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After defeating Manhattan 16-3 last weekend, head coach Gary Gait said No. 5 Syracuse’s opening three-game stretch gave it exactly what it wanted: a chance to figure out what the team’s tendencies are and enough time to correct them before taking on No. 4 Maryland.

But the Terrapins exposed the worst of the Orange. They completely took out Joey Spallina and Owen Hiltz for most of the game. They gave Mason Kohn his first tough matchup of the season. And they got past Will Mark on second chances as well as multiple goals from X.

Still, SU lingered for as long as it could, going to overtime for the first time since losing 15-14 to Duke on March 5, 2023. Just like that matchup, Syracuse was again on the losing end after a video review wiped out a goal from Michael Leo and George Stamos immediately scored on the other end.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) 13-12 loss to Maryland (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten):

4th quarter frenzy

Syracuse entered the fourth quarter with an 8-7 advantage, having the chance to defeat the Terrapins at home for the first time since 1983. But Braden Erksa wasn’t going to make it easy, scoring unassisted on Maryland’s first possession of the quarter from 10 yards out.

Luke Rhoa answered back for the Orange, charging to the middle of the field from the right side before rocketing a lefty strike into the top of the net. But Erksa answered right back, tying the game at 9-9.

Leo put Syracuse back in front, muscling his way past Nick Redd to get to the right side of the crease. Once he got his body turned to the goal, Leo immediately bounced the ball left of Logan McNaney’s stick and in the back of the net. Kohn won the ensuing faceoff, setting up Rhoa’s fourth goal of the evening — an unassisted lefty blast from the middle of the field.

But just as SU made the most of its faceoffs, Maryland did the same soon after. Jack Koras picked up the ground ball off the next faceoff and sprinted down the middle of the field. Before a slide could get there, Koras fired to cut SU’s lead to one. Three minutes later, Koras passed from X to Daniel Maltz on a man-up opportunity, tying the game at 11-11.

Eric Spanos scored to put the Terrapins back on top, working alone from X before coming to the front of the cage from the right side and forcing the Orange to call a timeout. Christian Mulé responded with his first goal of the night, sending the game to overtime.

Maryland’s lockdown 1st half

While preparing for Maryland, the one thing which stood out to Gait was its defense, which held Loyola to just 16 shots on goal a week ago. The main reason for the Terrapins success has been the return of McNaney in the cage after an ACL tear forced him out for most of last season.

To get past McNaney, Gait said Thursday that Syracuse would have to move the ball and work as a team. But that wasn’t the case early Saturday as SU stacked up empty possessions from attacks trying to play hero ball. Even when it tried to make passes near the crease, flips from Hiltz crashed to the turf instead of into another stick.

The one time Maryland’s defense did break down, the Orange couldn’t capitalize. Spallina charged at McNaney on the ride four minutes into the second quarter, poking the ball out of his stick. Spallina looked around for an open option, eventually finding Finn Thomson, who launched the ball at goal. But McNaney got back in time, maintaining the Terrapins three-goal lead.

Spallina finished with just one assist in the first half, scoring no goals in a half for the first time since playing Virginia last April, when he finished with zero goals the entire contest. The Orange only had 10 shots on goal and finished with four goals.

Secondary scoring

While Spallina and Hiltz struggled to get anything going on offense, they received help from the rest of the attack. But the aid didn’t come from the expected transfers like Jake Stevens, Sam English or Mulé. Early, it came from Rhoa and Leo, two sophomores who worked their way into the rotation last season.

Rhoa scored the first goal of the night, securing a bounce pass from Spallina before firing it in from the right side of the crease. Leo scored back-to-back goals in the second period, the only two scores from either side in the quarter.

On his first goal, Leo worked alone on the right side before charging toward the middle. He gained a step on his defender, lifting his stick up for a lefty strike which cut Maryland’s lead to two. The second came off a man-up opportunity.

At the start of the third quarter, Rhoa got back on the board. He worked solo this time, beating his defender while running down the right side before bouncing it past McNaney. English mimicked the same score seven minutes later with his righty strike giving Syracuse a 7-6 lead.

Faceoff’s finest

When recounting last year’s 15-12 loss to Maryland, Gait said the Terrapins dominated the faceoff and were “provided so many opportunities.” Johnny Richiusa, who was then Syracuse’s go-to faceoff specialist, won 7-of-30 faceoffs, depleting SU’s chances down the stretch.

This year, the Orange have monumentally upgraded. They replaced Johnny Richiusa’s 41.7% faceoff win percentage with Kohn’s 77.0% success rate, which was fifth-best nationally before Saturday.

But each opponent Kohn faced in SU’s opening week didn’t even crack the country’s top 40. Maryland’s Luke Wierman, who is tied for 14th in the nation with a 65.2% win percentage, was his first real test.

Wierman won the clamp on the game’s opening faceoff, but Kohn won the next two. On the latter, Kohn charged down the left side after securing the clamp. He kept sprinting toward the crease, waiting for a Maryland defender to slide toward him. But no one did, leaving him a wide open look which bounced past McNaney to give SU a 2-1 lead.

Gait said Thursday that he hoped Kohn and John Mullen could win at least 50% of faceoffs. The Orange won 44.8%, but that didn’t matter in the end.

Man-up, man-down

Through Syracuse’s opening three games, man-up and man-down opportunities didn’t make much of a difference as Syracuse cruised to blowout wins. Against the Terrapins, they had a lot more weight.

SU combined for 16 penalties heading into Saturday but earned four penalties in the first quarter itself. The second came from Billy Dwan giving an illegal body check to Erksa as he evened the game at 1-1, and the third less than a minute later following a push from Mullen on the faceoff.

Maryland made the most of two extra men, easily stringing together a few passes that ended up in Koras’ stick on the left side of the crease. Koras corralled the ball and slotted the ball past Mark to tie the game at 2-2.

The Orange got their own man-up opportunity after Leo was body checked on his first goal of the game in the second quarter. Leo stationed himself on the baseline of the goal on the right side, waiting for the ball to get moved around the perimeter before landing in his stick. Thomson made the final pass, allowing Leo to smoothly catch the ball and thread it into the back of the net.

Published on February 17, 2024 at 9:03 pm

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