Syracuse began its 2020 campaign by avenging their season opening loss from a year prior. The Orange topped Colgate, 21-14, and three Syracuse players scored hat tricks. After topping a Raiders team that finished 2019 4-9, the Orange will now face a Binghamton Bearcats team coming off a two-win season.

Here is what our men’s lacrosse beat writers predict will happen Saturday when the Bearcats come to the Dome:

Mitchell Bannon (1-0)
Encore
Syracuse 22, Binghamton 11

The Orange (well, specifically Chase Scanlan) obliterated Colgate. Scanlan scored a touchdown and added an extra point, Stephen Rehfuss tallied more assists than Griffin Cook had his entire rookie season and a third quarter injury to Nick Mellen, who will also miss Saturday’s game, couldn’t even stop Syracuse. With a one game sample size, this Syracuse team looks exactly like we thought they would. The Orange are going to have no problem putting the ball in the net; they’re capable of going on soul-crushing scoring runs. The questions come on the back end, where a Colgate team that scored only six goals against UNC a week before put up 14 in a losing effort to Syracuse. Those questions won’t be an issue against Binghamton, however, who averaged only 8.15 goals per game last season.

The SU offense will once again run the show. Maybe Scanlan will go for the 2-point conversion this week? 

Andrew Crane (1-0)
Cruise control
Syracuse 20, Binghamton 9

If it wasn’t for questionable close defense, Syracuse would’ve dominated even more against Colgate last Saturday. Should the Orange consistently put up 18-plus goals per game, there aren’t many teams in the country that can match on a game-by-game basis. Against lower-tier opponents this offense should consistently put up 20 goals and, well, Binghamton is the definition of a lower-tier opponent. The Bearcats are coming off a season opener where they lost 12-4 to Marist and only generated 28 shots — a number Syracuse more than doubled against the Raiders. Chase Scanlan’s performance will be one of the main storylines because of the standard he set with seven goals last Saturday, but I’m more interested in Tucker Dordevic’s production against Binghamton after he was held to just one assist against Colgate. This is the easiest game on the Orange’s schedule by far in 2020, and the scoreboard after the final buzzer should reflect just that.

Arabdho Majumder (1-0)
Choo choo
Syracuse 22, Binghamton 5

Someone better blow their whistle because this Syracuse scoring train isn’t about to stop against Binghamton. It took about a quarter against Colgate for the Orange to get into their groove, but that likely won’t be the case against the Bearcats, who just lost to Marist College by eight goals. Chase Scanlan probably won’t top his seven-goal effort against Colgate because he’ll be taken out of the game too early. Expect a lot of garbage time, but with how good SU’s backups are, that might just continue the rout. This is the type of game that can build a lot of confidence for a new defensive corp that will be without its leader, Nick Mellen. But beyond that, there’s not a whole lot to take away from a game like this.

Published on February 12, 2020 at 10:33 pm