Syracuse Lacrosse: Awards, polls, and folks we got a game tonight!

This is probably the oddest Syracuse Orange lacrosse season in my adult life, by far. One commenter said that after the Rutgers game, he thought the season was over, and I don’t think he was alone. Nevertheless, ‘Cuse has managed to string together two top ten wins over the last two weeks.

And shout out to Aero9 who posted the below on the Syracuse.com comments after the big loss to Rutgers:

Oh Sandy, poor, poor Sandy. Aero9 is out there giving you a glimpse into the future, and you can’t even recognize it.

The Orange move into the eighth spot in both the Maverik Media Poll and the USILA Coaches Poll. I will say this, any poll that has North Carolina still ranked is absolute garbage and not worth looking at. The Coaches’ Poll has 6-5 UNC at the twenty spot, after five straight losses. Five. Straight. Losses. And they’ve looked bad doing it. What’s even more tremendous is last week the same poll didn’t have UNC ranked, but then they lose and the coaches (or their assistants) rank em. The Nike/US Lacrosse poll has SU at seventh.

However you split it, I don’t think anyone saw this season shaking out like this. UNC and UVA are both going to miss the NCAA Tournament, and one of them will also miss the ACC tourney. If UNC beats UVA this week, Syracuse will need to beat the Heels to guarantee the first overall seed in the ACC. Honestly, we could walk away from this year with just two ACC teams in the national tournament. That’s a real possibility. I don’t know if I can handle another year listening to Big Ten fans. I just don’t know if I have it in me.

Moving on.

Shout out to Dom Madonna, the ACC Defensive Player of the Week as well as the Warrior US/Lacrosse Player of the Week. I saw a mess of comments about him after the Rutgers fiasco. Guy has been fantastic all season, especially considering how many shots he’s taken from within five yards of the crease. In close, he does a fantastic job matching stick to stick. Through eight games Madonna is averaging just over 10 saves per game and has back-to-back 13 save games.

Moving on.

Finally, the Orange have a game tonight. That’s right, the usual midweek matchup for the Kraus-Simmons Trophy against the Hobart Statesmen will happen in the Carrier Dome at 7 PM Tuesday. This will be the 104th contest between the two with the last four going the way of the Orange. You can catch it on the ACC Digital Network and on TK99/105, that is if you can make it home in time.

Hobart enters the game with the sixth best faceoff guy in the country. Matthew Pedicine, which sounds French, is rocking a .669 winning percentage. Meanwhile, SU has been above .500 at the faceoff X in just three games this year.

If you are looking for some good news, we finally have an opponent who may pick up more penalties than Syracuse. Well, maybe. Hobart has gone to the box 25 times in 2018 with the Orange having 35 penalties on the year, including eight against Notre Dame. It really got lost amongst the fact that this team didn’t give up a extra-man goal all game, but there was only one penalty in that game that I had an argument against. These were not refs that were after Syracuse, it was simply more of the same in the penalty game. It has to stop. The lack of self control and the lack of discipline is getting embarrassing. 99 times out of 100, that is a loss and would have been on Saturday if Notre Dame hadn’t been completely incompetent. Offensive guru Kevin Corrigan strikes again.

Moving on.

This Hobart offense takes a ton of shots, nearly ten more per game on average than Syracuse, but they’re shooting percentage is one of the worst in college lacrosse. The four shooters in this group are all having or on pace to have career years. That group includes Syracuse, NY native Ryan Archer, a freshman this year with 14 goals and 11 assists.

Goaltending is another strength for the Statesmen with Sam Lucchesi sitting 14th in the nation in save percentage. The sophomore redshirted in 2017 but has had a heck of a year. His GAA is 7.85, seventh in the country, and he’s held opponents to six or fewer goals three times this season while making 182 saves on the year including 18 against Saint Joseph’s.

If you can catch the game, good for you. The SU-Hobart matchup is never one to take for granted, rivalry games are just like that. Anyway, enjoy the game and well talk later.