Syracuse 10 - Notre Dame 6: Back-to-back top ten wins put the Orange back on track

The Syracuse Orange got off to a quick 3-0 start against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. The first tally came off of a big Notre Dame turnover in the offensive zone. Syracuse was able to scoop the GB and get into a quick transition, finding Brendan Bomberry off of the crease. Jamie Trimboli and Pat Carlin had the second and third goals before Notre Dame finally scored with 3:37 remaining in the first period. It was a Mikey Drake goal, coming up and around the crease, easily beating his defender and no defensive help coming. The Irish picked up two more to tie the game at three.

With 5:19 remaining the half, Matt Schmidt made a heck of a save, of which he had five in the first half and seven on the day. Schmidt went to clear but the outlet pass was knocked down by Brad Voigt who added the fourth goal for SU.

Syracuse hit the locker room at halftime up 5-4 on the Irish.

Notre Dame picked up the first goal of the second half to tie it back up at five but that would not last. Nate Solomon snagged his first goal, third point of the game with a sneaky, snipe from deep to give the Orange the lead. Finally, with just 39 seconds remaining in the third Stephen Rehfuss found some room and grabbed the feed to put Syracuse up 7-5.

There would be four more goals in the game, only one for Notre Dame, leaving the Orange with a 10-6 win.

This is what it comes down too: Syracuse had zero extra man opportunities (well, one but it came with nine seconds remaining in the game so we’re not going to count it), Notre Dame had eight and converted none. Any other team would have blown SU out of the water based on extra man opportunities alone.

The defense was pretty good today, even the midfielders I thought showed up, and once again Dom Madonna showed up big with 13 saves.

The win today gives Syracuse its 900th program victory, a milestone that only one other school can claim, but Hopkins probably inflated those anyway.