Syracuse men’s lacrosse uses big second-half run to beat Stony Brook, 14-9

The 2022 Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse team knows that when they need to find a difference maker on offense, they turn to Tucker Dordevic.

That’s exactly what they did out on Long Island on Saturday, where the Orange used an 8-0 second-half run to gain control of a tight game and beat the Stony Brook Seawolves, 14-9.

And it was Tucker Dordevic who primarily took ownership of that run, scoring five of those eight goals to help his team get back in the win column.

Dordevic led the way all game long for SU, coming up with a massive career-day total of nine points (6G, 3A). Tucker, Brendan Curry (3G, 2A) and Owen Seebold (3G) combined to score 12 of the 14 goals on the day for ‘Cuse. In the game of musical chairs that has been the starting goalie rotation this season, Bobby Gavin got the start and had a great day with 13 saves, many of which bailed out his defense, and a .591 save percentage.

It was another mixed-bag day for Syracuse, who showed a better ability to find the back of the net by doubling up their total from the Hopkins game, but still made far too many mistakes on the day. The Orange committed eight penalties, 15 turnovers and four failed clears. Additionally, the defense had a handful of off-ball mishaps and were saved, literally, a few times by Bobby Gavin.

Fortunately, the man-down unit held Stony Brook to only 2-of-7 and the Seawolves committed 18 turnovers of their own. But if we’re being honest, eight penalties and 15 turnovers is a recipe for disaster against our tougher opponents.

There were obviously positives on the day, as well, as the offense found a much better rhythm than they had last week. It was really good to see both Curry and Seebold have productive days, although the question remains can the rest of the offense step-up when a better defense tries to take away Dordevic. I think we may get the answer to that next week against Duke.

The hustle and effort were also big positives, I thought. The boys never let a mistake such as a turnover get in their way of maximum effort. A number of times, they turned their own giveaway into one for Stony Brook thanks to a strong ride game that forced four failed clears and 18 turnovers from the Seawolves.

After a back-and-forth first half in which neither team was ever up by more than one goal, the game went to halftime tied at 5-5.

Stony Brook’s leading point scorer, Dylan Pallonetti, scored the opening goal of the second half to push the Seawolves ahead, 6-5. And that’s when the Orange took complete control of the game.

SU scored the game’s next eight goals over the span of about 23 minutes to take a 13-6 lead with just over five minutes remaining that put the game out of reach.

Stony Brook would come back and score three of the final four goals as play somehow got even sloppier for ‘Cuse, but by then it was all just going through the motions to finish off a 14-9 final score.

The Orange will be be back in action next Saturday, March 26 when they resume ACC play at home against the No. 14 Duke Blue Devils at 12 PM on ESPN U.