After a severely disappointing opening day for Syracuse, two of the Orange’s brightest stars sat silently, staring blankly at a room of reporters, then down at their phones, hardly looking forward to recounting a 16-15 double-overtime loss.

JoJo Marasco, Brian Megill and the rest of the Orange had little to smile about Sunday evening, but a breakout hat trick from redshirt freshman Dylan Donahue is encouraging to head coach John Desko and SU fans. Donahue scored his three goals in a six-minute span at the end of the game, leading a final game-tying surge that ended with 2:52 remaining in regulation.

“He’s really good off the ball, and especially when we got in that flow, I think they lost a little bit inside when he was able to catch it and finish it,” Desko said.

Syracuse was a little surprised by the quality of Albany’s defense. The Orange knew to expect firepower from the attacking trio of Miles, Lyle and Ty Thompson, but figured the Great Danes would be vulnerable in the back.

Desko expected Albany would close off last year’s leading scorer, Derek Maltz, so Donahue’s performance was as planned as any hat trick debut can be.

Albany couldn’t afford to slide off of the 6-foot-3, 196-pound Maltz, leaving Donahue to sweep in for quick finishes.

“He’s a very smart player and he knows where to be at the right time,” Desko said.

Down 15-13 with less than five minutes left in the fourth, Donahue needed to be on the crease. He cut behind the goal to Kevin Rice, who flipped him the ball before Donahue curled around the left of Blaze Riorden’s cage and finished to the goaltender’s right.

Almost 90 seconds later, he closed in on goal as he met a pass from Marasco to even the score at 15-15.

Though the Orange ultimately fell in double overtime and Donahue never got a shot off, the redshirt freshman’s performance in a diverse attack is a positive for SU as it looks to rebound from the upset.

“When there’s seven guys scoring, it really opens it up for everyone else,” Marasco said. “We got the crease and they got to push out because they know we can shoot. … Going from here it’s going to be good to see what we can do.”

Published on February 18, 2013 at 1:46 am

Contact Jacob: [email protected] | @Jacob_Klinger_