Syracuse 11 - Army 9: Orange Survive Army's Late Attack

Syracuse led Army 7-0 with :34 left in the 1st quarter. They led 9-3 at halftime. It wasn't a question of whether or not the Orange would win but by how much.

Two. That's how much.

Army did what they do best, stifle the Orange attack after figuring it out, and almost stealing another win in the Dome before SU closed the door on a 11-9 victory. It was truly a story of two halves.

In an emphatic tale of two halves, Army had displaced SU as the team in command. Syracuse played the part of the boxer who lands a bunch of staggering blows early but punches himself out in the process...

The situation was this: Syracuse outshot Army 25-8 in the first half. It was outshot 20-9 in the second. It led the groundball battle 17-9 in the first half. It lost it 13-11 in the second. Its offense poured eight goals past Palesky in the game’s first 18:42. It was shut out for 24:09 in the second half.

The 2-0 Orange will take the win but they'll also take with them a continued respect for the Black Knights (1-2). The key for the Knights and something upcoming opponents are sure to look at is the use of the zone defense to shut down the Orange attack:

"It’s a lot to ask for our offense," SU coach John Desko said, "but the way we were forcing them to rotate in their zone, we forced them to rotate up and we had some flat shots down low. We tried to adjust that and force them to rotate the other way so we were getting our shots more from up top with angles, and (Palesky) made some of those saves, too. Fortunately we had the healthy lead and it was enough to help us hold on and win the game."

JoJo Marasco tied his career high with five points (3G, 2A), which was also his second career hat trick. Tim Desko finished with three goals while Jeremy Thompson and Jovan Miller also scored twice.

Jphn Galloway recorded nine saves, including seven in the second half. It's Galloway's 46th career win, which puts him one shy of the Syracuse career wins record held by Jay Pfeifer.

Next up for the Orange is Virginia, who comes to the Dome on Friday, March 4th. The game will be on ESPNU.