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On Saturday, the Syracuse Orange football team added yet another defender to the recruiting class of 2021. Three-star defensive tackle Elijah Fuentes announced that he’s committing to Syracuse.
I’m staying home 1000000% commited pic.twitter.com/M6foyHREVV
— Elijah Fuentes (@ElijahFuentes19) August 22, 2020
Fuentes attends Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx, and stands at 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds. He has offers from a lot of the usual suspects: Boston College, Duke, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Buffalo and UMass. Until this week, he was considered a BC lean. However, that obviously changed given his decision. Looking at the 247Sports composite rankings, he’s seen as a top-100 defensive tackle in this class, and the eight-best player in New York.
While this year’s recruiting process was disrupted significantly by the pandemic, Syracuse still got to have their junior day earlier this year. Fuentes is the third attendee from that event to commit, joining Terry Lockett and Josh Hough. He’s also the third New York commit in this cycle, joining Jaelin Moss (Fairfield, N.Y.) and fellow Bronx product Malik Matthew.
The addition of Fuentes brings Syracuse to 18 players in this class, and they’re currently ranked around 55th. Fuentes is the sixth defensive line addition for 2021, and the third defensive tackle. The aforementioned Lockett and Moss also project to play inside.
Welcome aboard, Elijah! Highlights below for those curious: