UPDATED: April 20, 2018 at 11:06 a.m.

Danny Varello heard the thundering coming from downstairs as his brother, Joseph, raced from his bedroom. It was an August morning in 2017 as Danny and his mother, Joann, sat in their kitchen in Kings Park. The boys’ father, Joe, wasn’t home yet, but Joseph had to spill the news.

Danny, a sophomore faceoff specialist at Syracuse, and Joseph, a redshirt senior who played the same position for Navy, had known of a potential scrimmage between their two teams before the upcoming 2018 season. But Joseph heard otherwise.

“There’s not going to be a scrimmage,” Joseph told Danny and Joann, as his brother’s face sank in disappointment.

“It’s going to be a game,” Joseph said.

That announcement eight months ago delivered shockwaves through the Varello household. The game will be a culmination of the brothers’ lacrosse careers. Joseph is in his final regular season game and Danny will face off against the man who inspired him to play.

As Saturday’s matchup in the Carrier Dome between No. 9 Syracuse (7-4, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) and No. 14 Navy (8-4, 7-1 Patriot League) approaches, the hype surrounding the two brothers has never been higher.

On paper, Joseph is the favorite. He ranks 14th in the country, winning 59.6 percent of his faceoffs. That’s nearly 10 percent more than Danny, who ranks 43rd nationally at 49.8 percent. But in a matchup like this, stats don’t matter. There’s no faceoff specialist in the country who knows his counterpart as well as the brothers, Syracuse head coach John Desko said.

“It’s the perfect scout,” Danny said. “But at the same time, it’s kind of obsolete because he has the perfect scout.”

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During the blue versus white scrimmage at Smithtown West (New York) High School, Danny ran to the sideline, smirking under his helmet. The then-high school freshman won against his senior brother. Joseph didn’t let that happen twice.

“I lost the next 15 because he got pissed off,” Danny said. “Hopefully if I win the first one (on Saturday), he won’t win the next 15.”

Although they are now the same size, Danny said — 5-foot-10 and 200 pounds — it wasn’t always that way. Growing up, Joseph was nimble and played sports with finesse. He played soccer, basketball and golf, while Danny, who was stockier and less graceful, played football and wrestled.

Still, Danny could follow Joseph’s path in lacrosse. After all, the faceoff position is a combination of speed and power, Joseph said. As the siblings developed with the help of FogoLax founder Matt Schomburg, Danny worked tirelessly to follow his brother’s path and Joseph ensured the same.

“I used to say ‘Danny, did you do your 100 reps?’” Schomburg said. “And I knew he did because Joseph did.”

When Joseph entered high school, he backed up a faceoff specialist who played for Johns Hopkins. Because of that, was recruited later than he should’ve been, Danny said.

When Navy became the favorite during Joseph’s recruiting process, Danny questioned his older brother. “They are really strict and mean,” Joseph remembers Danny saying. Yet after Joseph committed, no one sported more Navy gear than Danny, who liked the attention.

“Everyone was like, ‘That’s Joseph Varello’s little brother,’” Danny said.

Recruiters said the same. Joseph’s late recruiting eased his brother’s path, Danny said. Other schools, such as Notre Dame and Syracuse, tried to poach Joseph away from Navy, Danny said. When Danny entered high school, schools targeted him immediately.

“Schools saw how good Joseph was,” Danny said, “and they said, ‘We passed up on Joe, let’s not pass up on his younger brother.’”

When it was Danny’s turn to go on recruiting trips, he wanted Joseph by his side. Joseph sought permission from his company officer at Navy to go home on select weekends and join the rest of his family on visits.

Growing up, the Varello family attended every sporting event, no questions asked, their sister Kathleen said. Now in college, the boys still don’t miss each others’ games.

After a Navy win against Lafayette, Joseph immediately asked his parents how Danny was doing against Johns Hopkins, Joann said. And when the three of them went to dinner after Joseph’s senior day in Annapolis, he ensured he could watch the Syracuse-Notre Dame game from their table. After the game, Joseph was the first one to text Danny, wish him congratulations and give him advice about his performance.

