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With the score knotted at 13-13 and less than nine minutes remaining, Army’s Bobby Abshire scored three unassisted goals to lift Army to a victory in the Carrier Dome on Wednesday afternoon. Army’s faceoff specialist added a goal to seal the game.

Here are some observations from No. 14 Syracuse’s (1-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) 17-13 loss, the Orange’s third straight, against No. 12 Army (4-1):

Brendan Nichtern… again

Last year, Brendan Nichtern burned SU with seven points as Army upset the Orange at home in a seven-goal win.

Wednesday afternoon, Nichtern was once again the player to watch. First, Nick Caccamo threw a backward pass that flew over Bobby Gavin’s head, and Army used the additional possession to cash in via Nichtern. The attack had no separation against Brett Kennedy, but used his strength to shove the Syracuse close-defenseman backward and score.

Moments later, Nichtern replicated an almost identical play, bodying Kennedy from X and then scoring. Nichtern completed his hat trick when Gavin messed up a clear pass, leaving the net empty for a goal.

Nichtern fired from distance for his fourth goal to make it 11-10. He also dished an excellent extra pass for a long-pole goal and another to Danny Kielbasa after a long possession. Nichtern finished with six points on four goals and two assists, taking a backseat to Abshire in the fourth quarter.

Syracuse starts slowly, but not as slowly as the last two games

Syracuse dug itself an 8-1 first-quarter deficit against Virginia and spotted Maryland a 5-0 lead in the last two weeks. It looked like the Orange’s plague of slow starts was striking again when they went down 5-1, but Syracuse snapped out of it at the end of the first quarter.

SU had seven turnovers in the first 12 minutes of play, and all seven of those turnovers came on consecutive possessions. Gavin came out of the cage in an attempt to clear the ball but had the pass intercepted, leading to an easy Nichtern goal. SU negated its early faceoff success by turning the ball over repeatedly and struggling to clear properly.

But unlike the Virginia and Maryland losses, Syracuse settled down quicker. It scored four unanswered goals to level the score at 5-5, and then it took the lead. SU held that lead until midway through the fourth quarter.

Offense shows improvements, but comes up short

Syracuse had trouble producing consistent offense outside of Lucas Quinn and Tucker Dordevic against the nation’s top two teams in the past few weeks.

Wednesday afternoon, though, the offense posted 10 first-half goals, matching its game total against Maryland. Dordevic dodged and scored on one goal and found Owen Seebold for another. He dished a beautiful pass to dissect the Army defense and found Griffin Cook for another.

It wasn’t just Dordevic, however. Brendan Curry flashed his speed and capitalized on a short-stick matchup to score four total goals. The captain struggled in the past two weeks.

Seebold was quiet in past games too but scored four goals, punishing Army for matching him up with a short-stick early in the game. He came around the crease and fired a shot over the top of his head — not quite a behind-the-back, not quite an over-the-shoulder, but something in between — for one of his scores.

SU didn’t score when it mattered most though, going scoreless for almost the entire fourth quarter as the Black Knights took back the game.

Phaup dominates the faceoff X early on

Jakob Phaup got Syracuse possession time-and-time again. Early on, the Orange didn’t make good use of the ball, frequently losing it via a turnover after Phaup won at X. He won 14-of-19 in the first half.

But Phaup continued to dominate at X. When he couldn’t win the initial clamp, he scrapped for the loose ball. On numerous occasions, the former wrestler got into a brawl for a ground ball, and won. Other times, Phaup was tackled to the ground by one of the three faceoff players that Army turned to.

The faceoff specialist got his first career goal too, but wasn’t as effective in the second half. He finished 22-of-33 and had to watch as Army’s faceoff specialist Will Coletti got a late fourth-quarter goal as well.

Syracuse makes a goalie change

Heading into the 2022 season, it was unclear whether head coach Gary Gait would turn to Harrison Thompson, a backup goalie in past seasons, or the Virginia transfer, Gavin, in goal. The two split time during the Holy Cross season-opener, with Gavin playing the first half and Thompson playing the second.

After that, Gavin played the entirety of SU’s games against No. 1 Maryland and No. 2 UVA. He was consistent and provided a solid presence in the net in those games. Gavin started Wednesday’s contest against No. 12 Army but was pulled from the game and replaced by Thompson at the end of the first quarter.

Besides Holy Cross, this was the only in-game goalie change that Gait has made this season. Thompson made a save right off the bat and finished with eight saves and 12 allowed goals. A bizarre pass from Army’s Abshire bounced past him at the end of the third quarter, pulling Army within one goal.

Thompson made another point-blank range save to open the fourth quarter, but the rebound landed right in Kielbasa’s stick, allowing the Black Knights to tie the game.

Published on March 2, 2022 at 7:09 pm

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16