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After Georgetown killed Syracuse’s man-up play and retook possession, Syracuse’s Lucas Quinn was trapped. The second-line midfielder didn’t have enough time to substitute in transition, and the Orange paid for it. One-on-one with Declan McDermott, the Hoyas attack dodged before unloading into the back of the net to put Georgetown up 2-0. 

Saturday night, the Hoyas’ first eight goals were all unassisted. The Orange didn’t slide as frequently as they typically have this season — they paid for that too in the form of a five-goal outing for McDermott and Jake Carraway, and another four from freshman Dylan Hess. 

The defensive issues that plagued Syracuse (7-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) all season materialized in Saturday’s season-ending 18-8 loss to Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After the Orange’s season-opening loss to Army on Feb. 21, head coach John Desko said Syracuse was sliding too early and leaving the crease uncovered. Syracuse had spells of defensive success — twice against Virginia, and others against weaker, nonconference teams. 

But the issues materialized again in a thrashing at the hands of North Carolina. Notre Dame’s Pat Kavanagh exposed the Orange with 19 combined points in two games that were a month apart. After the first, Syracuse highlighted what it needed to do in order to prevent a repeat performance from Kavanagh, to stop the bleeding on its defensive breakdown that continued to worsen due to injuries and absences to Nick DiPietro, Brandon Aviles and Dami Oladunmoye. In the second game, Kavanagh again emphasized Syracuse’s defense’s inability to slide and switch when necessary as he recorded 10 points.

“It didn’t seem like we were communicating,” Desko said on May 1 after allowing 22 goals to Notre Dame. “We weren’t sliding at times. Other times we slid. We didn’t cover up the backside.”

Saturday night, with a chance to hit the reset button after an underwhelming regular season, the Orange folded again.

For the Hoyas, 11 of 18 goals unassisted was uncharacteristic, Desko said. Syracuse entered the matchup intending to play them more “straight-up” because Georgetown typically has so many assists, he said. The strategy seemed logical — the Orange have struggled to slide consistently and effectively in their most important games of the season, so Syracuse needed to win its one-on-ones. But SU didn’t.

Despite splitting the faceoff battle, Syracuse had 15 fewer shots on goal. Courtesy of Tyler Cady | SU Athletics

“We just didn’t really execute to our level,” Brett Kennedy said postgame, breaking into tears as he spoke about Syracuse’s loss. Desko added the Orange needed to reassess their defensive personnel and schemes during the offseason, too. 

Early in the first quarter, Quinn, a Syracuse midfielder, got trapped in transition. Without enough time to substitute, he could only watch McDermott dodge past him and score to put the Hoyas up 2-0.

“They’re good dodgers, and they shoot the ball well on the outside on the run,” Desko said. “I thought we could’ve gotten a couple more stops, either with saves or the defense.”

Nicky Petkevich matched up against Oladunmoye to open the second quarter, executing a spin-dodge against the SU short-stick defensive midfielder before unloading a left-handed shot to put the Hoyas up 4-2. Kennedy played strong, tight defense on the following possession, but Carraway used his powerful, 6-foot-2 frame to generate the force for a shot — and a goal. Then McDermott dodged past Aviles, getting into an alley before exploding downfield for an easy goal.

“We said ‘Hey, just keep dodging, and we’ll see what happens and if they decide to change up anything defensively,’” Georgetown head coach Kevin Warne said. 

In the second half, Georgetown’s offense assisted on seven of its remaining 10 goals. Syracuse tried to slide more frequently after letting them “get in a little too tight” at the start of the game, Desko said. Against short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Dearth, Hess sidestepped the defender and drew a slide from Cole Horan. But when the SU defender arrived to assist, Hess zigzagged by him too, slotting the effort home from the doorstep. 

And moments later, Peter Thompson charged into empty space after dodging past his one-on-one matchup with Saam Olexo. Thompson picked his head up when an SU defender slid and found Carraway wide-open at the edge of the crease. The attack pump-faked the first effort and then scored the easy slam-dunk chance right after. He lowered his right knee and did the Dikembe Mutombo finger-wag celebration.

“Just be prepared that they might start coming early and sliding to us and trying to pick up the tempo a little bit, but I thought our guys adjusted really well throughout that second half,” Warne said.

Syracuse sprung into halftime by holding the Hoyas scoreless for the final five minutes, halting their 5-0 second-quarter run. SU pulled within four goals with a long-pole goal from Kennedy in the final seconds of the half and came out in the second half with a realistic shot at flipping the game. 

Then Carraway matched up against Dearth. The man-up opportunity couldn’t have been easier for the Tewaaraton Award finalist. Syracuse’s bench shouted “Shooter, Dearth” over and over, but the mismatch was obvious and the result, inevitable. One-on-one and without help, the All-American could only watch as Carraway dodged, bounced off contact and then slammed the shot past Drake Porter. 

A minute later, Hess started at X and turned the corner, matched up with Aviles. A teammate set Hess a pick, and the freshman attack darted around to the cage opening. By then, Aviles was a few steps behind and Kennedy hadn’t switched onto the attack. Hess dispatched the chance, reestablishing the Hoyas’ six-goal cushion and reassuring that the Orange suffered their third straight first-round tournament exit.

Published on May 16, 2021 at 12:40 am

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16