Syracuse lacrosse relies on offense to defeat Hobart and moves to 4-0

Syracuse Lacrosse v. Hobart
Syracuse plays Hobart in lacrosse. Photo Credit: Initra Marilyn, The Juice Online

No. 3 Syracuse moved to 4-0 on the season with a 21-13 win against No. 19 Hobart. While on paper, the score didn’t look close, this rivalry game delivered. Hobart was right there with Syracuse for the majority of the game until the Orange got hot late in the second half.

Here are three takeaways from Friday’s slugfest:

DEFENSE DOES JUST ENOUGH

For the first time since 2009, these two teams faced off in a ranked matchup and there were parts of the game where it felt like a heavy weight boxing match with both teams putting up points in bunches.

Though the Orange took an immediate three-point lead, Hobart answered right back with two goals of its own. That proved to be a microcosm for the first three quarters, with the Orange up only 12-11 with 4:26 to go in the third before reeling off three unanswered goals to end the quarter.

While most would agree that this wasn’t Syracuse’s best game defensively, they certainly had some key defensive stops to help assist the offense. The Orange only allowed two goals in the fourth quarter.

“[Drake Porter] dusted things off pretty quickly, he made some pretty great saves in the game,” head coach John Desko said. “When we settled down I thought we played pretty good defense.”

The defense wasn’t nearly as impressive as it was a week ago in a 9-7 win against Army, but they were just good enough to slow down Hobart by the end.

SYRACUSE’S OFFENSE SHOWS DEPTH

Syracuse started with the first score of the game and never trailed after that.

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Tucker Dordevic put the Orange on the board with 10:40 on the clock in the first to make it 1-0. Aside from an early third quarter tie, Syracuse held onto the lead the entire game.

“[Hobart] was having a little bit of a problem sliding quickly,” junior Brendan Curry said. “So once we beat our guy, got a couple steps, we were able to stick some shots passed them.”

And Curry did just that, scoring four goals on the night.

But he wasn’t the only one to have a multi-score game. Chase Scanlan also had four and Dordevic led the way with five, totaling 14 of Syracuse’s 21 points.

Jamie Trimboli and Jacob Buttermore each scored two goals, while Griffin Cook, Stephen Rehfuss , and Jared Fernandez also found the back of the net.

SYRACUSE TURNS IT ON IN FOURTH QUARTER

Going into the fourth quarter, Syracuse had opened up its biggest lead of the match at 15-11. But given the first three quarters, it seemed to be Hobart’s turn to rally.

But it was apparent that Syracuse’s depth would make a difference in the final quarter.

The Orange outscored the Statesmen 6-2 in the final period, and closed the game with four unanswered goals. Triboli added his second goal of the game with 1:37 left for the final margin, keeping the Kraus-Simmons Trophy in Syracuse for the seventh consecutive season.

“I feel like the game was a little closer than the scoreboard said,” Desko said. “They kind of matched our goals there then finally we settled down in the fourth quarter and outscored them 6-2 and that helped our cause.”

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