Fourteen days ago, Hansen Woodruff sat on the bench and stared at his teammates as they prepared for their Big East opener against Marquette. When they were done with practice, he hobbled off the field with cellophane tightly wrapped around his knee holding a bag of ice in place.

Fourteen days ago, head coach Dean Foti didn’t know if the team’s leading scorer from a year ago would be ready for the Golden Eagles, calling the injury day-to-day.

But 14 day-to-days later, Woodruff hobbled out of Manley Field House the same way – a large bag of ice tightly pressed on the his knee wrapped with cellophane.

Woodruff is a question mark to play this weekend when the Orange flies to Tampa, Fla., to face No. 13 South Florida today.

He wasn’t available to comment yesterday, but last week didn’t appear too troubled by his current ailment.

‘(I’m) pretty close to (100 percent),’ Woodruff said. ‘It’s nothing serious.’

As to why he wasn’t in the lineup against Marquette or then No. 3 Notre Dame? Simple. A coaching decision.

‘I mean (Foti) picked the lineup a certain way we got the job done (against Marquette),’ Woodruff said. ‘And I sat out (against Notre Dame). Things weren’t going well but that’s what happens. I don’t argue with any decision.’

Whether it was a coaching decision to leave his best player on the bench for the last four games, or Woodruff’s knee is substantially hurt, SU has had to play without him.

‘Hansen is one of our best players and he’s definitely one of the most needed players on the field,’ said junior Tom Perevegyencev, the team’s leading scorer. ‘But I felt like we were able to so far fill in the huge gap that he left.’

Syracuse (5-2-2, 2-2-0 Big East) has switched up its formations with Woodruff’s sidelined, although the players didn’t want to elaborate on the formation to give anything away. But playing well without one of its best players (Syracuse beat then No. 20 Providence Friday before falling in overtime to then No. 5 Connecticut Sunday) has given the team a shot of reassurance.

‘It’s been a great kind of confidence-boost for everyone on the team because everyone realizes despite not having (Woodruff), we can still play good soccer,’ Foti said.

In the four games against conference foes – without Woodruff – the Orange has faced three top 25 opponents, going 2-2. Spencer Schomaker, Nick Olivetti and Justin Arena scored their first goals of the year since Woodruff has been sidelined. Schomaker found the back of the net in a 1-0 win over Marquette, Sept. 19.

Olivetti, a redshirt freshmen tallied the first goal of his career and added an assist in a 3-0 shellacking of then-No. 20 Providence. Arena also contributed with a goal and an assist in the upset.

‘There are other players on the team that are just as good,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘They’re stepping up and providing as much assistance as Hansen could so we have a lot of other players that are good enough to help us out.’

Syracuse actually played its best game of the year with Woodruff out last Sunday against the Huskies. Even though the Orange lost 1-0 in double-overtime, Foti and his players all agreed it was their best effort yet as a unit.

There hasn’t been a major drop off because throughout the year the Orange has been using multiple players at different positions.

‘If there’s one guy that’s playing 90 minutes every game and you lose him, that’s one thing, but the way we were kind of moving people around and using a lot of different guys, it lessens the impact,’ Foti said.

There hasn’t been a devastating difference, but the offensive output has fell without Woodruff. In the first five games with the forward, SU was shut out once against Monmouth, a game the team admitted it came out flat against in the first half. In the last four games without Woodruff, the Orange has been blanked in half of them.

Syracuse is facing much better competition though in Big East play, so the decline may be a combination of the two.

With no exact information when Woodruff will return, the team has to wait until game day to see if he’ll be in the lineup.

‘Oh it’s a great feeling you know, we have another great player coming back and just adding to our equation,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘We’ve been playing well, once again but with him he’s going to add a little more spark to it.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on October 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm