Syracuse 11 - Hobart 4: Kraus-Simmons Trophy Remains

The Syracuse Orange hosted the Hobart Statesmen at home in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night. While it took several minutes for Syracuse to get going, the Kraus-Simmons Trophy will remain in the Salt City.

Bryan Hancock was the first to move the needle, the recipient of some good exterior passing and going high on Dom Madonna with a rocket. Meanwhile Syracuse had trouble getting even its first possession but once the ice broke it was no problem for the Orange. The first goal was a fantastic one. Tucker Dordevic found Nate Solomon who caught the ball but his off-hand remained tied up with the defender as he underhanded it into the net. Spectacular. Just over three minutes later, with SU stepping up the pressure, Stephen Rehfuss stood behind cage with the ball and found Jamie Trimboli way up top in the box. Trimboli had nobody within several yards and had plenty of room to wind up for a huge bouncer giving Syracuse it’s first lead of the night. The final score of the period came from David Lipka, split dodging and beating his short stick defender, getting the shot off before the help could slide.

With Syracuse killing off two penalties in the first quarter, the Orange were awarded its first man-up opportunity in ten days. Long-pole Sam Mueller was called for the hold, but the actual act had some serious aggression attached to it as Mueller put his stick right on to Brendan Bomberry’s neck using the force to push Bomberry to the ground, on a play that surely would have been a Syracuse goal. Matt Lane capitalized on the man-up with just his second goal of the year, shooting from crease-side with ease.

Just before the seven minute mark, Syracuse would strike again. Hobart went on the clear but Brian Hancock found himself stripped of the ball by David Lipka. Rehfuss grabbed the turf cookie and finding Nate Solomon cutting to the crease for a beautiful feed. Freshman Brendan Curry got in on the scoring next. After a tremendous fast break opportunity, the Orange reset getting Curry the ball in the top left of the box where he went on the dodge, immediately leaving two defenders in his wake and burying the ball far side to give SU the 6-1 lead.

Syracuse managed one more in the first half. Using some passing and the off-ball triangle rotation, the Orange caught Hobart uneven with more defenders on one side of the field and a wide open Brad Voigt on the wing. Beautiful offensive possession.

SU went into halftime with a 7-1 advantage. The Orange were dominating in time of possession but got hammered at the faceoff X with the Orange going 3-10. Hobart was even getting shots off but could not find the cage with just five of 16 shots going on net.

The bleeding didn’t stop coming out of the halftime break. On the fast break, we got a few tight passes up top before Tyson Bomberry got it and sent hit quickly to Rehfuss on the wing for a rifling side arm to make the score 8-1.

Finally at 9:56 the Statesmen got back on the board with its second goal of the game. Off a caused turnover from Sam Mueller, Kyle Grimaldi roll dodged and found some room to fire. Hobart actually would roll off three in a row, the next one on a rebound score from Ty Yanko and then a deep snipe from Ryan Archer.

With just over two minutes remaining in the third, SU found it’s lead dwindling to just four. Hobart won the ensuing faceoff on a Syracuse violation and continued with the offensive pressure but coughed it up. The Orange were able to get a shot off but ended up giving it up on an over and back call. Syracuse’s Nick Mellen, for whatever reason, picked up the ball and looked at the referee who threw the flag up on a delay of game. It looked like genuine confusion, but I don’t know why. Mellen did have a great game, putting himself in great positions all day to be effective with four groundballs and two caused turnovers.

Up 8-4 on Hobart, Syracuse came into the fourth with a resilient opponent and a man-down. Yet the Orange killed the penalty and put down the Statesmen with three more fourth quarter goals including a pair from Stephen Rehfuss who finished with a hatty and five total points.

All in all, the faceoffs continue to be a problem. But even off of two days of rest, we still didn’t see the turnovers, the passing was quick and crisp, and the penalties were....minimal. The goaltending continues to be stellar and the man down unit now hasn’t given up a goal in 135:40 minutes of play. It was as good of a performance as I think you could expect given that Hobart is coming off of a full week of preparation and Syracuse finished up with its seventh straight ranked opponent on Saturday.

Next Tuesday the Orange will travel down to Ithaca, NY to face the Cornell Big Red in another 7 PM game.