The Syracuse Orange play their fifth game in their season-opening seven-game homestand Saturday afternoon as they host their archrival Johns Hopkins Blue Jays inside the Carrier Dome. Opening faceoff is set for 1 PM on ACC Network Extra (Live Stats are here).
The Blue Jays lead the all-time series 30-26-1. But the Orange has won six of the last 10 meetings.
The Last Game
It looked like Syracuse were on their way to a 3-1 start with a four-goal lead against the Virginia Cavaliers. But UVA scored six of the game’s final seven goals en route to a 15-14 win in overtime. Jacob Buttermore and Bradley Voigt each had hat-tricks for the Orange.
Last Time They Met
Last year’s meeting was one to forget as Syracuse fell to Hopkins 18-7. The Blue Jays went on two 5-0 runs spanning the second and third quarters. Cole Williams (4 Gs, 1 A), Alex Concannon (3 Gs, 2 As), and Shack Stanwick (2 Gs, 3 As) each had five points, while Joel Tinney finished with four assists. The Johns Hopkins defense caused 11 of Syracuse’s 12 turnovers.
For the Orange, Jamie Trimboli had a hat-trick. Other than that, it was a game to forget.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY: JOHNS HOPKINS
The Blue Jays come into the Carrier Dome with a 2-2 record. Similar to Virginia last week, Hopkins is coming off a win over the Princeton Tigers, this time it was a 14-12 decision. The team started with losses to Towson and Loyola before edging North Carolina by a goal and getting past the Tigers last week.
The attack has a new face in freshman Joey Epstein, the top-ranked freshman in this year’s incoming class. Epstein has a team-high seven assists and 15 points to go along with eight goals. He joins Williams and Kyle Marr on the attack. Marr is the known finisher on the team with 10 goals, while Williams had his best game last weekend with a hat-trick and an assist. Did the Orange catch the tall junior at the wrong time?
The midfield hasn’t produced a ton this season, especially the starting unit of Concannon, Connor DeSimone, and Forry Smith. The three have a combined five goals and five assists for 10 points. But the depth has stepped up, especially last weekend with Brett Baskin putting up a hat-trick. I spoke with the sophomore, who is a graduate of La Salle College High School like myself, on my podcast Across College Lacrosse this week. Taite Cattoni and Jack Keogh make up the second midfield. Hopkins uses a ton of attackmen and convert them to midfielders.
The entire starting close defense is the same with Patrick Foley, Jack Rapine, and Owen Colwell. Robert Kuhn is also back as the top LSM, and he’s a threat on transition as well with three goals on seven shots. Jared Reinson and Marc Pion are backups.
The Blue Jays have a good short stick defender in senior Danny Jones. The senior recorded six caused turnovers last week against the Tigers, which tied the school’s single-game record in that category. Matt Hubler, Evan Zinn, and Owen McManus are the other top short stick defenders.
After going with Kyle Prouty to start the season, Hopkins has gone more with freshman Matt Narewski at the faceoff X. He’s gone 42-of-78 (53.8%) with 22 ground balls and an assist. He’ll be a good test against Jake Phaup. Sophomore Ryan Darby has played in all 240 minutes of the season in goal. He has a 14.25 goals against average and a 44.7% save percentage.
Things To Know
Here’s John Desko’s weekly press conference.
Voigt and Nick Mellen also discussed this weekend’s game.
Similar to nearly every team in the nation, the Orange aren’t fans of the new crease dive rule. From Lindsay Kramer:
“I’m trying to defend Drake [Porter] at all costs. So I’d rather push someone than have them dive at my goalie,’’ [Peter] Dearth said earlier this week. “I would probably do it again if it meant that Drake’s not getting hit in the knees. I’d rather give up a penalty and protect our player. I’d figure that’s just the way we’d want it as a team.’’
SU killed off the man-down stretch, but that’s not the point. The crease dive rule, brought back to college lacrosse this season, has coaches, players and officials rubbing their heads. Orange coach John Desko, whose team was called for a few infractions defending the play against Virginia, said he’ll contact NCAA officials for clarification on enforcement.
”To me there’s a lot of confusion on the dive. I think on four dives we were called for four penalties,’’ Desko said.
Like most new rules, the crease dive was implemented on a two-year basis before getting a full review. But the way the change is being called so far, it’s already getting a thumbs down from Desko and his players.
”A hundred percent, I would scrap the rule. Without a doubt in my mind,’’ Porter said.
This past weekend, the Premier Lacrosse League unveiled the rosters for their six teams. There’s a number of Orange alums playing in the league.
- Kevin Rice (Archers)
- Steven Brooks (Atlas)
- Jeremy Thompson (Chaos)
- John Galloway (Chrome)
- John Lade (Chrome)
- Jovan Miller (Chrome)
- Brandon Mullins (Chrome)
- Joel White (Chrome)
- JoJo Marasco (Redwoods)
- Sergio Salcido (Redwoods)
On Saturday night, Major League Lacrosse will hold their collegiate draft. Tyson Bomberry, Marcus Cunningham, Austin Fusco, and Nate Solomon are listed as top prospects by the league. 63 picks will be in the draft. The PLL will hold their college draft in late April with all six teams picking four players for a total of 24 picks. It’s expected those 24 will also be picked in the MLL Draft. If players are picked in both leagues, they have to wait until their season is over to declare for which league they’ll participate in.
Enjoy the weekend of college lacrosse! There’s a ton of other games this weekend (including Denver-Notre Dame), so make sure you enjoy what the sport has to offer!
With men’s basketball playing at noon, there’s a chance we’ll have yet another Mega GameThread. But if not, enjoy the game here!