Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Orange overcome hot goalie, roll past Manhattan, 18-2

After being blanked in the first quarter, ‘Cuse erupted and romped to a win.

The first quarter belonged to Connor Hapward.

The Manhattan goalie, who finished the game with an astonishing 24 saves, played a perfect opening 15 minutes on Tuesday night in the JMA Dome, making eight saves while holding SU to 0-of-14 shooting. As a result, his team was shockingly ahead 1-0 at the end of the first.

And that was, more or less, all she wrote for the Jaspers on Tuesday night.

While Hapward continued to pile up saves all night long on his way to his new career high, the Syracuse Orange eventually broke the damn in an explosive way in their 18-2 demolition of the Jaspers.

After their scoreless first quarter in which they moved the ball well and got good looks but couldn’t beat Hapward, ‘Cuse finally got on the board thanks to a beautiful BTB finish from Trey Deere that kickstarted his career night. That was the first of three straight goals that gave SU a 3-1 lead just over six minutes into the second quarter.

Manhattan scored their second goal to make it 3-2 with 6:12 left in the first half. From there, it was a complete ‘Cuse takeover as they finished the game on a 15-0 run.

The final numbers were astounding in the way they favored SU. Of course you expect that in a game between these two teams, but even by those standards, these numbers were eye-popping. Let’s lay them all out at once:

• Shots: SU, 71-18
• Shots on Goal: SU, 42-9
• Face-offs: SU, 21-2
• Ground Balls: SU, 49-19
• Turnovers: SU, 11-20

That’s some of the most lopsided stats you’ll ever see, especially in shots, shots on goal and face-offs.

The difference was so intense that there were two individual quarters in which the Orange fired off more shots than Manhattan did for the entire game. The Jaspers had more turnovers than shots and more than double as many turnovers as shots on goal. The ‘Cuse defense was able to hold them to single-digit shots on cage for the entire game.

The disparity in athleticism and aggression was on display in every facet. Manhattan had a nightmare of a time clearing the ball because they couldn’t shake free to work the ball up the field. A handful of times, they just heaved it down field in hopes they’d somehow track the ball down. They went 15-of-21 on clears.

When they did get clears, they worked most of their shot clocks down as the Orange defense bore down on them, forcing shot clock violations and turnovers. One of their goals was scored on a rebound opportunity, and the other was scored off a loose ball that popped into the air that they tracked down first. Basically, they did not successfully break down the SU defense all night.

The Manhattan defense switched back and forth between man and zone, favoring the zone for the majority of the game. That suited the Orange just fine, as they did a nice job working the ball around and attacking the open space with their off-ball cuts. They really made a point of initiating through Joey Spallina at X, more than usual I thought.

Moving Trey Deere above GLE and in front of goal where he’s at his most effective, Spallina was largely free to operate by himself behind the cage. He took advantage, finding teammates with relative ease as they cut through the middle of the zone. Joey finished with two goals and four assists for the game, and his six points moved him to 199 for his career as both he and Owen Hiltz (198) are on the doorstep of the 200-point club.

Trey Deere had the best game of his career with four goals and five ground balls, a big part of a ‘Cuse offense that made a habit of tracking loose balls for offensive rebounds all game long. Michael Leo had a hat trick, and Luke Rhoa finished with a goal and two assists.

Sammy English had a two-goal game and also had an incredible seven ground balls, while Tyler McCarthy had a goal, an assist and four ground balls. In total, seven players finished with multiple points and 13 players registered a point.

The Orange will be back in the Dome this weekend for a much sterner test against the Colgate Raiders at 12 PM this Saturday, March 22 on the ACC Network.