Colgate midfielder Conner Brook was facing the wrong way when Chase Scanlan caught the ball on the left wing. With one step and a skip, Scanlan launched a sidearm shot past Colgate goalie Sean Collins. 

Colgate had been threatening. Griffin Brown’s fourth goal of the game 35 seconds into the second half capped a 4-0 run by the Raiders that had started before halftime. It was all too reminiscent of last year. Runs by Colgate, Notre Dame and Virginia felled the Orange three times last regular season.

Then North Carolina scored four unanswered at the end of the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship first-round game to edge SU, 11-10. In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Loyola scored seven-straight spanning across the third and fourth quarters to turn a 12-8 deficit into a 15-12 lead it wouldn’t lose. 

So when Scanlan’s sidearm attempt threatened to rip the net, he puffed his chest out into Brook’s shoulder before high-fiving his teammates. This year is different, it seemed to say. Syracuse (1-0) held off Colgate’s (0-2) charge and won 21-14 on Friday in the Carrier Dome, never leading by fewer than four goals after Scanlan’s silencer. 

“We all had a pretty bad taste in our mouth after last year’s Friday night loss to them (Colgate),” Stephen Rehfuss said. “… So definitely nice to come away with a win this time.”

In last season’s opener, Syracuse played catch-up the entire game against Colgate. The Raiders started with a 6-2 run, and while the Orange drew within one goal multiple times, they never leveled. 

Colgate started this rematch with a goal in the first minute by Mike Hawkins. Then Jakob Phaup won the ensuing face-off, and it appeared Syracuse would do to the Raiders what North Carolina had done a weekend ago. The Tar Heels continuously won possession in the first quarter and led Colgate 7-0 by the end of the frame. 

Phaup couldn’t hang onto the ball through checks, though, and the ball rolled toward Brett Kennedy. He couldn’t field it either, and eventually the Orange batted it out of play between the two benches. For the first four minutes of the game, Colgate held the majority of possession, and Syracuse didn’t hold the ball in the offensive zone until a little more than three-and-a-half minutes into the game. Even then, it was two long-poles, Nick DiPietro and Kennedy, that handled the ball. 

When the Orange did get set offensively, they fired shots high and wide and weren’t moving the ball around, which is what they preached before the season started. It was typical of a season-opening quarter, Rehfuss said. 

“It’s my fourth year playing and first quarter, people are nervous,” Rehfuss said. “Just kinda got to let it out of your system.” 

With the SU defense limiting Colgate on the other end, the Orange went to “unorthodox” methods to score, Rehfuss said. Short-stick midfielder Peter Dearth turned a Drake Porter save upfield. With two defenders sliding to him, he fired a shot five-hole and trucked through Colgate defender Will Sidari on his follow-through. 

Then Lucas Quinn picked up a groundball on SU’s side of half and, with Colgate scrambling, led the counterattack. He found Scanlan on the left wing for another low shot that beat Collins. Less than two minutes later, Syracuse’s ride forced a turnover. Rehfuss found Scanlan open streaking down the goalie’s right for another goal and a 3-2 Syracuse lead. David Lipka and Quinn scored a nearly identical goal off another caused turnover from SU’s ride before the end of the first quarter. 

“That’s where Syracuse has made their money for years and years and years,” Colgate head coach Matt Karweck said. “We were aggressive on the ground balls, but they just do such a good job of putting heat on you in those scramble plays.” 

Even with its offense struggling, Syracuse didn’t let Colgate take control like it had last year. And when there were runs, it was SU players on the scoresheet more often than Colgate. The Orange scored five unanswered in the first half to earn a 9-3 lead. Then a 7-2 run spanning the third and fourth quarters sealed the win. 

For nearly nine months, Syracuse players thought about what they could have done differently against Loyola. Phaup has a chart on his wall with every game he went under 50% last season that he wakes up to every morning. Loyola was the final entry. Over the summer and fall, SU’s locker room TV repeated highlights from the May loss.  

On Saturday morning, the Orange will have new highlights they can play. 

Published on February 7, 2020 at 9:19 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder