Gary Gait had a very clear directive for his team this week: it’s time to get back to what makes Syracuse lacrosse, Syracuse lacrosse.
The boys tried to take that to heart, coming out with an aggressive, attack mentality on their way to a 12-8 win over rival Johns Hopkins on an overcast Saturday at historic Homewood Field. The win improves ‘Cuse to 5-2 on the season and added an important non-conference win to their resume.
What’s funny is, it wasn’t a complete throwback to the era of Gait’s playing
days, largely because JHU was playing with more of a grind-it-out mindset, but for ‘Cuse it was more about being opportunistic and attacking when the chances presented themselves.
To that point, Hopkins engaged in much longer possessions on the afternoon, piling up the shots, many of which were off cage. Meanwhile, SU looked to assert themselves early in possessions, leading to a huge difference in shot totals for the game (Hop, 53-33). Those numbers were very misleading, because it was ‘Cuse who actually fired on cage more, 24-22, with much better efficiency. While JHU struggled all day to 15 percent shooting (8-of-53), the Orange brought their shooting sticks with a 36 percent performance (12-of-33).
33 shots doesn’t exactly scream old-school Syracuse lacrosse, but ‘Cuse was aggressive when they saw chances, be it off face-off scrums or Hopkins turnovers. Whenever they saw some open turf, they went for it.
And the thing about playing aggressively is you’re going to make a bit of a mess at times, and that’s exactly what SU did. They committed 15 turnovers in the game, and while too many of them were careless mistakes like going offsides or illegal procedure calls, a handful of them occurred because the Orange were trying to push the pace and make plays that ended up being forces.
That’s the deal you make when you try to run up and down the field. You’re going to make some highlight reel, juice plays that fire the team up, but you’re also going to make mistakes the end with the ball going the other way. It was a gamble this team was willing to take, and they played with enough efficiency on offense to get the job done, but they couldn’t have done it without the rest of the units stepping up to support those efforts.
The defense was once again excellent, locking down Hopkins for large stretches throughout the afternoon. It was 12 minutes in before they found the net, and went almost 15 minutes without a tally through the second and third quarters.
For the most part, they won their individual matchups and kept a good structure all game long, including a much improved effort from the shorties. In the end, they held the Blue Jays to 15 percent shooting, way more shots off net than on, 16 turnovers and just eight goals. Jimmy McCool was terrific once again with 14 saves for a .636 save percentage.
And on face-offs, Johnny Mullen looked to finally get his mojo back as he lead the team to a 13-for-23 day on restarts (.565), personally going 11-for-20 with 10 ground balls and a goal. Mullen was part of the offensive aggression, multiple times looking to go to goal himself. Most importantly, while he did still have a few violations, he looked to be in a much better rhythm, responding to the whistles well and winning most of his draws to himself. SU needs him badly to get to where they want to go, and today was an important step back in the right direction.
Offensively, Joey Spallina was back in the mood, executing beautifully was a passer, a dodger and off-ball. He moved all over the field, made plays in a variety of ways, and led the charge with seven points on four goals and three assists. He was joined by strong, four-point performances from Finn Thomson and Luke Rhoa, both of whom had two goals and two assists.
Billy Dwan scored two goals as one of the best examples of the Orange’s aggressiveness in transition, and Wyatt Hottle had a goal and an assist. SU had nine assists on their 12 goals.
‘Cuse got the day going early, forcing back-to-back failed Hopkins clears which Luke Rhoa eventually cashed in on a perfectly-placed feed from Hottle less than two minutes in. After a lot of sloppy early play from both teams, SU got a second goal in transition off a Hop turnover on a nice feed to the crease from Joey to Finn.
After JHU’s All-American midfielder Matt Collison put in a pair of strong individual efforts to tie the game up, the Orange aggression really started to come to the forefront as they went on a 3-0 run in 2:21 early in the second quarter to take a 5-2 lead. First, Joey and Finn connected for their second straight goal before a couple pole contributions for an opportunistic second of the run.
A Blue Jays turnover was picked up by Vincent Bolognino, who ran the ball all the way up the field and threw a fantastic diagonal pass through three long-poles to Finn on the crease, who immediately flipped a pass cross-crease to Billy Dwan for his first goal of the day. Dwan and Bolognino were both aggressive in staying on and running into the offensive zone. Instead of waiting for subs and running back on defense, they did it themselves and it resulted in a wonderful teamwork goal.
Joey closed that spurt by receiving a pass and running through a series of checks until he curled his way up in front of goal and dumped one in for his first of the day and a three-goal ‘Cuse lead.
JHU answered back with two, including an EMO tally, to bring it to 5-4 with over four minutes remaining in the quarter. SU had the last say of the first half, though, as Rhoa floated a pass that somehow went through a handful of Hopkins defenders and (accidentally?) ended up in Spallina’s stick on the far side of the crease for an easy finish and a 6-4 ‘Cuse lead at the break.
The Orange were on defense for a large portion of the third quarter, but for a while they had the only tally of the frame. That was thanks to yet another transition opportunity following a Blue Jays’ turnover, and there wasn’t much fancy about this one. Dwan pushed up the field, received a clearing pass, and fired one home from more than 15 yards away to put ‘Cuse back up by three, 7-4.
Hopkins would get their own transition goal later in the third to make it just a two-goal difference heading to the fourth, but the Orange would put their foot down early in the quarter to stomp out any thoughts of a JHU comeback for a second consecutive week.
Great ball movement on the EMO ended with a low wing, low angle shot that Spallina was just waiting for 26 seconds into the fourth. Less than a minute later, Joey found Rhoa for an overhand sledgehammer shot that put SU up, 9-5, less than 90 seconds into the quarter.
That was all the separation they would need, as the teams traded goals the rest of the way, including a Mullen goal five seconds after a Blue Jays’ goal that really stomped out any comeback spirit from the home team. Spallina got his fourth, and Hottle threw in an empty-netter to preserve the four-goal win for a third straight win over Hopkins.
The Orange will now head out West for their spring break trip to Colorado, starting with a game against Air Force on Thursday at 5 PM ET.
