M. Lax set for goliath game

Call it a modern day David vs. Goliath. After all, the Syracuse lacrosse team has become synonymous with national championships, No. 1 rankings and general dominance over collegiate lacrosse. Penn, on the other hand, is still trudging along the road to recovery, trying to recapture the national respect it had in the mid-1980s. On paper, this matchup seems altogether one-sided. However, this has been the year of the mighty ones falling. Witness Notre Dame's last-second defeat at the hands and feet of Boston College, and North Carolina's early exit from the NCAA tournament. Can you spell upset? It may take a miracle for the Quakers (4-5) to defeat the vaunted Orangemen (9-1) 1 p.m. tomorrow at Franklin Field, but they plan on giving their guests an unfriendly welcome. This is a Penn team which at times plays like a perennial Top 20 squad -- defeating Cornell and losing to No. 19 Harvard in overtime -- but suffers lapses that have been pivotal in its defeats. "We have to play a near-perfect lacrosse game," junior midfielder Alex Goodman said. "If we turn the ball over 10 times, we're in trouble. But we have played Top 20 teams all year and have the players to keep up with them." The Orangemen have been a symbol of lacrosse excellence for the past decade, having been a fixture in the Top 20 since May 1982. They are the only Division I school other than Johns Hopkins to have notched more than 600 wins, and boast perhaps the finest tradition in the nation. Syracuse coach Roy Simmons Jr. is the only lacrosse coach to win five NCAA Division I championships. Tuesday night, Syracuse, ranked No. 3 in the USILA poll, made a strong bid to reclaim its familiar No. 1 ranking. It defeated top-ranked Loyola College 16-10 at the Carrier Dome. "They're as good as it gets," Penn head coach G.W. Mix said. "With all of the championships that they've won, they're far and away the best lacrosse program in the country." The Orangemen feature a team loaded with talent, and deep enough to run opponents into the ground. They are 6-1 this season against Top 20 opponents, their lone loss a 19-14 defeat at Johns Hopkins. Syracuse features a midfield line boasting three all-Americans. The line is lead by Charlie Lockwood, who is one of only two underclassmen on Team USA -- comprised of the top 26 players in the country (collegiate and professional). Lockwood recently entered the top 15 in goal scoring at Syracuse, and is second on the team with 37 points on the season. Joining Lockwood are Roy Colsey and Dom Fin. Colsey is leading the Orangemen with 38 points (28 goals) and Fin led Syracuse with four goals and two assists in its victory over Loyola. Both Colsey and Fin are considered to be among the top players in the nation. Penn enters the contest coming off of a hard fought 13-9 loss to No. 8 Brown. Sophomore attackman Andy Crofton led the Quakers with three goals and two assists, placing him at the top of the Ivy scoring chart with 20 points. After battling Syracuse, Penn will close its season with three important games -- Yale, Drexel and No. 14 Georgetown. Amidst a season of building and learning a strong game against the storied Orangemen could be the performance the Quakers need to boost their stock at the national level. "This is the kind of challenge you look forward to, the kind of opportunity where -- if you've been playing lacrosse for a long time -- you dream about," Mix said. "This is a great chance to see how they match up against undeniably the best lacrosse players in the country." Penn has been playing Top 20 teams all season, four of the team's five losses have come against ranked opponents. Now comes the ultimate challenge. Maybe they'll pass out some slingshots at Franklin Field.