Senior goalie Warren Hill made a career-high 10 saves and midfielder Tim Barber scored the eventual game-winning goal as the Orange escaped the Black Knights 9-8 Sunday night at the Carrier Dome.
The scoring began with a Cole Johnson unassisted goal after the Black Knights stymied the Orange offense for the first two minutes of the game. Derek DeJoe tied things up at one before Connor Cook‘s man-up goal and Tim Coll gave Army a surprising 3-1 lead. But Army would be held scoreless for nearly the next 25 minutes, as the Orange would go on a 6-0 run, including holding the Black Knights scoreless in the second quarter.
Dylan Donahue got the run started with 25 ticks to go in the opening quarter, before DeJoe’s second tied the game once again. Sergio Salcido scored the next two goals for the Orange, and freshman Nate Solomon gave the Orange a four goal lead.
But although the Black Knights were down, they were certainly not out, as Army stormed back in a span of 3:22 to get the game back to a one-goal margin. A man-up goal from Jimbo Moore, along with scores from Conor Glancy and Ted Glesener, the younger brother of John Glesener, all scored to keep the game interesting.
The third quarter ended with Jordan Evans making it an 8-6 Orange lead with 44 seconds left. But Army would not give up, as the Black Knights came back to tie the game on another man-up goal from Cook and the tying goal from Nate Jones gave Army new life entering the media timeout with 4:38 left to play.
The Orange got the lead once again on Barber’s goal, who moved back to midfield after starting the game at attack. Both teams had multiple scoring chances late, and Army almost tied the game with seven seconds left, but Cole Johnson’s shot hit the post, as the Orange breathed a sigh of relief.
Freshman goaltender AJ Barretto was very impressive for the Black Knights, as he made 11 saves on the night. Syracuse junior FOGO Ben Williams went 13-of-19 on faceoffs, with six ground balls. Senior defenseman Brandon Mullins had three caused turnovers. Tim Stackpole had four ground balls for Army, while Austin Schultz had two caused turnovers for the Black Knights.
Barber returned after suffering an undisclosed injury last week against Albany, which many believe was a concussion. He was cleared to practice on Friday and started at attack to replace Nick Piroli, who’s still at least two weeks away from possibly returning. But Barber was moved back to the midfield for the majority of the second quarter and the entire second half, where we saw a rotation of Solomon and classmate Devin Shewell, and redshirt-freshman Gale Thorpe. Assistant coach Kevin Donahue wanted to try and get Brad Voigt some time in at attack as well, along with getting FOGO Cal Paduda some reps at the faceoff “x” as well. Paduda did a great job filling in for Williams in the fall, and could give Williams some rest during some big games later on in the season.
Syracuse improves to 3-0 on the season, and will travel to Charlottesville to take on the Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC opener for both teams on Friday night. That game will be aired live on ESPNU. The Black Knights fall to 2-2 on the season, and will travel to take on Lafayette on Saturday in Army’s Patriot League opener.
