Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Orange vs. Colgate preview

The 2020 Syracuse Orange men’s lacrosse season has finally arrived, and there’s already revenge on everybody’s mind.

The Orange will be hosting Colgate in a Friday afternoon showdown. In the schools’ 62nd matchup, the Raiders are looking to extend their winning streak against the Orange to two, after the Raiders stunned Syracuse 12-9 in 2019. It was Colgate’s first win against the Orange since 2008.

While this is the season opener for SU, the matchup against Syracuse will be Colgate’s second game against a top-10 in seven days after falling to North Carolina 19-6.

Head coach Matt Karweck returns for his second season at the helm for the Raiders after leading Colgate to a 4-9 record in 2019. Four of the team’s top five scorers from a year ago are back for Colgate, including preseason All-Patriot midfielder Griffin Brown. Brown, who led Colgate with 20 goals in 2019, put up a hat trick in the season-opening loss to the Tar Heels. In the last matchup between the two teams, Brown scored a goal and had two assists in the upset victory, so look for Brown to pop up on the stat sheet a few times on Friday.

Another name to keep an eye on will be Nicky Petkevich, whose name may ring a bell if you watched the upset last season. The attackman scored four goals against Syracuse and finished third on the team in scoring with 16 goals. Between Brown and Petkevich, along with James Caddigan and Brian Minicus, it will be a good, early test for Nick Mellen and the Orange defense.

While Colgate held Syracuse to under 10 goals last season, it was led by their experienced defense as the Raiders started three seniors. In 2020, all but one defenseman are underclassmen for Colgate. If there’s going to be an area where Karweck’s crew will have their hands full, it will be the defensive side of the field.

The key for Syracuse is to get off to a hot start and jump on Colgate early. Last season, the Orange went down 3-0 early and had to claw their way back. But this year’s team feels different, and you don’t expect them to go down early in this game. With the addition of Chase Scanlan, the return of Tucker Dordevic, and the revenge factor for a handful of these players, it’s highly unlikely to see Syracuse come out flat two years in a row against Colgate.

Faceoff is set for 4 p.m. ET and will be shown live on the ACC Network.