Season Opening Slaughter

Randy Staats celebrates a goal with Kevin Rice and Billy Ward

#1 Syracuse Men's Lax Slams Siena 19-7

I'll forgive all you Syracuse fans who have been a bit enamored with the Men's Basketball team lately - they are the number one team in the country. But there are some other top-ranked teams up on the hill.

Last night the Men's Lacrosse team opened its season with a 19-7 beat down of MAAC opponent Siena. I'll save you some of the details and hit on what I thought were the important takeaways from Cuse's season-opening victory.

FIRST QUARTER OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION

This matchup was a mismatch from the opening face-off, as SU sprinted out to an 8-3 lead in the opening frame. Perhaps more shocking than the 8 goals on the scoreboard was the efficiency with which the SU offense scored those goals. The Orange needed just 16 shots to find the back of the net 8 times - good for a shooting percentage of 50%. For some reference, Albany led the NCAA in shooting percentage last year at 36% (SU finished 14th with 31%).

The other interesting part of the 1st quarter offensive barrage was the number of players who took part in it; seven different players scored for the Orange in the opening 15 minutes. 

THE DYNAMIC DUO

The above-mentioned nickname will probably be how I refer to attackmen Dylan Donahue and Kevin Rice for the rest of this season. The two seemed to have some sort of mental telepathic communication in use throughout this game. Donahue finished the game with an astounding 8 goals and 1 assist, including an insane stretch in the 3rd quarter where he scored 4 consecutive goal in a span of 9 minutes.  Rice - just as spectacularly in my opinion - finished with 0 goals and 8 assists. 

 What's crazy is that 6 of Donahue's 8 goals were assisted by Rice, and nearly all of those finishes were shots from right on top of the crease. No doubt opposing teams will have to start planning for the terrific two-man game of these two Cuse attackmen.

THE (NOT SO) DREADED FACOFF X

If you're an SU Men's Lacrosse fan the image of the Duke Blue Devils walking around with the national championship trophy is probably still seared into your brain. You probably also remember how much the Orange's awful play at the face-off X partially (or mostly) led to that Blue Devils victory.  

During its three preseason scrimmages SU struggled a bit at the face-off X. Head Coach John Desko attributed this to his use of too many players - he said he'd stick with one guy against Siena. In the season-opener, Coach Desko's words rang true, as Chris Daddio performed well and SU ultimately won 15 of 28 at the X. 

So does that mean Cuse's face-off problems are over? It's (way) too soon to tell. 

NEXT UP

The Orange welcomes #10 Albany to the Dome next Sunday. I'll try to churn out a game preview and maybe a positional breakdown of the SU roster before then.

Peace, Love, Lax

~ Kevin Case