UPDATED: Feb. 12, 2018 at 2:38 p.m.

It started with a Jamie Trimboli goal. The sophomore attack darted through the middle of Binghamton’s defense and collected a pass from Nate Solomon, depositing it to the bottom left of the cage.

Next, Stephen Rehfuss passed down the hash marks to Brad Voigt who quickly moved the ball on to Brendan Bomberry at the crease for a goal. Then, it was freshman Tucker Dordevic from up top. After that, it was Rehfuss from around the X to start a string of five SU goals in five minutes to end the first quarter.

Less than a quarter into Syracuse’s new season, the rout was on.

“The first midfield got off to a good start,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “Kind of a young group there, but they played pretty composed. Especially right off the bat in the first quarter.”

Desko added he was “almost a little surprised” at his team’s play, especially early in the game when Syracuse hit marks it hasn’t in years. At the end of the first frame, No. 11 Syracuse led 8-0, the most first-quarter goals the program has scored since 2014. The eight-goal lead was the Orange’s largest in a first quarter in a decade. In all, 12 players scored for Syracuse in a 21-4 trouncing of Binghamton on Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

After narrowly defeating Binghamton 9-8 last season in one of the Orange’s 11 one-goal contests, SU entered its 2018 matchup with Binghamton missing over half of its total point production from a season ago. It didn’t matter. Syracuse outshot Binghamton 53-19, scooped up 43 ground balls to the Bearcats’ 13 and dominated play.

“We were playing with a lot of unselfishness today,” Solomon, who scored two goals, said, “and I think that’s how we are going to win games from here on out.”

Bomberry started the second quarter much like Syracuse ended the first. The senior attack corralled a pass from Dordevic along the left hash marks and fired to the top right of the cage for his second of five goals in the game. A few minutes later, Bomberry missed the cage and fell to the ground, slow to get up. As play restarted at the X, Bomberry popped up, in the same spot where he fell, and stood unguarded in front of the Binghamton crease. As quick as the ball entered his stick, he released a shot for SU’s 10th goal of the game. Binghamton still hadn’t scored.

“It hurt a little bit for sure,” Bomberry said. “So I was a little bit shaken up at first then I realized guys weren’t really paying attention, they might’ve thought it was a flag or something, and then kind of caught them sleeping a little bit.

It seemed as though little could go wrong for Syracuse.

In the first quarter, Danny Varello, who went 15-of-17 at the faceoff X, flicked a pass to no specific recipient. Binghamton scooped the loose ball in its own end and tried to pass the ball across the field. Syracuse midfielder Luke Schwasnick tapped the Binghamton player’s long pole mid-throw, causing the ball to pop high in the air in the direction of the Bearcat cage. Bomberry picked the ball out of the air but his shot hit the post.

With the ball laying five yards in front of Binghamton’s net, Solomon fought off a defender and scooped the ball. Upon gaining possession, he stumbled. While falling to the turf, the junior attack flung the ball over his shoulder with just his right hand on his stick. The ball came out with little velocity and bounced over an already kneeling Binghamton goalkeeper.

“I looked at (Bomberry) and I was like ‘I don’t know what just happened’ and he just started celebrating,” Solomon said.

With Syracuse leading 12-0 midway through the second quarter, redshirt senior midfielder Matt Lane bounced a shot past the Binghamton goalkeeper. The third goal in a two-minute time span garnered little excitement from the 3,041 fans in attendance. The goal was Syracuse’s last in the 13-0 run it opened the season with. When Lane scored, the fans didn’t roar like they had early in the game. A simple golf clap sufficed. Things were getting repetitive.

Midway through the third quarter Syracuse opened the bench. Still, nothing changed. The Orange scored four goals to Binghamton’s zero in the final quarter.

After entering the game without its team leaders in goals, assists, points, saves, faceoffs, ground balls and caused turnovers from a year ago, things were supposed to be different for Syracuse.

In its first game of the season, though, things were better.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the year Syracuse last scored its most first-quarter goals in a single game prior to Saturday was misstated. Prior to Saturday, SU scored its most first-quarter goals in a 2014 game. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 10, 2018 at 3:10 pm

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