When Syracuse needed a faceoff win against Johns Hopkins to start overtime last Saturday, it turned to the senior who’s delivered many times before.

Ben Williams, one of college lacrosse’s elite talents at the X, had won only 3-of-11 there in the second half as the Blue Jays clawed back from a four-goal SU run to take a late one-goal lead. But senior Nick Mariano tied the game at eight with 34 seconds left, and now Williams had a chance with a critical possession on the line against JHU’s Hunter Moreland: a player Williams’ father, David Williams, called his son’s “kryptonite.”

JHU hadn’t planned on using Moreland, who had been injured, but a 5-for-6 first-half deficit at the X forced the Blue Jays into doing it just to compete. It didn’t matter in the end. Syracuse’s all-time program leader in groundballs quickly flicked the faceoff out from under Moreland and scooped it up to jumpstart an offense that gave SU the only offensive possession in OT.

“It all starts with Ben Williams,” said JHU coach Dave Pietramala. “The one game (Syracuse) loses, he’s not there. That’s his level of importance.”

Williams has either sealed games or provided the No. 6 Orange (5-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) with the last possession four times this season, most recently in a 9-8 win over the Blue Jays. But because of a midseason injury that caused Williams to miss the first game of his SU career, an 14-13 loss on Feb. 25 against Army, he’s not posting the eye-popping statistical draw number he’s used to. His 58.6 percent winning percentage is good for 21st in the NCAA, and he faces a formidable foe in No. 11 Duke’s (7-2) FOGO senior Kyle Rowe on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

“I just try to get us the ball,” Williams said. “I want to put us in the best chance to win.”

On Saturday, that means defeating Rowe, who has succeeded against Williams in the past. Williams won 14 of 25 in last year’s ACC Championship, but before he lost 16 of 28 to Rowe in a Syracuse early season overtime loss.

Williams will also do it despite still feeling a little sore, he said on March 16, because of an injury he sustained earlier in the season. In his absence, longtime backup FOGO Cal Paduda entered but his 3-of-13 performance quickly moved him back onto the wing. Freshman Danny Varello came on and nearly scooped the Orange back into the game. His 10-of-17 mark inspired confidence for the Orange’s coaches and ensured that SU could be OK.

But, really, no one replaces Williams’ skill on the faceoff, or perhaps his toughness.

“I’m always talking with Benny when Benny’s not in his psychopathic game day mood,” Varello said. “He’s a good guy. … The first time I’ve ever seen Ben pregame was before Siena, and he was in the locker room putting on eye black. And he’s just smearing it all over his face and he’s saying like ‘Oops, oops,’ smearing it all over his face. I look at him like ‘What is this guy doing?’ I get my two stripes, I’m out of there.”

Williams prides himself on simply being tougher than his opponent and dominating physically at the X. He made it to Division I from the uncommon lacrosse locale of Minnesota, and he hasn’t lost the edge he sharpened getting here. That’s why, no matter how his body feels or who lines up across from him, he approaches every faceoff with his physicality and rides with the results.

“There are no secrets with Ben,” Desko said. “Everybody knows who he is in the scouting report and they’ll come up with some gimmicks to slow him down and he’ll be ready for it.”

Published on March 23, 2017 at 12:00 am

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR