Albany trimmed Syracuse’s lead to four with 2:43 remaining and, with Ben Williams on the sideline and the Great Danes gaining traction at the faceoff X, there were small hints of a possible comeback.

But then Nicky Galasso caught the ball in front of the Orange bench and squashed any chance of an Albany rally. As the midfielder dodged toward the net, the Great Danes defense stayed glued to the SU attack — one defender fronting Kevin Rice behind the cage, another shadowing Dylan Donahue and a third occupying Tim Barber 10 yards up the field.

That left Galasso alone in front of Albany goalie Blaze Riorden and after faking once, then twice, he iced the game by firing a goal past Riorden’s right shoulder.

“A couple times they were shutting our attackmen off behind the goal so our middies had to dodge and go to goal,” SU head coach John Desko said. “… I think a number of times our middies got dodges to score and you can see the output with (Henry) Schoonmaker and Galasso.”

It was those two — who make up SU’s first-line midfield with Hakeem Lecky — who combined for nine goals and 11 points to help the No. 2 Orange (8-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) to a 17-12 win over No. 9 Albany (7-2, 3-0 America East) in the Carrier Dome on Thursday night. With the Great Danes defense focusing on Rice and Donahue in the absence of Randy Staats, Schoonmaker’s (five goals) pinpoint shooting and Galasso’s (four) savvy crease play led to SU’s third-highest goal total of the season.

In all, 12 of the Orange’s 17 goals came from midfielders, with Jordan Evans, Nick Weston and Ryan Simmons also chipping in.

“We wanted to shut down the big name players, Kevin Rice, Dylan Donahue, all those guys,” Riorden said. “We knew Schoonmaker and those guys could make plays and we wanted to make them make those plays.

“Unfortunately tonight they did. They scored the goals.”

After goals from Rice and Weston evened the score at 2-2 early in the first quarter, Schoonmaker caught a pass 17 yards away from the net and hopped into a shot that whizzed past Riorden and into the back of the net.

Schoonmaker came into the game with seven goals on the season and came close to matching that total on Thursday. He did most of his damage capitalizing on slow slides by the Albany defense, as Ben Williams’ 24 faceoff wins on 27 tries tired out the visitors by the second half.

With the eight-minute mark of the third quarter approaching, Schoonmaker was paced step-for-step by Albany defender Eric Cantor. And with the Orange trying to run out some clock in a man-down situation, Schoonmaker instead ripped a shot across his body that found a tiny window between Riorden’s net and the left post.

The goal gave SU a 12-7 cushion. Riorden threw his hands in the air in disbelief. It was the second time in the game that Schoonmaker spoiled a Great Danes advantage.

“You get a couple in and you start kind of getting in the zone,” Schoonmaker said. “I guess that’s kind of what happened. Once I hit a few I kind of knew that I might have some luck on shooting some long-range ones.”

Galasso, who also dabbles in the long-range game, was more effective cutting around the net.

Albany did a good job of marking Donahue and keeping Rice away from the crease for most of the game, but seemed to zero in on whoever of the two had the ball. While Galasso’s last goal was unassisted, his other three were off passes from Rice and Donahue.

That’s how it went for the SU offense, which continued to break down opposing defenses in all kinds of ways.

“Last year they kind of shut off the attack a little bit,” Schoonmaker said of Albany’s defensive approach. “Obviously with the attack being so great, that opened us up.”

Published on April 3, 2015 at 12:09 am

Contact Jesse: [email protected] | @dougherty_jesse