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One of the biggest games of Jackson Birtwistle’s young career started just four minutes into Monday night’s matchup with No. 5 Cornell when true freshman Matteo Corsi dished a pass to Matt Magnan. Eventually, the ball found Birtwistle — a redshirt freshman — and he went through the legs of Cornell’s goalie to give SU a 2-0 lead.

Minutes later, Birtwistle himself started at X. He recognized the short-stick matchup, and sprinted past his defender and around the front of the cage before pinging the top right corner to make it 5-1.

“Being able to get those two was definitely good for our momentum and starting to put some goals together,” Birtwistle said of his two first-quarter goals.

Birtwistle is one of many new names who’s seen a significant increase in playing time this season. Plagued by injuries, particularly to starters Owen Hiltz, Griffin Cook and Lucas Quinn, among others, Syracuse’s younger talent has had numerous opportunities to step into those roles.

At times, like Syracuse’s overtime loss to Cornell on Monday or its upset over Duke about two weeks ago, the younger, inexperienced players have impressed. Five of SU’s 15 goals against No. 5 Cornell came from non-offensive starters. Other instances, like SU’s loss to UAlbany, they’ve disappointed. But the experience the younger players are earning now — in addition to a stacked recruiting 2022 class — should pay off for SU down the line.

“It was nice to see those other guys, looking down the stat sheet … we had other guys scoring,” head coach Gary Gait said of the secondary offensive production. “So hopefully that’ll build their confidence for next week … and hopefully we can continue to get all players involved, not just our go-to guys.”

Redshirt freshman Nick Caccamo has played in 10 of 11 games this season and started the last eight. Caccamo was a fraction of a second late to the slide at the end of the fourth quarter and allowed the game-tying goal that forced overtime. Then he was once again fractionally late to the slide on Hugh Kelleher, who scored to give Cornell the win.

Brett Kennedy called the two plays a “learning mistake” postgame. Kennedy said he told the young defender to keep his head up and use the experience in the future.

Syracuse’s secondary players are nowhere near perfect yet. Against UAlbany, when SU lost 14-12 in the rain, Gait said SU’s thin lineup was doing the best it could, but “they don’t have a lot of experience, and it showed a little bit today.”

“It was (an) opportunity for our young guys, and they need to get a little bit more experience to handle them and make plays,” Gait said. “We’re just shallow.”

Moving forward next year, Syracuse will have gaps to fill without defensive captain Kennedy, faceoff specialist Jakob Phaup, and presumably no Owen Seebold or Brendan Curry, among others.

But 2023 is setting up to be a promising roster for SU. The Orange are adding the No. 1 overall recruit of the class and their future No. 22, Joey Spallina, along with five-star recruits Carter Kempney (midfield), Billy Dwan (defense) and Finlay Thomson (attack). The class ranks No. 4 nationally, according to Inside lacrosse.

Syracuse should get Hiltz back, and Tucker Dordevic has already announced he’ll return for a sixth season. And most of all, the “secondary” players — while they might be having their ups and downs now — are gaining experience for primary roles in the future.

“They’ve all been doing an outstanding job, and we were really banged up in the midfield,” Gait said of the secondary players after Syracuse’s win over Duke. “We moved them up the depth chart, and I think we’ll see some of the second and third line guys become impact players here as we go down the stretch of the season.”

The game was won when…

Syracuse had a firm grip on the game with a five-goal lead going into halftime, but the advantage slipped away during the third quarter. Yet after the blown lead, the Orange didn’t continue quietly. They had the upset win within their grasp when Dordevic scored with 1:45 left in the game but allowed an equalizing goal in the final 30 seconds to force overtime.

In overtime, Syracuse had opportunities to scoop up the loose ball at the faceoff X but couldn’t. Cornell retained possession, showed patience on offense and found the net to end the game before SU’s offense ever got the ball.

Quote of the night: Brett Kennedy

“On that last one, the communication was great on defense,” Kennedy said. “We were just a little, half-second slow, and that’s going to cost you against a team like that.”

Game ball: Brendan Curry, SU midfielder

Curry has been a mainstay on Syracuse’s offense for a while — he was the only current player who started against Cornell in 2019 when SU won 13-8.

The fifth-year midfielder was a consistent force for SU throughout the contest and scored on two crucial back-to-back possessions with under 10 minutes remaining in the game. Those two goals gave SU a one-goal lead, which ultimately didn’t hold up. But he proved once again that he’s capable of delivering in some of the game’s important moments.

“Just an emotional game coming down the stretch there,” Curry said. “It’s tough when the ball doesn’t bounce your way, but you got to just keep fighting.”

Stat to know: 40.5% offensive efficiency

No loss is a good loss, but Syracuse had a 40.5% offensive efficiency against Cornell, its best of the season among seven defeats, according to Lacrosse Reference.

Turnovers on offense have been a serious issue for SU lately (45% turnover rate against Notre Dame, 43.5% turnover rate against UAlbany), but it did an excellent job taking care of the ball on Monday against Cornell. SU had a season-best 18.9% turnover rate against the Big Red, meaning it was taking better advantage of when it had the ball compared to recent games.

Three final points

The end of the road: Syracuse has a 0.1% chance of making the NCAA Tournament, according to Lacrosse Reference’s bracketology. Syracuse ranks 61st among 73 Division I teams in the field, according to NCAA Tournament hopes.

SU needs to get back to .500 in order to even be NCAA Tournament-eligible, and that would require three straight upset wins over No. 15 North Carolina, No. 6 Virginia and No. 10 Notre Dame. All the signs point to a postseason without Syracuse for the first time since 2007.

Cornell’s record in close games benefited the Big Red vs SU. Entering Monday’s matchup, Cornell had three wins in one-goal games this year.The Big Red hadn’t lost in a close game, and that didn’t change on Monday against the Orange.

Cornell stayed patient, and calm, in the final moments of the fourth quarter and overtime. Cornell head coach Connor Buczek said the game plan was not to rush the offense, and though Syracuse defended well for the majority of the possession clocks on both those goals, the Big Red were eventually able to capitalize on a gap in the defense.

The one-quarter slump. Across Syracuse’s seven losses this season, five have included a one-quarter slump where the Orange were thoroughly outscored and outmatched. Against Maryland, the Terps took a 4-0 first quarter lead. Against Virginia, it was an 8-1 start. Against Army, the Black Knights had a 5-0 run in the fourth quarter. And against Cornell, it was a 5-1 stretch in the third quarter. The only exceptions were Johns Hopkins and UAlbany.

Syracuse scores an average of 3.36 goals per quarter this season, but in all five of the aforementioned quarters combined, it scored two total goals. Opponents stretched their leads — or cut into their deficits — by a margin of at least four goals in each contest. The Orange’s lack of consistency has become habitual.

Next up: at No. 15 North Carolina

Syracuse is 1-4 on the road this season, and those four losses include an average 7.5-goal margin of defeat. SU has not played well on the road this season, and it’ll look to change that trend when it travels to North Carolina on Saturday for a 4 p.m. faceoff. The Tar Heels just scored four goals in their loss to Virginia and will be looking to bounce back from that defeat as well.

Published on April 12, 2022 at 5:36 pm

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16