No. 3 Syracuse (5-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) suffered its first loss of the season, an 11-10 overtime defeat at the hands of No. 8 Johns Hopkins (4-2) on Saturday afternoon at Homewood Field in Baltimore.

After owning a four-goal lead to start the game, the Blue Jays came storming back to tie the game at seven with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.

A highlight-reel Nick Mariano goal and a smooth finish from Sergio Salcido, helped SU get its lead back. But John Crawley brought the Blue Jays within one with just over two minutes to play. Then JHU won the next faceoff, which led to the game-tying goal, and the only faceoff in overtime, which led to the game-winning goal.

Here are three quick takeaways from the game.

X marks the spot

Ben Williams was on his way to proving why he’s considered among the best faceoff specialists in the country. But despite winning 11 of the game’s first 17, he only won two of the final seven. That cost the Orange as Williams’ third violation of the second half resulted in a penalty and Johns Hopkins tied the game on the ensuing possession with 38 seconds left.

At the start of overtime, with the game hanging in the balance, Williams squared off against Hopkins’ Hunter Moreland, who cleanly won the faceoff and forced Williams off the field. The Blue Jays cycled the ball on offense for nearly three minutes before Wilkins Dismuke scored the game-winner.

The game ended and SU’s offense never even established a legitimate possession in the final two minutes of regulation and nearly three minutes of overtime. And that comes back to Williams’ late struggles at the X.

Messy Attack

In the slick conditions, the two teams combined for 28 turnovers, squandering several possessions that never developed. In the first half alone, Syracuse had nine turnovers, one more than it did in an entire game against St. John’s last week. Each starting attack, Dylan Donahue, Jordan Evans and Tim Barber, had two turnovers in the first half. Balls bounced underneath players’ sticks and dribbled out of bounds eliminating chances to sustain strong ball movement to open up shots.

Syracuse was charged one of its two second-half timeouts for coming out of the locker room late. Then its first offensive possession ended when a pass flew over Barber’s head. Throughout the season, head coach John Desko has stressed that limiting SU’s turnovers on offense will lead to more success. It hindered the Orange on Saturday.

As Hopkins tied the game with its seventh and eighth goals, the Blue Jays’ Patrick Fraser scored back-to-back goals on extra-man opportunities, another example of sloppy play costing SU.

Three’s company

For the third straight game, Mariano recorded a hat trick. He lifted Syracuse’s offense in the first half with two goals on two savvy dodges. In the first quarter, Mariano curled around from behind the crease, cradled with the stick in his left hand and got his arms free. To create a bigger angle to shoot at, Mariano extended his arms and whipped a sidearm shot into the back of the net past Hopkins goalie Brock Turnbaugh.

In the second quarter, Mariano took on midfielder Joe Carlini with a left-alley dodge. He used his 6-foot, 182-pound body to back Carlini down and then took another lefty shot. The natural lefty and attack canned the shot again by taking advantage against a short stick.

With 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Mariano came from behind the cage and didn’t turn around to shoot. While facing the opposite direction, he took a backhanded shovel shot and pinned it into the top right corner as he scored the best goal of the day.

Until 6:01 left in the fourth quarter, he was Syracuse’s only player with multiple goals.

Published on March 19, 2016 at 6:31 pm

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