Syracuse defeated St. John’s with a score of 14-6. While that may seem like what many expected, the way that score came about matched nobody’s expectations. The first half of lacrosse had echoes of last year’s NCAA opener against Bryant for Syracuse’s offense. St. John’s picked up right where they left off in their last game where they took a great Yale squad down to the wire to lose in overtime.
The first quarter was all St. John’s, but more specifically former Orange player Eric DeJohn. Going up against his former teammates, DeJohn led the offense with two unassisted goals and helping on the other to build the early 3-0 lead. What made Orange fans a little uneasy is that he was being this effective by dodging from X one on one with Brandon Mullins guarding him, but still breaking through. On one play in particular, Mullins was tangled in the net, giving DeJohn a free shot on Bobby Wardwell as he wrapped around the goal. At the other end of the field, Harry Burke was making some excellent saves for St. John’s.
What was concerning with Syracuse’s offense is their normally crisp passing was non-existent to start the game. They were getting into the right spots, but passes were bouncing off of sticks rather than going into their pockets and shots were not falling when taken. Burke was making some stellar saves, but combining that with some bad shooting led to the scoreless first quarter for the Orange.
The second quarter was largely forgetful. It took over 12 minutes of game play before anyone would register another point. That goal would be Nick Heller of St. John’s making up for a turnover by immediately scoring off a failed clear by Syracuse. This is where Syracuse would get things going again. Nine second later, a faceoff win by Syracuse’s Ben Williams (68.4% on the day) would lead to a Rice to Staats goal. Syracuse would win the next faceoff as well, but turned the ball over on that possession. A good riding effort by attackman Dylan Donahue would setup a feed to Randy Staats to end the half 4-2.
The Orange midfield would establish themselves in the third quarter, scoring four of the five Orange goals, including two of my favorite goals on the day. One was a Henry Schoonmaker assist where he started on a right alley dodge and then cut inside near the goal. As the defense collapsed on him, he passed back up field to a wide open Hakeem Lecky for a time and room rocket of a shot. The other one was by the second midfield unit. Tim Barber sent a skip pass across the field to Jordan Evans for a very smooth catch and shoot. It was a textbook example of what you hope to see out of a skip pass. Burke would only make one save this entire quarter. St. John’s would answer with two back to back man-up goals by Corey Haynes that were nearly identical. Both of his shots were from the outside, top right. They would end the quarter only down by one, but their scoring was done for the day.
Syracuse would go on to dominate the final quarter with seven unanswered goals on 13 shots. This late surge would also be large enough to allow Syracuse to play their bench once again. They would only score one of the goals (J.T. Forkin), but were able to get about five minutes of playing time in. Although Coach Desko tends to sub out the starters on offense first, the backup defenders did get some time at the end of the game too while leaving Wardwell in goal for the duration. Wardwell made a fantastic 1-on-1 save in the final minute, preserving the fourth quarter shutout.
This game was a great wake-up call for Syracuse. They had easily handled a couple of top ranked teams prior to this and their only close game was against a very tough Army squad. Now that they know what a slow start feels like, and how to break out of it, this experience will help them in the long run. Their defense showed some vulnerability early, but only allowed one even strength goal over the final 52 minutes of the game, which is something to be proud of. St. John’s really played well for the first half of the game, but couldn’t get things to happen in the second half. While they only have one win on the season so far, they have the potential to turn things around as they approach Big East play.
Syracuse now has a week to prepare for Johns Hopkins coming into town next Saturday. Hopkins has been all over the map this year, so it will be a little hard to know what exactly to expect from them. St. John’s also has a week to recover before hosting Drexel in what should be a great matchup.
