Orange Men Stay Unbeaten with Win over Johns Hopkins

Story and photos by Thomas Zhou 
 

Syracuse, N.Y- The top-ranked Syracuse men's lacrosse team allowed three goals in the first six minutes of the game, but did not let Johns Hopkins score in the game's last 12 minutes and pulled away to win 13-10, at the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon.

Randy Staats scored four goals for the Orange. Henry Schoonmaker and Nicky Galasso each had two. Kevin Rice contributed one goal and three assists and Syracuse stayed unbeaten at 6-0.

After the Orange scored seven straight goals and led 8-6 at the half, the Blue Jays tied the score at eight in the third quarter, and then at ten in the fourth. Their efforts fell short as the Orange goalie Bobby Wardwell made three of his five saves after the fourth-quarter tie.

"I thought he played well," SU head coach John Desko said. "I thought he saw the ball well especially going down the stretch."



First Half: Syracuse shifts momentum to lead

Hopkins took an early 3-0 lead thanks to Kieran Eissler, Ryan Brown, and Connor Reed's goals. After Hakeem Lecky scored Syracuse's first goal, Hopkins' Brown and John Crawley answered. The Orange found itself down 5-1 at the 4:23 mark in the first quarter.

However, Syracuse shifted the momentum with the seven consecutive goals. Rice scored the first running from behind the cage. Schoonmaker the second firing from distance. Staats the third, ambushing near the post. Tim Barber the equalizer. Galasso found the back of the cage after faking a pass and gave the Orange a 6-5 lead. Rice and Paolo Ciferri then extended the lead to three.

Senior Wells Stanwick scored Hopkins' only goal in the second quarter and Syracuse had an 8-6 lead entering the locker room.

The Orange outshot the Blue Jays, 14-6, in the second quarter, after being outshot, 13-8, in the first.

Second Half: Orange holds off till the end

Hopkins' freshman Shack Stanwick, Wells' younger brother started the third quarter with two goals to tie the score, pumping up the Blue Jays' mini band, which played every time after a Hopkins goal.

Staats launched a shot, recovered the ground ball after Hopkins goalie Eric Schneider saved it, and shot again from the middle. His third goal in the afternoon put the Orange ahead again.

Before the end of the third quarter, Galasso unleashed a shot from up in the air off a Rice pass.

Hopkins tied the score at ten with two straight goals in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Wardwell never allowed a goal again.

Wardwell saved a Brown shot, cleared it and Dylan Donahue put the Orange ahead with a transition goal.

Schoonmaker's second goal and Staats' fourth at an empty cage sealed the win.

After the final whistle, Syracuse players rushed to Wardwell and hugged him near the crease.

"I obviously struggled a little early on," Wardwell said. "Thankfully the defense played really, really well and limited the shots... Toward the end of the game, I was seeing it a little bit better."

Ryan Brown scored eight goals last time he faced the Orange. This time Hopkins' leading scorer had two goals in the first quarter but got locked down and did not score once after that.

"I think No. 27 (Sean Young) did a good job," Brown said. "He really did not let me get away from it and he pretty much locked up with me wherever I went." 

Up next

Syracuse will take on conference foe and two-time defending national champion Duke next Sunday. The game will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Dome.