It took the Syracuse Orange a long time to get going on Thursday afternoon out in Colorado Springs, in a game they would eventually win, 17-11, over the Air Force Falcons to improve to 6-2 on the season.
‘Cuse looked like they were sleepwalking through much of a sloppy first half in which they made lots of careless mistakes in possession and uncharacteristic lapses on defense.
Was it the 3 PM local start time, the 6,621 feet above sea level, the fifth straight game on the road, or was it simply playing
down to the opposition?
Whatever the reason(s), the Orange were lackluster from the early-going, giving up a pair of soft goals in a listless first five minutes (as well as a third that was disallowed for AF stepping in the crease) that led to defensive coordinator John Odierna reading the defense the riot act while the refs were reviewing their eventual overturn of the third goal.
It didn’t do much to improve their play, although the offense did go on a quick spurt shortly after with three goals in two minutes to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead halfway through the first. The early success on offense was all due to Air Force’s zone, which Joey Spallina picked apart with ease.
Spallina, who finished this game with a career high eight assists, got the helper on all four of ‘Cuse’s first quarter goals, with all of them being almost identical in nature. Joey was able to operate from X with very little pressure on him, and we all know how lethal he can be when he has time and space to pick out his passes. It couldn’t have been any easier, as he found Finn Thomson and Michael Leo open in front of the crease for the first three tallies, all of which were quick stick finishes.
Luke Rhoa did the honors on the fourth, but a clearing mistake led to another goal for the home team and the Orange held only a 4-3 lead after 15 minutes.
The second quarter saw SU score a couple goals in transition opportunities, with the first coming early off a Jimmy McCool outlet pass that eventually led to Rhoa finding Finn for his second goal of the game on a beautiful tip-toe effort around the crease. A couple minutes later, an extended face-off scrum was eventually picked up by Drew Angelo, who took it all the way down himself and scored on a bouncer.
But before that face-off scrum came an Air Force goal in which the Falcons’ leading scorer for the game, Caelan Driggs, was left wide open on the back pipe and a cross-crease pass found him for an easy finish.
The teams trading goals had SU up 6-4 before some very lackadaisical on-ball defense from Jake Spallina, who was well on the back foot as Luke Vrsansky ran up and scored from the wing without a single touch from Spallina. That goal made it 6-5, which would end up being the halftime score thanks to a very underwhelming half of lacrosse from ‘Cuse.
A big factor in that was Air Force goalie Matt Deedy, who had a great first half and, really, a great three quarters before things fell apart in the fourth. Deedy made nine saves in the first 30 minutes while only surrendering six, and upped his tally to 12 by the end of three. Through 45 minutes, he had 12 saves and a 54.5 save percentage, but the fourth was where the Orange really ran away with the game. Credit to Deedy for a strong performance that kept the game close for far longer than it should have been.
Coming out in the third quarter, the Orange tried to set the tone right away with a solid possession of around-the-horn ball movement that ended with an open time-and-room look for Payton Anderson, who cashed his first on Spallina’s fifth assist.
In that moment, it felt like SU was going to take over and run away with it, but AF wasn’t quite ready for that just yet as they converted their second EMO chance of the game a couple minutes later to keep it close at 7-6 with 12:12 remaining in the third.
That was the end of the Falcons’ influence on the game, though, as ‘Cuse scored nine of the next 11 goals to take control and put it out of reach.
First, the second midfield line got in on the action with consecutive goals from Matt McIntee on a flag-down situation and Bogue Hahn. Less than a minute later, some more solid around-the-horn movement led to yet another finish from Anderson, his second and final of the day. The Falcons tallied another one and the Orange took a 10-7 lead into the final frame.
The fourth quarter started with a flourish, as four goals were scored in 49 seconds from the 14:01 mark to the 13:12 mark. Wyatt Hottle started it with an absolute rip from up top, followed by some tic-tac-toe passing off the face-off five seconds later with Spallina finding Finn for his third of the game.
Air Force would score off the ensuing face-off when nobody stepped up to FOGO Michael Frieri, but the Orange fired back again with a hat-trick clinching goal from Michael Leo that put SU up 13-8 less than two minutes into the fourth.
The Orange would score three more in a row to take complete control and a 16-8 lead, including two more from Leo for a career-high five goals from the senior. Tucker Kellogg also got some rare playing time, and made the most of it, scoring two goals and an assist in the final 10 minutes while getting some PT with the starters.
Through three quarters, Deedy had made 12 saves and only gave up 10 goals. But in the fourth, ‘Cuse scored seven goals without a single stop being made.
By the box score, it was actually a decent day of efficiency for the Orange. They shot 17-of-45, a 37.8 percentage, and assisted on 14 of their 17 tallies (82.4 percent). They also only had 12 turnovers, and dominated face-offs (22-of-32, 68.8 percent) and ground balls (38-26).
But the mistakes they did make were careless, and it took them way too long to take over the game against a team that ranks among the worst in Division I on both ends of the field. There was a definite feel that the team was bogged down by the crazy travel schedule of the last month, and in the end, it was a performance to throw in the shredder and just move on.
And that’s exactly what they’ll do, as they’ll have the weekend off before returning to the field for a battle with the Denver Pioneers on Monday night at 8 PM ET.
