High Powered Offense Boosts Syracuse Past St. John's

By Kerry Bretti 

SYRACUSE, N.Y.- Ten different players scored for the Orange in Syracuse’s dominating 15-4 win over St. John’s Saturday at the Carrier Dome..

“You never know who is going to be shooting with our offense,” Dylan Donahue has said each week.
He was right again.

Nick Mariano led the Orange in scoring with a hat trick, followed by Donahue and Jordan Evans who each netted two goals and added two assists. Tim Barber also scored twice for the Orange while Derek DeJoe and Sergio Salcido each added one goal and one assist. Syracuse went on two 6-0 runs and tallied 54 shots throughout the game. The score at the half was 9-2.

“The good part about today was that we got a lot of younger players, other players who haven’t played a lot in the game so the message was just to keep playing,” Coach John Desko said. “But we’re not out there just to try and score extra goals. We’re out there to try and run the offense.”

At the X

Supremacy at the faceoff X allowed Syracuse to rally on offense. Ben Williams won 15 of 19 faceoffs and Cal Paduda won three of three.

“Ben Williams giving us so many possessions off the faceoff to get the ball to our offense to put the pressure on the St. John’s defense and limit the opportunities for St. John’s at their offense end of the field,” Desko said. “And when they did get it I thought our defense was pretty stingy.”

Definitely stingy. Syracuse limited St. John’s to 15 shots, only eight on cage. The Orange defense caused ten turnovers and picked up 37 ground balls. The defense held St. John’s scoreless on all four of its man-up opportunities. Syracuse was also perfect clearing, successful on 17 of 17 clears.

Three Orange goalies saw time in the cage Saturday. Warren Hill made the start and played the first three quarters saving two of five shots on cage. Evan Molloy replaced him in the fourth quarter and made one save on two shots. Tyler Avallone finished the game in cage and made one save.

Each of St. John’s goals was scored by a different player. Jason DeBenedictis, Eric DeJohn, Thomas Stackpole and Nick Heller scored for the Red Storm. St. John’s picked up 19 ground balls and successfully cleared 16 of 23 times. Joseph Danaher started in cage for the Red Storm, making six saves during the first half. Michael O’Keeffe played the second half and registered eight saves.