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Syracuse opened up the 2024 season in dominant fashion, steamrolling Vermont 20-7. The attack fired on all cylinders, highlighted by Joey Spallina’s seven-point performance along with Christian Mulé’s first-half hat trick. The Orange let up just two goals in the second half as it cruised to a win their opener.

Syracuse faced a different test Monday: the Colgate Raiders. Colgate came into the JMA Wireless Dome after shocking the college lacrosse world with a 13-12 upset over No. 4 Penn State. Led by attacker Hunter Drouin — who scored four goals against Penn State — the Raiders looked to complete its second upset in three days.

In the first quarter, Syracuse was sitting pretty, scoring the game’s first five goals, leading 7-2 after 15 minutes of play. But Colgate didn’t go away, cutting Syracuse’s lead to two at one point, but a Saam Olexo goal gave the Orange a three-goal halftime lead.

Syracuse then used an eight-goal third quarter to create separation. And despite scoring just once in the fourth quarter, the damage was done. SU cruised to an eight-goal win.

Here are some observations from No. 9 Syracuse’s (2-0, Atlantic Coast Conference) 18-10 win over Colgate (1-1, Patriot League):

Blitzing start

Colgate didn’t know what hit them. Syracuse blitzed the Raiders in the first five minutes, scoring five goals on just eight shots. Spallina found Owen Hiltz on the crease for SU’s first goal of the game before then being set up by Mulé to make it 2-0. Spallina then turned into a distributor once again. He controlled the ball from X with Michael Leo screaming for it from the top of the defense. Spallina found him and Leo ripped a low shot which got past Matt LaCombe in the net.

Colgate couldn’t get out of its own way even when it stopped Syracuse. With SU up 3-0, Colgate failed to pick up a ground ball, with Jake Stevens bodying the defender away. Stevens then finished 1-on-1 with LaCombe.

Against Penn State, Colgate didn’t start fast, but it went back and forth with the Nittany Lions. On the other hand, against Vermont, Syracuse went the first seven and a half minutes scoreless. Monday was a different story. The Orange equaled their first-half total from Saturday within the opening 15 minutes and led 7-2 after the first quarter.

Penalty kill

One area defensively where Syracuse could’ve improved against Vemront was defending in man-up situations. Vermont scored three of its seven goals on man-up chances and the Orange stopped the Catamounts just twice. Against Colgate, despite letting up five penalties in the early portion of the game, SU defended each one, boosted by Will Mark in net.

Colagtes first chance came two and a half minutes in after Matt Wright was called for pushing. Jack Turner ripped a right-handed shot, but Mark slid over and saved the ball with his chest. Then Liam Connor fired from the left side in the second quarter and Mark turned his stick catching the ball backhanded before it reached the net.

Mark was on fire early on, stopping Colgate on each of its first five man-up chances, but the Raiders finally broke through on their sixth. After a Caden Kol slashing penalty, Jack Connor fed Rory Connor in the middle of the field before winding up and firing past Mark, cutting Syracuse’s lead to two with 4:30 remaining in the first half. Syracuse finished the game on 2-for-8 defending man-up opportunities.

Drouin held quiet

A big reason why Colgate pulled off a big upset against Penn State was due to Drouin’s play. The sophomore finished with four goals on nine shots. But against Syracuse, the midfielder was held quiet.

Drouin’s goal got Colgate on the board with five minutes left in the first quarter, but outside of that, he made little impact. Syracuse followed Drouin tightly everywhere he went, causing the Raiders to attack elsewhere. When Drouin did get the ball, he struggled with SU’s tight-on-ball pressure.

Drouin tried to get Colgate going while killing a penalty down eight in the fourth quarter. Drouin seemed to have the angle as he got inside of two Syracuse defenders, but he fired wide. With the clock winding down on a Syracuse penalty, Drouin forced a shot from a tight angle which was deflected by an SU defender before it reached Mark.

Spallina dishes from X

Colgate had a bold strategy of not guarding Spallina whenever he had the ball at X. Instead of sending a man to play him one-on-one behind the net, the Raiders opted to keep two defenders at each post, waiting for the attack to make a move — instead of looking to go one-on-one Spallina patiently waited for his options to open up.

Against Vermont Spallina showed his unselfishness, registering four assists, but on Monday the attack put on a passing clinic. Syracuse set off ball screens and motioned off of him and Spallina found his teammates with ease. Spallina found Fin Thomson for an easy finish on the crease to put Syracuse up 6-1. On an almost identical play, Spallina then dished to Hiltz who sat on the crease for another straightforward finish, putting Syracuse up 11-6 in the third quarter.

Two and a half minutes later, Spallina found Leo again for his fifth assist, tying his career-high set on April 8 against Princeton. Spallina fired a few behind-the-back passes to Leo in the fourth quarter. He was knocking on the door of a new career-high, but LaCombe tipped the ball away at the last second.

Through two games in 2023, Spallina had zero assists. Through two games in 2024, he has nine.

Published on February 5, 2024 at 8:29 pm

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