Spring break has come to an end, but the Syracuse Orange have one more assignment on their six-game road trek before they return to campus.
That assignment is a difficult one as they’ll play their second game in five days at altitude, this time against the No. 12/13 Denver Pioneers at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. It’s the first meeting for the programs since the 2024 NCAA Quarterfinal matchup in which the Pios delayed the Orange’s return to Championship Weekend with a 10-8 triumph.
The game is set
for 8 PM ET and will be streamed behind a paywall on MidcoSports Plus. An audio feed is available on Cuse.com
The forecast for tonight appears clear in terms of precipitation, but the Orange had to practice through some decent snowfall yesterday. I suppose that’s better than the reverse.
Denver is 4-2 so far this season, and started the campaign by winning their first three games against Cleveland State, Air Force and Utah. They dropped their first big test in a home game to Cornell, 13-9, before rebounding with a win over Michigan.
They then took 12 days off and left the MT zone for the first time on Thursday for their game at Ohio State, which they lost 6-4 in a game totally bereft of offense.
And that’s actually a good starting point for Denver, because they are a team built around defense, and the numbers of frightening.
They’ve only allowed 38 goals all season in six games. That’s 6.33 goals-against per game, the No. 1 scoring defense in the country. Their man-down defense has only surrendered two goals in 13 chances, tied for seventh stingiest. And their opponents are only shooting 15.6 percent on the season.
Goalie Grayson Manning leads the country in save percentage at .673 and is second in goals-against average at 6.57.
They’re the definition of a team defense that is designed to suffocate and shut down what you’re trying to do as an offense. They’re not a flashy group; you usually won’t hear any of their player’s names when people are talking about the top defenders in the country. But they work together as a unit to get the job done.
Syracuse knows that all too well, because disrupting offense and shutting game plans and execution down is exactly what they did to the Orange two years ago in the NCAA Tournament. They held SU to eight goals in that game, completely shutting out Joey Spallina, who finished with two shots and zero points as ‘Cuse got sent home early.
The Orange offense has not exactly been setting the world on fire, and there’s been a lack of consistency and depth of threatening options in recent games. The bottom line has been that when Spallina hasn’t put up big numbers, the unit has struggled to find success and consistent scoring. There will be a lot of pressure on Joey and everyone to change that against this lockdown group.
Given that this is a matchup of two Top 10 scoring defenses (SU is 9th at 8.50), it looks like there’s a decent chance we’re in for a real slugfest defensive battle. Those types of games are always tough because you need to do all the little things right and minimize the mental errors when you’re scraping your way through a rock fight.
The good news is the Denver offense has had issues getting it going, ranking tied for 41st nationally at 11 goals per game.
Their two leading scores, Cody Malawsky and Marek Tzagournis, are tied for the team lead with just 17 points each through six games.
As a unit, they’re actually a decent shooting team with a 32.2 shot percentage, and their three leading goal scorers all shoot over 36 percent. Their biggest problem has been holding onto the ball, as they average over 16 turnovers per game. There will definitely be pressure on ‘Cuse to get the ball on the turf and create turnovers to keep that trend going.
They’re not a very good face-off team, sitting under 50 percent with a .465 win rate on the year. Johnny Mullen has started to look more and more like his old self the past two games, and that continuing will be critical for an Orange team looking for as many possessions as possible against the stingy Denver defense.
