The Syracuse Orange’s second game of the season was a Saturday stroll for the nation’s No. 3 ranked team, as they offered a rude welcome to the St. Joseph’s Hawks in the first ever meeting between the programs.
On a day of freezing temperatures outside, the Orange were burning up inside the Dome as they torched the nets for a 20 spot in a 20-2 thrashing of the Hawks.
It was an extraordinarily well-balanced day for SU, as they scored at least four goals in every quarter and won each half by a 10-1 score. 11 different players scored a goal and 13 different players recorded a point as Gary Gait was able to go deep into his bench at every position and give virtually everyone a taste of the day’s action.
Joey Spallina (4G, 4A) led the way with eight points on an excellent day for the senior in which he scored a handful of goals dodging up from X and threw multiple BTB passes that ended in goals. As part of his day, he passed a pair of Orange legends in his head coach and Tom Marechek on his way up the all-time scoring list to seventh with 259 career points.
Finn Thomson (4G, 1A) bounced back from a point-less first game with four goals and five points, including a phenomenal BTB-to-BTB hook up with Spallina that Finn finished off beautifully. Michael Leo (2G, 2A) had a strong day with four points as he started at attack for Payton Anderson, who was out with an illness. Wyatt Hottle (2G) and freshman Ted Rawson (2G) each found the net twice, and six other players scored once.
The game was so good for the offense that four players scored their first career goals on the day, including Ted Rawson, Drew Angelo, Charlie Kraftson and Matt McIntee.
The offense was completely dominant and consistent throughout, scoring 20 goals on an amazing 43.5 shot percentage (20-of-46), dishing out nine assists, going a perfect 4-for-4 on the man-up while only turning it over 10 times.
Speaking of holding onto the ball, the Orange did a significantly improved job in round two against St. Joe’s 10-man ride after struggling so mightily and looking devoid of ideas against BU last week. Today, SU did much better positioning and moving their midfielders to be better outlets for the defense to help move the ball up the field, and the defenders themselves were much more aggressive approaching the 10-man when necessary. It was a much more confident day on the clear for ‘Cuse.
The defense was obviously in shutdown mode all afternoon, holding the Hawks to two tallies and separate scoreless streaks of 18-plus minutes to start the game, nearly 18-minutes in the middle and 23 minutes to close the game.
They once again largely did a nice job of winning their individual matchups and timing their slides to help when need be. They caused six turnovers and held SJU to a putrid 5.6 percent shooting (2-of-36).
And when his defense needed help with a stop, Jimmy McCool (10SV) was there to turn them away. The net minder had a fantastic day with 10 saves and an .833 save percentage, making a number of difficult stops to completely steal any positive vibes the Hawks were hoping to get on offense.
The face-off battle was the only area of the game where anything was remotely closely contested, as St. Joe’s did a good job of mucking it up in the trenches to make life difficult for Johnny Mullen (3GB).
They did a nice job of it as the majority of restarts in this game turned into 50-50 battles with the ball bouncing all around the middle of the field. Mullen only picked up three ground balls himself, although ultimately he did well in leading the Orange to a 16-of-26 day at the dot (61.5 percent).
Mullen went 10-of-16, while backup Drew Angelo (3GB, 1G) had his best day in a ‘Cuse uniform, going 5-of-8 (62.5 percent) with three ground balls and his first career goal. Freshman John Olenik got the first chances of his career, going 1-for-2.
The game was over early as the Orange scored the first six goals of the game in just over 15 minutes, including a pair each by Spallina and Hottle in the early going.
The Hawks finally got on the board just over three minutes into the second quarter, but SU answered with four straight to take a 10-1 lead into the break. Finn and Joey combined to score back-to-back goals in the final minute to really put an exclamation point on an excellent half.
The avalanche continued in the second half, as Billy Dwan scored his first goal of the season after clearing the 10-man himself and shooting just past midfield near the substitution box from a difficult angle to start the third quarter with an exciting flourish.
‘Cuse kept their foot on the gas, with Finn and Spallina tallying two more before St. Joe’s ended their nearly 18-minute scoreless drought with their lone second half goal that made it 13-2. The Orange answered a few minutes later with some exceptional team ball movement that ended with Spallina finding Rawson for a slick finish.
The fourth quarter was all SU, winning the frame 6-0 as they emptied the bench and got goals from the likes of Angelo, Greg Elijah-Brown, Kraftson and McIntee.
‘Cuse will now turn their attention to their ultimate test when the No. 1 Maryland Terrapins come to the Dome next Friday, February 13 at 6 PM on ACC Network.
