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Syracuse ended a four-game losing streak with a 16-8 win at Hofstra last Tuesday night, improving its winning percentage to .500. The Orange took a three-goal advantage into halftime, and outscored the Pride 9-4 in the second half. Joey Spallina led SU with four goals, and added three assists as well. Fellow attack Owen Hiltz notched six points, and Michael Leo recorded two scores. Syracuse, though, did struggle with faceoffs and ground balls, losing in both categories.

Next up for SU is a home meeting with upstate New York foe St. Bonaventure, which sits at a lowly 1-6 and has lost three games in a row. The Bonnies’ only win this season came against VMI in late-February, and the Orange are the only power-conference opponent on their schedule this season.

Here’s everything to know about St. Bonaventure (1-6, 0-0 Atlantic 10) ahead of Tuesday’s matchup:

All-time series

This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

The Bonnies report

St. Bonaventure is in just its fifth season of Division-I lacrosse after announcing its move to add a program in March 2017. The Bonnies squad started play in 2019, and lost 19 consecutive games through their first two seasons before going 5-5 in 2021. They followed that up with an impressive 11-4 season last year, when they lost to Manhattan by just one goal in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship game. Still, St. Bonaventure has yet to beat a marquee school, with its first-ever ranked test last season resulting in a 17-3 loss at then-No. 19 Richmond.

This season, though, the Bonnies have looked more like they did in their first few years in existence. They’ve sandwiched their win over VMI with two three-game losing streaks, and have been outscored 39-15 in the recent skid, which includes defeats against UMBC, Cleveland State and Canisus.

St. Bonaventure has had two scorers lead its offense so far, with Jake Rosa notching 14 goals and 21 points through seven games, and Sean Westley adding 12 and 20, respectively. But outside of those two, the Bonnies haven’t gotten much scoring, and rank 67th out of 72 teams nationally in scoring offense. In goal, St. Bonaventure has relied on freshman Cristofero Cucciuffo, who has many saves (75) as goals allowed, and has given up nearly 13 goals per contest, which ranks top-50 nationally.

Bridget Overby | Design Editor

How Syracuse beats St. Bonaventure

The Orange got their offense back on track against Hofstra, scoring their second-most goals this season and most since a week two win over UAlbany on February 10. SU had struggled to muster any offense days prior against Johns Hopkins, but the combination of Spallina, Hiltz and Finn Thomson seems to be steadily improving and on track for another solid game on Tuesday.

Goalie Will Mark, meanwhile, made 13 saves on eight shots versus the Pride, one his least impressive games of the season in what has otherwise been a remarkable opening to the season for the LIU transfer. Mark ranks first nationally in total saves with 118 — 10 more than the second-highest mark — and fourth in save percentage with 59%. SU, though, is still just 18th in the country in scoring defense, largely because of their face-off and ground ball struggles, items head coach Gary Gait has repeatedly hit on this year.

Hofstra scooped up 13 more ground balls than Syracuse, and won 10 more face-offs. Both regular starter Johnny Richiusa (5-for-17) and sophomore Jack Fine (4-for-11) fared poorly at the X, but SU’s defense kept the Pride’s attack in check. Entering Tuesday, the Orange rank 63rd in ground balls per game and 66th in faceoff percentage, marks that will need continuous improvement for the Orange to not just comfortably beat St. Bonaventure — but also handle the rest of their challenging schedule.

Improving those numbers, and getting solid games from Mark and the young attack should lead to an easy win on Tuesday given the basic talent advantage Syracuse has over Bonaventure.

Stat to know: -4.82

The Bonnies rank dead last out of all D-I teams in strength of record at -4.82, per LacrosseReference. The stat measures how many wins a typical top-10 team would have against the same schedule — with St. Bonaventure’s schedule, that means almost six wins midway through the season. Syracuse, on the other hand, ranks 41st nationally. The disparity shows how far apart the Orange — an ACC program that’s known around the sport — and Bonnies are.

Player to watch: Jake Rosa, attack, No. 21

Rosa is arguably St. Bonaventure’s best player, leading the team in goals and points. He was a first team all-conference selection for the second straight year last season, notching 24 goals and 15 assists. Only Westley averaged more points per game than Rosa, and he recorded a point in all but one game. The Ontario native has registered impressive games against Binghamton and VMI this season, totaling 16 shots and 12 points, though he was shut out against Canisius over the weekend, with all four of his shots on goal saved.

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Published on March 20, 2023 at 11:47 pm

Contact Connor: [email protected] | @csmith17_