ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Yesterday, a day before Syracuse blistered Navy with 18 goals, Nate Solomon predicted the onslaught to Bradley Voigt. SU’s attack would dismantle the Midshipmen.

All season, SU’s No. 1 line — composed of Voigt, Solomon and Stephen Rehfuss, has moved toward a pinnacle, Voigt said — a time where not one or two, but all three players, were on their game.

Which meant that on Saturday, No. 7 Syracuse’s (9-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) top attacks scored as easily as Voigt brushed off Solomon’s prognostication as the Orange torched Navy (5-7, 3-4 Patriot), 18-9, to close out their regular season. From behind the cage and in front of the crease, the trio filleted the Navy defense for a combined 17 points (nine goals, eight assists).

Voigt followed his season-long form as SU’s top scorer, adding five more, including a second-quarter hat trick. Rehfuss played the part of feeder, tallying five assists to go with two goals. Solomon added two goals and three assists of his own.

“I thought that Brad’s been pretty consistent all year long,” Orange head coach John Desko said. “And then getting Stephen back healthy, finally, whether he isn’t hurt or he’s not sick … And Nate’s playing more within himself also. He’s a threat to dodge and he’s got his head up and he’s finding open people now.”

The attack started early. As Syracuse controlled possession early in the first quarter, the ball made it to Solomon, posted behind the cage.

Solomon toed the yellow circle, eyed the melee in front of the cage and stepped to his right. He lifted his stick, wrapping it around the near post and tucking the ball behind USNA goalie Ryan Kern to start the scoring.

In the second quarter, amidst Syracuse’s 6-1 run to put the game out of hand, long-stick midfielder Brett Kennedy burst into the offensive zone. He looked across the defense and skipped a pass to Solomon, alone on Kern’s right. Solomon took one look at the cage and rifled a pass to the far post, where Voigt crashed and pushed it in.

“All along the chemistry’s kind of been there but we haven’t really been on our game like this to show the chemistry,” Voigt said.

With five assists and two goals to boot, Rehfuss played a part in more than a third of Syracuse’s scores. He primarily worked with the ball behind the cage, driving out to turn and shoot if the space cleared, passing if it didn’t.

Navy’s defense didn’t seem to want to let Rehfuss get open looks. Playing primarily behind the cage, when he pushed up on either side, his defender hacked at him, driving him away from the net and working to prevent a shot at all costs.

Since losing to Notre Dame on March 30, the Orange have made a point of playing their attacks, like Rehfuss and Solomon, behind the cage more. It forces Syracuse to pass the ball around, running its offense patiently. It also spaces out the defense, so when Rehfuss didn’t have shooting options, teammates did.

“The middies were doing a good job,” Rehfuss said. “A lot of the times, they were just finishing our feeds.”

With under a minute left in the first half, as SU put the game out of reach, Rehfuss darted from the X to the left side of the cage. He turned to his right to look for his shot. It wasn’t there. He turned back to his left and saw two defenders closing. There were less than five seconds on the shot clock.

As Rehfuss dodged back left, Voigt could see the play called up wasn’t going to work. He went to set a pick and his defender left him, so he drifted to the cage.

“I just went hard to left side,” Rehfuss said, “saw two guys come so I kind of turned, hoping that he would be open.”

Voigt was. And his bouncing shot crossed the goal line with one tick left on the shot clock. For Syracuse’s top attack line, it was that kind of day.

Published on April 20, 2019 at 9:45 pm

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