Saturday was not the day for the Syracuse Orange, who traveled down to Chapel Hill and had their six-game winning streak exploded in a 14-9 loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Carolina used a 6-0 run that started late in the first quarter and continued into the second to take control of the game, turning a one-goal deficit into a five-goal advantage and never looking back. ‘Cuse would not get closer than three goals the rest of the game.
It was a disaster of a day for the Orange, who got out-played
in every aspect of the game by the Tar Heels.
Johnny Mullen, Drew Angelo and the face-off unit hung with Brady Wambach for a while, at one point tied 8-8, but ultimately lost that battle, 17-10, as the second half wore on.
But the real issues were everywhere else, where ‘Cuse’s performance was defined by the mistakes they made, the opportunities they wasted and the way they allowed UNC to dictate the way it all played out.
The offense was shut down by Carolina’s defense. SU never generated anything from behind the cage (barely ever venturing back there), lacked conviction and effectiveness in their ball movement and dodging, and largely didn’t force slides or switches. As a result, the Tar Heels were able to play straight up on their marks, pack themselves in and keep all the action in front of them and above GLE.
‘Cuse only had four assists on the game because the passing and off-ball cutting lanes simply were not available in any area of danger in the 6-on-6. The Orange were forced into mostly shots from distance in the half field, helping goalie Josh Marcus be a difference-maker with 15 saves on the day.
The Orange’s sloppy play, especially in the first half, was back-breaking. Some of it was forced by UNC’s solid defense, and some of it was unforced on simple passes, but wasting opportunities against this team is a no-no given their baked-in possession advantage to begin with.
In a first half that was defined by Carolina’s 6-0 run, the Heels actually only had an 8-7 edge on face-offs, but 10 Orange turnovers opened the door for a 24-14 shot advantage that the home team was more than happy to turn into a game-defining run.
Michael Leo was the point-producer on the day with five points on a hat trick and two assists, while Luke Rhoa added a pair of goals. Six other players tallied a single point. Joey Spallina was not one of them as he was completely shut off by their defense, only finding three shots while finishing with zero points.
Defensively for SU, the opposite was true as North Carolina spent all afternoon creating havoc through the pick game and causing a deluge of confusion from the Orange as they lost their marks and scrambled to recover and rotate.
Jimmy McCool started off hot with five saves in the first quarter, bailing out his defense a few times, but lost sight of the ball as the game wore on and was ultimately replaced by Michael Ippoliti in the second half in a move that was effective but came too late. McCool finished with seven saves and a .368 save percentage on the day.
Dom Pietramala proved to be unstoppable in this one, scoring five goals on 10 shots as the Tar Heels spent much of the afternoon shaking him loose from his matchup with Billy Dwan. They were extremely effective in getting Pietramala into the pick game and giving him a more favorable mark and/or finding him time-and-room to step into a shot, a few of which he buried from distance. It was exactly the kind of thing the Orange failed to do themselves, and it was a clinic from Petro and the Heels.
They wasted no time in executing that clinic, opening the score book 51 seconds in when they used a big-little two-man to switch Dante Bowen onto Pietramala, giving him plenty of space to sizzle the net on his first look of the game.
‘Cuse answered with a patented Wyatt Hottle blow-by goal from up top paired with a nice shot on-the-run to tie it up, followed by a quick little flick-of-the-wrist finish from just above left-side GLE by Michael Leo after his defender lost his stick on a wrap-around check attempt.
The Heels tied it back up after Owen Duffy got Riley Figueiras hung up, and found Caden Harshbarger coming off a pick out in front of goal.
After roughly seven minutes of scoreless play, SU would get their nose back out in front for the final time when Tucker Kellogg took a bounce shot around his defender to beat Marcus and give ‘Cuse a 3-2 lead with 1:13 left in the first.
UNC taking over the game from there came swiftly and brutally, as long-pole Peter Thomann, who did a terrific job helping shut down the offense all day, strayed up the field off the ensuing face-off win to score 13 seconds later to re-tie the game with exactly one minute left in the first. Then, with five seconds left in the first, Ty English scored a transition goal after a bad ‘Cuse turnover was committed high up the field to make for easier transition play for the Heels.
That was two goals scored in the final minute of the first quarter, both in transition opportunities before the defense had any chance of getting settled, to kick off their 6-0 run and turn a deficit into a lead in the final minute of the opening frame.
The second quarter continued the onslaught, as Riley Figueiras got blown up in a pick behind the cage, which Duffy came up and scored on without a switch from Jayden Kittelberger. A couple minutes after that, Pietramala got his second when multiple offensive midfielders got caught on defense, leading to a wide open look from up top that he canned for their fourth straight goal.
They added two more to complete their run with 4:56 left in the first half, taking complete control with an 8-3 lead while the SU offense simultaneously floundered with turnovers and, when they actually got them off, weak shot attempts.
The Orange did find a way to punch back late in the half to give themselves a little bit of life heading into halftime. After a UNC turnover, Michael Leo found Finn Thomson in transition after a quick restart, on what was a beautiful catch where he had to reach back across his body before turning back to finish with a twister as he streaked his way towards the crease with 1:31 on the clock.
About 40 seconds later, Luke Rhoa gave a little shake-n-bake to a shortie up top, which drew an actual slide to kick start the ball movement. Rhoa fed Payton Anderson, who helped it along to Leo with his feet set from the low wing for a goal that made it an 8-5 game heading into the break. It was a little bit of hope that stemmed the onslaught from the Tar Heels and simultaneously brought the deficit to a much less-daunting three goals.
It ended up being irrelevant, as Pietramala got both goals back quickly in the first three minutes of the third quarter. First, he easily beat Jordan Beck off the dodge for the first before yet again taking advantage of bad pick defense and finishing from deep for the second, restoring the five-goal lead at 10-5.
Rhoa got his second with a lefty rip from up top, but UNC once again scored off a face-off, taking advantage of a disorganized defense that was still subbing players into the game when the goal was scored. They added another one just over a minute after that for their most emphatic lead of the day at 12-6.
After that goal, Gary Gait put Ippoliti into the game for McCool in a move that worked nicely and allowed the Orange to actually re-insert a little bit of doubt into the outcome. The Orange scored three straight goals while holding the Heels off the board for more than 18 minutes after Ippoliti subbed in, making it a 12-9 game with 9:03 to play.
But Carolina ended their drought with a man-up goal and a fifth-and-final tally from Pietramala to put any end to thoughts of a dramatic comeback. Ippoliti finished with four saves, a couple of them of the spectacular variety, against only two goals surrendered.
After the game, Gait had some interesting comments when asked to assess the team’s performance on face-offs, where he ended up talking about the conditions playing on a grass field:
“Some missed ground balls. It’s tough to replicate a grass field. And this ball, you saw it throughout the game, the ball was jumping and popping. And it’s tough, when there’s just no way to practice on grass so you just show up and you try to make the plays and do your best, but obviously they had the advantage there and I think that was a big difference in the game. We missed some that would normally be easy ground balls, starting from the opening face-off all the way through the game. And a very slippery field, too. It was a tough field for both teams, watching them fall all over the place every time they tried to change directions. So, you know, it’s definitely a home field advantage for that field”.
Not the most inspiring comments to hear coming out of that game, especially considering the Final Four will be played on grass this year. But, good news, the Orange have a lot of work still to do before they start thinking about that as a concern.
‘Cuse will return home for next weekend’s showdown with a suddenly hot Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday, April 11 at 4 PM on ESPN U.
