Seniors Save the Day

Story and photo by Lauren Walsh

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse seniors marched out of the tunnel with smiling faces, surrounded by their families to honor them on Senior Day. However, Binghamton nearly spoiled that bliss for the Orange at the Carrier Dome, Saturday afternoon.

In a back-and-forth game, No. 1 Syracuse (11-1, 4-0 ACC) managed to hold on to a 9-8 victory over Binghamton (10-3, 3-2 America East) in its ninth one-goal game of the season.

Head coach John Desko highlighted offensive struggles for Syracuse as a main contributor to the close score. He credited the defense for keeping Syracuse in the game throughout the afternoon.

“It turned into a dogfight in the second half,” Desko said. “Their game plan was a lot of long possessions, so hats off to the defense. They really gutted it out.”

Senior Standouts

Jordan Evans and Nick Mariano headlined the senior contributions. Evans had three goals on eight shots and picked up two ground balls. Mariano, the Syracuse sharpshooter was a little quieter than usual with three shots on the day and just one making it in net for a goal.

“A lot of emotion to start the day with Senior Day,” Desko said.

Syracuse goalie Evan Molloy, a redshirt senior, had nine saves in the win, including stoning Griffin Konen from point-blank range on what would have been the tying goal with eleven seconds left.

“I got a little emotional today,” Molloy said. “Obviously seeing those seniors walk out, there’s just something special about today. I really just took it in.”

One senior who doesn’t necessarily grab your eye on the score sheet is Scott Firman. He quietly anchors the Orange defense and shuts down the most prolific scorers in the ACC. Against Binghamton Firman had three ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Despite his 40 points on the season, redshirt senior Sergio Salcido put up a goose egg in the points column Saturday.

“He kept trying to make something happen and a lot of them turned into bad decisions,” Desko said.


Orange Offense Struggles

Syracuse surged to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter, but fell behind 5-4 in the second, before Evans and Mariano put the Orange back up 6-5 at the half. But the Bearcats' defense shut down the Orange in the third quarter, getting ahead 7-6, until Evans tied it with four seconds left in the quarter.

Goals by Ryan Simmons and Jamie Trimboli gave the Orange a 9-7 lead with 9:43 left, but Syracuse did not score again. When Tom Moore netted his fifth goal of the game to put Binghamton within one at 2:38, it set the stage for Molloy's heroics and yet another one-goal Syracuse win.

Syracuse's ace faceoff man Ben Williams, struggled at the X, with the Bearcats' Austin Macchi taking 12 of 20 draws. Still, Williams passed Chris Cercy in the third quarter to become SU's all-time faceoff wins leader. Williams ended the game with 626 career faceoff wins in just three years.

Defense to the Rescue

Desko said defense saved Syracuse from an upset. 

“We needed to roll up our sleeves and really get between positions on the offensive ends and we didn’t do that,” Desko said.

The Orange forced 14 turnovers on the defensive end. The Bearcats beat SU in the ground ball game 27-22. Not to forget, Binghamton’s Tom Moore netted five goals past Molloy.

Despite some of those defensive shortcomings, the Syracuse defense bailed out a less aggressive offense after a disappointing practice week according to Desko.

“I didn’t think we had a great week of practice last week,” he said. “We need to pick it up again this week.”

Jordan Evans echoed his coach on Syracuse’s rather flat offensive performance. “Our goal as a team has been to get better each game that we play,” Evans said. “I don’t think the bar was set as high today as it has been in past games.”

Although Syracuse forced 14 turnovers, the team also turned the ball over 13 times throughout the game. Desko said overall there were too many turnovers and too many bad decisions from SU.

ACC Tournament Time

The one-goal win over Binghamton was the Orange’s last regular season game in the Carrier Dome and its last game before the ACC Tournament.

Last year Syracuse was the ACC Tournament champion, but had a rather early exit in the NCAA Tournament in a 13-7 loss to Maryland.

This year the  No. 1 seed Orange takes on  No. 4 seed UNC in the first round at Duke.

Earlier this season, Syracuse beat the Tar Heels 12-11 in overtime at Chapel Hill. Sergio Salcido scored the game-winner for  Syracuse’s third overtime win of the season. SU is 8-1 in its nine one-goal games this season.

UNC is 6-7 overall this season and 1-5 in the ACC.

The "Cardiac ‘Cuse" begins the first round of the tournament at 6 p.m. on Friday. The other semi pits Notre Dame against Duke.