Syracuse was in a familiar position. Hobart had scored three straight goals and was set to start the fourth quarter with a man advantage.

But, as it did against Notre Dame on Saturday, the Orange defense held tight. A Ryan Archer miss on a behind-the-back shot was the lone scoring chance on the man-up opportunity for Hobart.

The possession eventually ended with a Dom Madonna save and for the second time in as many games, Syracuse held its opponent scoreless on the man-up. After allowing four-goal runs in every game since Binghamton, Tuesday marks the second straight game the Orange cut its opponents run at three goals.

“I thought that we kept it tight.” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “I thought that the guys knew who the most dangerous outside shooters were. They got one or two off where Dom made the save but good to be stingy (on the man-down), always.”

In all, No. 8 Syracuse (6-3, 3-0 ACC) caused 10 turnovers in its 11-4 defeat of Hobart (4-6, 1-1 Northeast) on Tuesday in the Carrier Dome. The Orange has now won the battle for the Kraus-Simmons trophy 30 of 33 times and has claimed the trophy for five years straight. Syracuse held the top-30 Hobart offense to four goals, seven fewer than its season average of 11. Hobart’s four goals ties the season low for an SU opponent this season.

“I think we knew our matchups pretty well,” redshirt sophomore defender Nick Mellen said. “We knew they were an attack-oriented offensive team, so we kind of prepared for that. We knew what hands they were so we kind of favored that side a little bit. Made them a little bit more uncomfortable than they’d like to be.”

After allowing a goal on Hobart’s first possession of the game, Syracuse’s defense settled in. The Orange didn’t allow Hobart’s offense any room to maneuver throughout the rest of the half, leading to eight first-half turnovers for the Statesmen.

Active SU sticks led to several Hobart turnovers. During the first quarter, with the game still tied and Hobart’s offense not yet discouraged, attack Chris Aslanian swung the ball from the X out to the wing. But the ball didn’t find a fellow Statesmen’s stick. Instead, Mellen batted the pass down and scooped the loose ball to start an SU break. Less than a minute later, Syracuse scored, giving the Orange a lead it would never relinquish.

On the ensuing possession following the goal, Aslanian, Hobart’s leading point scorer, again had the ball. This time he beat long-stick midfielder Austin Fusco and headed toward the cage. But Fusco collapsed back on Aslanian, wrapping his stick around Aslanian and dislodging the ball before a shot was released.

Syracuse held Hobart’s attack line, which includes its top-three scorers, to one assist. The three attack combined for 14 of Hobart’s 34 shots. Under heavy defensive pressure, the shots were often contended, causing them to sail wide or leading to an easy save for Madonna, who had nine stops.

“At the beginning of the game our coach told us to really press out,” Mellen said. “Make them uncomfortable, make them make a bad decision and I think we all did that pretty well.”

Some Hobart turnovers came from good coverage. In the first quarter, one occurred following tight faceguarding from Dami Oladunmoye. The freshman midfielder charged out on his opposition when the Hobart midfielder looked to pass, leading to an errant feed out of bounds. Oladunmoye caused another pass to no one in the second quarter as he blocked off his midfielder, denying the pass.

One of the few areas Hobart edged Syracuse, the faceoff X, didn’t help the Statesmen either. At the start of the second quarter, Hobart’s sixth-ranked faceoff man Matthew Pedicine cleanly won the draw and attacked SU defense from the right sideline. As he entered in the restraining box, Mellen knocked Pedicine’s stick out of his hands, and promptly scooped the ball, initiating an SU break the other way.

It was a microcosm of the game for SU’s defense. SU took away whatever the Statesmen did well.

Entering the game, Hobart ranked 29th in the country in man-up scoring. After going 0-for-5 last year against SU, the specialty units were a specific emphasis for each day of practice leading up to the game, Hobart head coach Greg Raymond said.

Still, Syracuse shut the Statesmen down. The Hobart run ended after its final man-up opportunity flopped. The four-goal scoring spree, which the Orange has suffered from repeatedly this season, never came.

And, for the first time this season, Syracuse dominated defensively for two consecutive games.

Published on April 3, 2018 at 9:06 pm

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