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Two straight losses to ranked teams showed head coach Gary Gait and the Orange where they stood during the early stages of the season. A young team unable to close out opponents with more experience has led to two losses. After leaping out to a 5-1 start in the first quarter, the Orange were in command until late in the third.

Despite losing the faceoff, ground ball and shots on goal battle, the Orange held strong. But a 6-0 run to finish the third quarter catapulted Duke into the lead. Syracuse fought back and forced overtime, but ultimately allowed a goal to Charles Balsamo four minutes into the first overtime period. The already-exhausted Syracuse (3-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) defense wilted late, falling to Duke (5-1, 1-0) 14-13.

Here are some observations from the loss:

Ground ball battle

After allowing the most goals of the season against then-No. 12 North Carolina, Gait said that the Orange needed to clean up its play. They were dominated picking up ground balls and were overwhelmed by a physical, relentless Tar Heel team en route to a 19-12 loss. It was something Gait said the Orange were going to have to focus on before they took on the Blue Devils, who have picked up the second-most ground balls in the country. Syracuse, he said, just needed more reps throughout the week to improve.

It wasn’t as if the Orange were doing a specific thing wrong — sometimes they should have kicked the ball forward, and other times stood tall in front of their defender. Syracuse needed to pick up more ground balls and stave off breakaway shots to have a chance in this game, and it did neither. SU picked up 24 ground balls to the Blue Devils’ 40.

Initially, the ground balls didn’t mean much, because Syracuse’s defense was so astute. But as the game progressed and the defense began to tire and allow goals closer to the net, the ground balls became a point of groaning for the fans at the JMA Wireless Dome.

After Owen Hiltz lost the ball deep in the corner on offense in the third quarter, two Duke players converged on the ground ball and blocked him out from putting a stick on it. They easily sprinted off on offense and collected another goal, moving their lead to 12-10 to end the quarter.

Can Johnny be good?

Jake Naso came into the game with the best faceoff percentage in the ACC, hoping to capitalize on Johnny Richiusa’s average play this season. Against Maryland, Richiusa won just 7-of-30 faceoffs against one of the best faceoff specialists in the country. Naso proved to be another challenging matchup for the former Canisius sophomore in his first season at the faceoff X for the Orange, and after going 5-of-16 was pulled for backup Jack Fine, who fared equally badly against Naso.

Richiusa started off solid, winning three of his first seven faceoffs, leaping out of his stance and flipping the ball out to one of Syracuse’s midfielders. That helped the Orange jump out to an early 5-1 lead and maintain it, despite ending the first half with seven fewer shots on goal than the Blue Devils. But Naso adjusted, and Richiusa didn’t. He ended the first half with just a 33.3% faceoff winning percentage, including a faceoff violation. Richiusa, who entered the game with a 42.7% faceoff win rate, struggled with consistency, even at a 50% clip like he did against North Carolina.

As he faded off and won fewer and fewer faceoffs, so too did the Orange’s offense burst that helped them jump out to a lead and hold it until O’Neill’s fourth goal sailed in with 4:35 left in the third quarter to tie the game at 10 apiece. Just like he did against the Terrapins, Richiusa struggled throughout. But when he did win, like late in the second quarter when he bolted down the field, quickly passed to Cole Kirst and recorded an assist after Kirst took one step and ripped through a goal, the Orange were able to stay ahead of Duke. When he was quick, he’d commit a faceoff violation or dive off-balanced past the ball.

First half defense fades

Syracuse rebounded from allowing the most goals (19) of the season with a strong defensive stand against Duke, a team that has scored at least 12 goals in each game heading into Sunday’s game. The Blue Devils piled on shots early and controlled the ball for the majority of the first quarter, but most of them were heavily guarded and went off-target or off the post. The Orange forced Duke deep into the shot clocks and its attackers to bail on attempts.

On one possession, Aidan Danenza tried from the left side to juke around his man, but ended up having to pass out to Garrett Leadmon at the top of the formation. Then, Leadmon darted straight in toward the goal before Caden Kol forced him left, where he tossed the ball over to Balsamo. The midfielder finally peeled around his defender and fired off a shot on net, but it went high and out of bounds. Andrew McAdorey tried to get enough space to shoot, but the shot clock hit zero before he could.

As the game progressed, Duke proved to be too much for Syracuse’s defense. Over the course of the third quarter, the Blue Devils ripped off a 6-0 run that moved it into the lead heading into the final frame of the afternoon. The strong walls that they had created on both sides of the crease began to crack, then completely tumbled over as Duke stayed persistent in its attacks of the net.

Cole Kirst dominates

Kirst has been one of the most prolific scorers for the Orange, guiding a young group in his fifth collegiate season and first at Syracuse. But the attack came into the game with just six goals and two assists off of 16 shots on goal, acting more as a catalyst for the offense than a finisher. But Sunday was his day.

Amidst a defensive collapse and giving up a four-goal lead twice, Kirst nabbed a season-high four goals and added in two assists on a team-leading eight shots on goal. He scored the Orange’s final goal in the third quarter and moved the deficit to one, setting up for Finn Thomson to tie the game with an unassisted goal off a screen from Luke Rhoa.

He was everywhere, frequently collecting passes on the wings of the offensive formation and darting inside to create space for shooters. Even when he was unable to penetrate inside — at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he couldn’t juke out Wilson Stephenson — he’d attempt to find enough space to rip off a shot. He did so once he outran Stephenson, darting a few steps to his right to fire a shot into the top right corner of the net.

The next possession after missing a shot high and wide, he collected a pass from Richiusa, fresh off a faceoff win, took one step and rifled in his second goal of the afternoon. He tended to score without much help, flying around the outside of the formation from his position to find space and grab an unassisted goal.

Published on March 5, 2023 at 6:50 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt