Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Orange secures first ranked win of the season in 18-7 thrashing of #16/#17 Towson

Despite a less-than-perfect performance, the Orange turned on the style in the final quarter to secure a dominant scoreline

The Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse team (3-0) picked up their first ranked win of the season after thrashing the #16/#17 Towson Tigers 18-7 in the JMA Wireless Dome on Monday evening.

While the Orange endured some difficult moments throughout the game, the team turned on the style and punched home seven goals in the fourth quarter to finish the game with a double-digit victory.

The undefeated Orange entered the game as the second-ranked team in the nation, having seen off Jacksonville and Vermont in their first two games. Towson lost their first and only prior game of their season against #6 Johns Hopkins.

The teams last faced off in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, where the Orange ran out 20-15 victors, giving the Tigers some extra motivation to win as they had mentioned in the press in recent comments.

Following a win on the opening faceoff from John Mullen, both teams failed to score on their opening possessions. The Orange’s second possession of the game called for a Michael Leo isolation, who easily dusted his defender and calmly converted to land the first punch.

A beautiful backhand shovel from Finn Thomson made it two for SU and got the crowd going before the game really accelerated. The Orange dominated early opportunities thanks to the work of John Mullen at faceoff, who won out in each of his first three battles against Towson specialist Matt Constantinides.

Towson grabbed their first goal of the evening just after four minutes as Cuse held a 2-1 lead despite a lion’s share of time with the ball. This discrepancy wasn’t aided by Towson’s offense being responsible for a few sloppy turnovers in their sets through the opening period.

Joey Spallina chipped in with a goal of his own off the back of a five-goal and five-assist performance against Vermont, and Luke Rhoa and Owen Hiltz each added another to give SU a 5-2 lead after 11 minutes of play.

While the Tigers scored their first two opportunities by approaching with a head of steam from the 30 or 40-yard-line, the Orange defense was incredibly successful in stifling them when the offense slowed up and ran some sets.

The Orange D rotated well, communicated constantly, and kept sticks up, bothering the Towson attackers when they attempted to take their time and pass through the middle. The team suffered most in these early stages when the Tigers capitalized on their one-on-one opportunities against short-sticks to build up speed heading into the danger area.

Thomson added another before the end of the period, with Towson also scoring from another gritty, direct dodge to leave the score at 6-3 in favor of SU.

Despite the Orange’s dominance in face-offs (7 to 3), shots (15 to 4), and turnovers (5 caused to 2 caused) in the first quarter, Towson stayed in the game through a few efficient possessions that gave their attack hope going forward.

“We made the right adjustments, the coaches made the right changes from the weekend” explained Head Coach Gary Gait. “They were struggling to find open players [and] our guys were fighting for everything.”

The Tigers grew into the game more as the second period went on, but Rhoa struck first for SU to take a 7-3 lead on the day.

Towson’s opportunities were hindered by more turnovers as the Orange disrupted three clears in the second period and grabbed a few more loose balls when the defense was set, giving them six caused turnovers in the quarter.

The Orange endured no such difficulties in the clear as they were ruthless and efficient. Carter Rice dusted half the Towson team on multiple occasions, and SU completed all but one of their clears in the half.

Towson found more success from a few direct dodges and a man-up situation, but a personal flurry from Owen Hiltz allowed him to complete a first-half hat-trick while maintaining SU’s sizable cushion in the lead.

The score read 9-5 as the buzzer rang for half, although both sides probably thought they could have grabbed even more goals. Through the first thirty minutes, SU’s dominance in generating extra possessions by causing turnovers and winning faceoffs had been key in establishing the lead.

Thomson netted again to begin the scoring in the second half, but Towson answered quickly through Bode Maurer to grab his second of the day.

The Orange were sloppy on the face-off through these opening minutes as Towson went 4/4 against the Cuse unit to generate a few high-probability opportunities to start the half. Despite increasing pressure, the Orange defense looked excellent when set in 6-on-6, with Jimmy McCool making a few outstanding saves. The junior made seven of his nine saves in the third period.

Luke Downs answered with some great saves of his own in the Towson goal as both teams struggled to break through for an extended period.

It wasn’t until Towson picked up an off-ball penalty that the Orange were able to capitalize and score, taking an 11 to 6 lead through Michael Leo.

The following minutes were again devoid in the way of goals, with strong showings from both of the men in sweatpants. The game entered its final period with SU in a commanding 11-7 lead, but Towson was still not out of it, having led the third quarter 16-7 in shots.

The Orange made sure to come out swinging in the final period as they delivered a great performance to ensure another big win. Sam English was the first to score, grabbing his first of the day through a spectacular individual effort.

Joey Spallina then turned on the style as he embarrassed his defender to add another, setting the score at 13-7 Cuse.

By this point, the Towson squad seemed gassed from their intense efforts through the game, and the Orange offense was simply able to possess and wind down the clock as Rhoa (2x), Tyler McCarthy, Leo, and Jackson Birtwistle all scored to finish the game with a 18-7 score in favor of the Orange.

The Orange defense also stood strong through this period, not conceding once, although they had nowhere near as much to do compared to the first three quarters. With a 7-0 run through that final quarter, the team would be heading into their next matchup on a high.

Own Hiltz finished with the standout statistical performance on the day with three goals and four assists to his name. Leo, Thomson, and Rhoa each tallied a hat-trick, whilst Joey Spallina finished with four assists and two goals.

The team dominated by most metrics, including turnovers forced (16 to 10), ground balls (34 to 21), and faceoff wins (18 to 11).

After the game, Coach Gait was quick to heap praise on his players for a “great team effort after a quick two-day turnaround to prepare for a top-20 team.”

Gait added that the effort throughout the game, including an outstanding final quarter, “tells you what type of culture you are building and what type of team we have this year.”

Following this excellent showing, the Orange will face their toughest challenge of the campaign so far as they will head on the road to face #4/#4 Maryland on Saturday afternoon. The Terps handed SU their first loss of last season in an OT thriller, giving the team plenty of motivation to come out strong and secure a win in the top-5 matchup.