No. 1 Syracuse Edges No. 16 Johns Hopkins 13-10 to Remain Perfect

Story & Photo By Robin Deehan

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The No. 1 Syracuse men’s lacrosse team edged No. 16 Johns Hopkins 13-10 Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome to remain perfect.

“I told the guys during the week, the only time we really care about being number-1 is at the end of the year,” head coach John Desko said. “But one of the things that we do get by being number-1 is everybody’s best game coming in.
So if you can play with our rankings and play a team like Hopkins that came in ready to play and come out with a win, it makes you a better team. So I feel good about that.”

The hard-fought battle between the two winningest programs in Division I men’s lacrosse history saw three different ties and two lead changes throughout the game in front of a rowdy crowd of 5,778.

“[Syracuse] is a very talented group that we played today,” Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said.  “And the easiest thing to understand about a good team is that when you make mistakes [Syracuse] is good enough to capitalize on them and I thought that was the story of today’s game.”

A Crucial Second Quarter

Johns Hopkins jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter with four different Blue Jays finding the back of the net to end the first 15 minutes of play with a 5-2 advantage.

But Henry Schoonmaker’s sniper shot from the outside past Johns Hopkins goal keeper Eric Schneider at the 7:59 mark in the second quarter proved to be the catalyst the Orange needed.

Six different Orange men would go on to score six unanswered goals in the span of five minutes to give the Orange the 8-5 lead with 3:00 minutes to go before the half.

“I think we just started moving the ball well and the offense started to get into a rhythm,” Schoonmaker said. “A lot of times the slide comes and then we pass to the back side and that’ll be wide open to either dodge the guy or shoot and the offense was getting that flow.”

But Hopkins stole one back at the 2:42 mark when senior Wells Stanwick scored unassisted to send the Blue Jays into the locker room down by two.

Second Half Strength

At the start of the second half the Blue Jays came out strong, tying the game back up at eight on back-to-back goals from freshman Shack Stanwick, Wells Stanwick's younger brother.

At the 2:42 mark in the third quarter, Randy Staats took a point blank shot that was stoned by Schneider, but Staats rushed the goal, collected his own rebound and sent the ball home to give the Orange the lead back.

Just two minutes later, Kevin Rice found Nicky Galasso in front of the cage for the one-timer to give the Orange a two-goal cushion headed into the final 15 minutes.

But the Blue Jays weren’t done yet and tied the game back up at ten, thanks to back-to-back man-up opportunity goals from John Crawley and Patrick Fraser.

“With a team like Hopkins you never know, they have such great talent and such great outside shooter’s they could come back at any time so we definitely were on the edge of our seat and still fighting as hard as we can, there’s no comfort level,” Schoonmaker said.

With just 7:39 left to play, Rice found an open Dylan Donahue off a 4-on-3 fast break thanks to a Blue Jay turnover to put Syracuse back up by one.

And the Orange never looked back as Ben Williams came up with two critical face-offs giving the Orange much-needed possession in the final 6:00 minutes of play.

Thanks to Williams, Schoonmaker and Staats were able to put the final two nails in the Blue Jays coffin to give Syracuse the 13-10 advantage as time expired. 
 

Difference Makers

The teams were evenly matched in shots on goal, Syracuse-41 Johns Hopkins-40, and turnovers with seven each.

But the difference maker was groundball control, Syracuse picked up 36 to Johns Hopkins' 20.

“At the end of the day it’s ground balls deep down, the mistakes are huge, but ground balls are possessions, that’s 16 more possessions for our opponent,” Pietramala said.

Staats lead all scorers with four goals, while Schoonmaker and Galasso each netted a pair.

Rice finished with one goal and three assists and Donahue finished with one goal and two assists.

Williams won 16 of 27 face-offs and SU keeper Bobby Wardwell finished with five saves on the day.

For the Blue Jays Ryan Brown and Shack Stanwick each finished with four points on two goals and two assists while keeper Schneider recorded 13 saves.

Johns Hopkins dropped to 3-4 on the season while Syracuse improved to 6-0.

Up Next

The unbeaten No. 1 Orange men will host ACC rival and two-time defending national champion No. 5 Duke Sunday, March 22^nd at the Carrier Dome.

This will be the 13^th meeting between the two teams with Syracuse leading the all-time series 7-5.

Face-off is scheduled for 12:30pm.