How minor-league is the country's only professional lacrosse league?

The Syracuse Smash lost to the New York Saints 15-14 Saturday night before an announced crowd of 4,044 at the Onondaga County War Memorial. It was the Smash's 18th loss in 22 National Lacrosse League tries spanning two seasons.

The story of Syracuse's sixth consecutive loss began long before the opening faceoff, though. Thursday morning, to be precise, when Smash owner Howard Dolgon got involved in a three-team deal involving Buffalo and New York. Draft choices and minor players aside, the Smash sent second-leading scorer Mike Benedict to Buffalo, which sent Chris Panos to New York, which sent former West Genesee star Eric Seremet to Syracuse.

Panos was in uniform for the Saints on Saturday night, scoring a first-half goal, and Benedict presumably was playing for Buffalo. But Seremet was not in uniform for the Smash, nor was he during Friday night's 19-12 loss in Toronto. He was in Virginia with the Stony Brook lacrosse team, for which he is an assistant coach.

"The trade was made for the future," Dolgon said. "He's going to be here for a long time playing with Paul Gait. Plus, we got a first-round draft choice."

But did the owner know when he made the deal that Seremet wasn't going to be around when the Smash's slim playoff hopes expired?

"No," Dolgon said.

That's the way it goes in this league, at least for the Smash (2-8), which was without Seremet, Benedict and two more of its best offensive players, Ed Fay and Chris Prat, who are injured.

Paul Gait (five goals, four assists) and Del Halladay (three goals, six assists) did their best to snap the team out of its long skid, and the rest of the Smash played with spunk from start to finish. Syracuse even grabbed a 14-13 lead - its first since 1-0 - on Jim Morrissey's bullet with 5 minutes, 26 seconds to play, but New York (5-5) responded with goals by Darren Lowe and Game MVP Mark Millon 41 seconds apart to secure the victory.

Syracuse had possession and took timeout with 14 seconds to play to get goalie Jim Rankin off the field for an extra attacker, and Jeff Klodzen slipped around the net and out front for a clean shot, but it was into the pads of Saints goalie Sal Locasio.

"This team is just snake-bitten," Dolgon said.

"It's like we're playing under a cloud," player-coach Steve Scaramuzzino added.

The Smash coaches and players blamed part of that dark cloud on the referees, which penalized the team four times for having too many men on the field. Twice, New York scored on the ensuing power play.

With an away game at league-leading Baltimore and a home game with Buffalo remaining, the Smash could again finish 2-10.

At least Benedict will be back for the Buffalo game. Oh yeah, he'll be playing for the Bandits.

"Let the coach coach," said the banner that was hung before the game. Rumor was that Smash owner Howard Dolgon was making decisions about how the team should be coached. Two tired teams took the field. Both played the night before and it showed with sloppy play in a first quarter that had the Saints up four to one. The Smash still has problems getting people on and off the field, getting penalized at least four times for six men on the field. New York took advantage scoring on two of these.

Smash tied it up on a double power play with 6:42 left in the fourth, but had the go-ahead goal called back a thirty second violation. Jim Morrissey did score for Syracuse with 5:24 remaining, but Darren Lowe and Mark Millon countered to win the game.

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4     TOT
New York Saints (5-5)             4  5  3  3  --  15
Syracuse Smash (2-8)              1  5  5  3  --  14

NEW YORK SAINTS               SYRACUSE SMASH
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
M Millon       4 - 1     5    Gait           5 - 2     7
Lowe           3 - 2     5    Halladay       3 - 3     6
Miller         2 - 1     3    Powless        1 - 2     3
Panetta        1 - 2     3    Accursi        1 - 1     2
Wulder         1 - 2     3    Alexander      1 - 1     2
Colsey         2 - 0     2    Morrissey      1 - 1     2
Panos          1 - 0     1    Jones          1 - 0     1
Purdie         1 - 0     1    Shenandoah     1 - 0     1
Gagliardi      0 - 1     1    Lockwood       0 - 1     1
McCabe         0 - 1     1    T Millon       0 - 1     1
Sombrotto      0 - 1     1    Oudemool       0 - 1     1
                              Rankin         0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           59    Shots on goal           47
Saves made by           37    Saves made by           44
   LoCascio                      Rankin

*** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH SYRACUSE SMASH ***