort they put in, not to end up in the championship game. It's not their fault. That's my job to get them there and I didn't do it."

BRIAN CARCATERRA ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND HALVES: "We buckled down and committed to playing solid defense after the first quarter. Coach made some great adjustments. With the exception of those last two goals I thought our defense really stepped up. We were pretty fired up from the beginning but Syracuse is a great shooting team."

CARCATERRA ON SYRACUSE'S GOAL THAT GAVE THEM A 13-12 LEAD: "I thought Ryan Powell was making a move to the pipe and I focused my attention on him. But then he laid the ball into Mike Springer. He's about 6-4 anyway and then he leaped up in the air and managed to fit it right under the crossbar."

TIM MUIR ON HIS FIRST CAREER GOAL WHICH TIED THE SCORE 12-12: "It was incredible, a dream come true. I was moved up to the midfield line a couple of weeks ago and my coaches and teammates all had confidence in me. I saw an opening, I took it and it paid off."

CARCATERRA ON HIS SAVE IN THE FOURTH QUARTER WHICH PREVENTED A 13-11 SYRACUSE LEAD: "When Ryan Powell got on my left side, I didn't expect him to feed it right away. Basically I just threw my stick out there. (The save) wasn't anything special, it just happened."

ADAM DONEGER ON HIS TEAM'S EFFORT: "We kept fighting back even though we couldn't ever take the lead. We were confident throughout the game and we kept plugging away. Once they scored to go up by two goals, that pretty much sealed it. But there was no quitting on our team. We gave it our all."