What was almost assuredly a must win for Syracuse Saturday afternoon against Colgate, the Orange jumped out to a sizable lead early and didn’t look back getting an impressive 17 to 5 victory over the Raiders.
The win was enough to catapult the Orange to the NCAA Tournament, where it will host Cornell on Saturday at 7:15 pm as the No. 8 seed.
Syracuse started the day with the first six goals, and would stymie any kind of Raider rally.
“I think we did some of the things we wanted to do today,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “We wanted to get off to a good start, get some points up early and be stingy on the defensive end of the field.”
Syracuse did exactly that as they scored four goals in the first quarter while keeping the Raiders off the board.
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“It was awesome to get win on Senior Day,’ Goalie Dom Madonna said, “Especially gets momentum going into the playoffs.”
Many said Syracuse would be on the outside looking in if it lost on Saturday.
But that was not a worry after SU jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one quarter.
“We were treating it like a playoff game,” Madonna said. “If we lose. we’re not making the tournament for sure.”
Madonna started the day out hot shutting Colgate out in the first quarter with three saves. He went on to hold them to only five total goals in the next three quarters.
Syracuse finishes its season 8-6, and 4-0 in the ACC.
Brendan Bomberry who also had a very notable senior day led Syracuse with four goals, while Jamie Trimboli chipped in three goals.
“Obviously there is a bit more emotion as seniors and knowing this could possibly be our last game in the Dome” Bomberry said. “We treated this game as a playoff game all week and I think that helped our preparation.”
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