Joann recalled seeing Joseph’s “pride (for Danny) and his nerves about the outcome of the game.”

“Joseph watched that game like he was (Danny’s) dad,” she said.

Courtesy of Joe Varello

But the two don’t just watch those games for fun. They are analyzing, pointing out flaws in the other’s game. In some cases, they exchange scouting reports on common opponents.

In the third game of the SU season, an 11-10 triple-overtime win against Army, Danny struggled at the faceoff X against Army’s John Ragno. The Black Knight’s faceoff specialist outplayed Syracuse, winning 14-of-21 draws.

Nearly two months later, Navy traveled to West Point to face Army. All week heading into the matchup, Danny gave his brother advice on his experience with Ragno.

“It’s all about your exits,” Joe remembered Danny instructing Joseph. “You’re going to win your clamp, don’t fuss around throwing the ball to your wings, take it yourself.”

Joseph held Ragno to just 7-of-19 faceoffs, earning him a spot on the Patriot League Team of the Week for the fourth time this season.

This week, communication stopped. They don’t need to share scouting reports. Both know their opponent.

“I don’t expect a call from him, and he shouldn’t expect one from me,” Joseph said. “His number might get blocked. I’m not talking to the enemy.”

Courtesy of Joe Varello

When Danny marches out to the faceoff X to compete, the first thing he does is look into his opponent’s eyes, he said. This week, he’ll see his role model.

“Usually when I go out there I want to kill the guy in front of me,” Danny said. “But now it’s going be to very weird to channel those emotions.”

Facing off, Danny said, is like a sport within itself. Although specialists are members of the team, that is the only position in the sport where it is one on one, he said. It’s like Star Wars Episode III, where Anakin Skywalker faces off against his master, Obi Wan Kenobi, he added.

The day of the announcement, Danny drew an Orange and the Navy star on a chalkboard in their kitchen. Kathleen has constantly reminded her parents about it when they travel to games.

But their parents feel differently, especially Joe, who Kathleen said likes to “yell his head off at every game.”

“I’ll start yelling at the refs,” Joe said. “I can’t yell for the teams, so I’ll yell at the refs.”

Sleeping will not be easy this week, Joe said. When his sons take the field, they represent their teams. This is a crucial game for both SU and Navy as the sides prepare for their respective conference tournaments and try to make a tournament push. SU won the regular season ACC title, but Navy isn’t looking at good. The Patriots League will likely only receive two bids to the NCAA Tournament, and ESPN lacrosse analyst Mark Dixon doesn’t expect Navy to get one.

On top of pressure from the standings, the circumstances are impossible to ignore. Navy head coach Rick Sowell said the first thing he thought of was that Joseph would face his younger brother. SU midfielder Nick Martin told Danny about how he faced his brother in high school when he was a sophomore and his brother was a senior. Martin won 17 of the 20 faceoffs in that game and led his team to a win.

“You’ve got to do the same thing,” Martin said he told Danny.

Thirty people donning Orange and Navy shirts will pack the Carrier Dome on Saturday. The front of the shirts will read “Syracuse vs Navy” and the back “Varello.”

Kathleen designed the shirts, and nearly had to shut her brothers out of the decision-making process because they couldn’t stop fighting about it, she said. When she suggested making the shirts blue because it would adhere to both Navy and SU colors, Danny vetoed the idea because it favored Navy too much. Joe forced her to change the back because the original text of “Varello vs. Varello” was too competitive.

Secretly, Danny thinks that everyone is rooting for Joseph, he said. It’s Joseph‘s first year starting for Navy and he’s the reason Danny is where he is.

But amid the competition, the spectacle and the history, Joe just cares about when his sons are together after the game.

“You take your helmet off and you look at each other with love,” Joe said. “The game is a game. Brothers are for life. Whatever adversities they face, I know that they’ll be there for each other.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the frequency of brothers facing off against one another in the modern lacrosse era was misstated. Jack Rowe (Duke) and Kyle Rowe (Stony Brook) faced off in 2014. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 18, 2018 at 11:55 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu