Instant Juice: Syracuse 7, Towson 10

Syracuse played for the third time at Delaware in NCAA Tournament Sunday afternoon.
Syracuse played for the third time at Delaware in the NCAA Tournament Sunday afternoon, and the Orange are now 0-3 all-time in the state.

Newark, Del. – A quick take on Syracuse’s disappointing 10-7 NCAA quarterfinal round loss to Towson at Delaware Stadium Sunday afternoon:

WHAT HAPPENED: Towson set the tone from the opening faceoff scoring the first six goals of the game before the Orange knew what hit them, and for the fourth straight season SU is headed home in the quarterfinal round or sooner, the longest such streak since the first championship in 1983.

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ANALYSIS: Packing in its defense the Tigers frustrated the Orange offense all afternoon taking away cutting lanes to the goal, keeping leading scorers Sergio Salcido and Nick Mariano in check (a combined one goal and one assist), and holding the ‘Cuse to a season-low seven goals. Patient in its own offensive game plan, Towson’s crisp passing kept the SU “D” off balance, resulting in many clear look shots on goal by the Tigers (40 total shots) against SU’s Evan Molloy.

HEROES: Towson senior attackmen Joe Seider and Ryan Drenner ran circles around the Orange in the first three quarters with Seider scoring four goals and Drenner adding four assists.  Tigers goalie Matt Hay was more than steady, stopping Nate Solomon in close with under 6:00 to play, then Jordan Evans in close with under 3:00 left to keep Towson up by four goals.

ZERO: Needing to play one of its best games of the season to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2013, SU came out flat and confused in how to stop the Tigers attack, and as the game wore on the Orange became frustrated offensively resulting in too many one-on-one moves or bad angle shots on goal, and the season-low seven tallies.

WHAT’S NEXT: The bitterness that accompanies the sudden end of the season, short of the goal of making championship weekend at Gillette Stadium starting next Saturday afternoon.  The Orange go into the off season losing the team’s two leading scorers and top defenseman and goalie, but as always bring back plenty of talent including junior-to-be attackman Solomon who led the Orange with four goals in the loss to end the season.

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About Brad Bierman 848 Articles
Now in his sixth decade of covering SU sports, Brad was sports director of WSYR radio for eight years into the early 1990s, then wrote the Orange Watch column for The Big Orange/The Juice print publication for 18 years. A Syracuse University graduate, Brad currently runs his own media consulting business in the Philadelphia suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @BradBierman.