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Seconds after Jakob Phaup won the faceoff at the X and knocked the loose ball toward No. 2 Virginia’s net, Peter Dearth charged to the 40-yard line and scooped up the ball. He charged — and kept charging — because there was no one within five yards of him.

He kept going until he saw freshman Owen Hiltz alone near the right post. Dearth flipped the attack a pass, and Hiltz dispatched the easy effort to put SU up by five with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. It was also Hiltz’s second quick-hitting goal against the Cavaliers.

“They bring the goalie up and push a defenseman over, so if you can get behind it, you’re going to get transition,” Brendan Curry said postgame. “Our D-middies are unbelievable in transition… they’re fast, athletic, and they can all push offense.”

Syracuse’s offense was spotty last weekend in its season opener. The Orange jumped out to an early 6-1 start, courtesy of a Tucker Dordevic first-quarter hat trick, but then sputtered. Powerful, ripped shots from the first quarter turned into weak ones that looked more like passes later in the game.

Dordevic said postgame that SU’s shooters needed to “change up how we shoot” to generate continuous offensive output. “We just got to clean it up,” Dordevic said.

Saturday evening, Syracuse showed huge strides of improvement. There were still shades of the man-down defensive issues for brief windows, but the up-and-down offense that plagued the Orange in last week’s loss vanished. No. 9 Syracuse (1-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) looked like a revitalized team against No. 2 UVA (3-1, 0-1) in its 20-10 upset win in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse asserted its dominance by ending the game on an 11-3 run to secure its largest margin of victory over the Cavaliers. Dordevic, Hiltz, Curry and Stephen Rehfuss all had hat tricks, too.

Last week, Syracuse didn’t appear fully ready. “We just finished our third week at practice, and frankly, I think we played like it,” head coach John Desko said.

But against the Cavaliers, the Orange’s offense held firm. Desko wasn’t sure how SU would play, but he was pleased with the way his team controlled the pace of the game. Frequently, Syracuse took advantage of the Cavaliers’ poor transition defense. The Orange played quick, like Hiltz’s goals, igniting the offense. And when fitting, they slowed the game down. 

Tucker Dordevic had a hat trick in Syracuse’s 20-10 win against Virginia. Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

“Transition’s a trademark of Syracuse lacrosse,” Desko said. “We’re going to take it when we have it, and then we want to recognize when we don’t have it so we can… play a little bit more patiently.”

Up two goals at the start of the second half, Syracuse forced a turnover at midfield and charged down toward the UVA goal. In space, Rehfuss ran to the edge of the crease before flipping a pass over his right shoulder to a crashing Hiltz. Seconds into the second half, the freshman scored to give the Orange a cushion.

Earlier in the first half, Drake Porter made a routine save and connected on the outlet pass. In less than 10 seconds, the Orange went end-to-end, from Porter to Nick Hapney, through a sequence of passes and eventually to Hiltz and Rehfuss for another easy goal. 

“Porter did an awesome job getting his head up and moving it,” Curry said. “We always harp on clears, and I think we’ve been clicking in those in practice, so that carried out today.”

Syracuse showed patience, too. In the first half, it moved the ball from side-to-side behind the X frequently, stringing together passes between Rehfuss, Chase Scanlan and Hiltz, who got his first collegiate start in place of Griffin Cook.

Rehfuss connected with Quinn, who unleashed one from deep for Syracuse’s first goal of the game. Later in the first quarter, the ball trickled to Quinn once again, who shuffled to his right and planted his feet before connecting with the bottom left corner of the net. 

When the Cavaliers hit back with two consecutive goals, closing Syracuse’s five-goal lead to three, the Orange responded via Dordevic. Unassisted, he rifled home a shot to extend the lead, fueling the start of a 7-0 run for SU that carried into the fourth quarter.

Jamie Trimboli connected on a highlight-reel play when he slid his stick under his defender and dove forward for the goal. That goal stemmed from patience, from Curry waiting to pick his moment before driving and passing and from Trimboli’s explosiveness. Curry got his hat trick moments later on in the same play, this time electing to take it all the way himself.

In transition at the end of the third quarter, Brett Kennedy had a rare long-pole goal that caused Syracuse’s bench to erupt. It was only the sixth career goal in 36 games for Kennedy, who shifted to long-stick midfielder in the second half.

Nick DiPietro had collected a ground ball, and when the Orange cleared, the ball found Kennedy at midfield. Just like Dearth had done minutes before, Kennedy charged. With no one within 10 yards of him, he kept charging, all the way to the 30, the 20, the 15 before he fired a bounce-shot into the turf. 

On the sideline moments later, he grinned. He knew that UVA had no answer to Syracuse’s transition play.

Published on February 27, 2021 at 8:25 pm

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16