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Jamie Trimboli’s teeth chewed away at the black mouthguard hanging half out of the right side of his mouth. His eyes stared ahead, unmoving. Syracuse head coach John Desko stood beside him, arms crossed. Eric Dobson’s high, ripped shot on the man-up just capped a 9-2 run for Notre Dame to close the first half, and the Fighting Irish took a three-goal lead into the midway break.

No. 4 Syracuse (4-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) never recovered, losing 18-11 at home to No. 9 Notre Dame (5-1, 1-1). Here are three takeaways from Saturday afternoon’s defeat, the second straight ACC game the Orange have lost:

Drawing a blank

Jakob Phaup continued to struggle at the faceoff X at the start of Saturday’s contest. A week ago at Duke, Syracuse benched Phaup for Danny Varello after he started the game 1-for-10 on draws and picked up a pair of early faceoff violations. Against Notre Dame, Phaup started 1-for-8 and committed two violations in the first quarter. Danny Varello came out to the X to start the second quarter and fared similarly, going 2-for-7. Syracuse then tried freshman Jack Savage, who recovered several possessions for the Orange before succumbing to Notre Dame’s top-five faceoff unit, finishing 6-of-17.

At first, SU’s defensive pressure limited Notre Dame’s chances, forcing a couple of shot clock violations and six turnovers in the first quarter. But the Fighting Irish found rhythm on offense and rattled off seven unanswered goals to take a 14-8 lead midway into the third quarter. Desko said after last week’s loss that some teams are used to playing without possessions off faceoffs and can find ways to still win. Syracuse wasn’t one of those teams then, and it still isn’t.

Following in the footsteps

Pat Kavanagh came out on the left side of SU goalie Drake Porter, and without changing direction, Kavanagh flipped a bouncing shot over his shoulder. Porter didn’t realize the shot was coming until it was too late, and Kavanagh gave Notre Dame the 9-8 lead late in the first half.

A little over a week after being picked apart by Duke star Michael Sowers, Mitch Wykoff faced another challenging playmaker in Kavanagh. The result remained the same. Though Wykoff made the adjustment to pressure Kavanagh from the start of the game, he couldn’t maintain that for the entirety of the game.

Kavanagh scored three goals in the first half, punctuated by the highlight-reel over-the-shoulder goal, and added a pair of assists. In the second half, he scored another goal and picked up three assists. Wykoff could only put his hands on top of his head and stare at his goalie Porter in shock as Kavanagh scored nine points.

Grit n’ grind

The defensive flaws were apparent, and the offense, despite starting hot, couldn’t maintain its efficiency through the game. But above all, Notre Dame simply outworked Syracuse, winning the ground ball battle 45-20. Only last week against Duke did Syracuse grab fewer ground balls in a game this season. And even in that contest, the Orange were only -16 in the battle for loose balls compared to -25 against UND.

Part of that relates to the faceoff battle. That’s what Syracuse players have previously said they pride themselves on — battling on the wings to help out the faceoff guys. With the likes of Brett Kennedy and Peter Dearth, both preseason All-Americans, the Orange should never be losing the fight for ground balls. But in two straight ACC losses, that’s been the case.

The hustle plays are what have kept Syracuse consistently a step behind, and they’re what allowed whoops of joy from the UND bench to echo through the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon.

Published on April 3, 2021 at 2:20 pm

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