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For the third straight week, Syracuse is scheduled to face an unranked opponent. No. 5 Syracuse (3-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) will face Holy Cross (1-2, 0-2 Patriot) on Saturday for the first time in program history.

The Orange were originally scheduled to play Hofstra on Saturday, but the Pride’s program went on pause last week due to COVID-19. 

Here’s what our beat writers predict will happen when the Crusaders travel to the Carrier Dome on Saturday at 12 p.m.:

Roshan Fernandez (2-2)
Warm-up run
Syracuse 16, Holy Cross 6

Holy Cross hasn’t had a season above .500 in conference play since 1988. The Patriot League team currently sits at 0-2 in conference play this year, with an overtime loss to Colgate and a 10-goal thrashing at the hands of Boston University. Syracuse is only playing the Crusaders because it needed an opponent to fill its schedule after the Hofstra program went on pause. Head coach John Desko said he didn’t want to take the week off unless there wasn’t an alternative. Syracuse plays its ACC opener against No. 2 Duke on Thursday, and with a shortened week ahead, this Holy Cross game will essentially serve as a warm-up run, a walkthrough and a scrimmage for SU. 

Allie Kaylor (2-2)
Thank you, next
Syracuse 21, Holy Cross 8

Two weeks ago, Roshan said that Vermont was Syracuse’s most favorable matchup of the last several years. That was before the Orange scheduled a game against Holy Cross, a team that has two scholarship players and hasn’t had a winning record in a full season since 1988. 

Syracuse will get out to an early start in this one, scoring double-digit goals in the first half and holding Holy Cross back. Desko will pull his starters in the third quarter like he did against Stony Brook, unless he wants them to get a bit more practice before their hardest game of the season against Duke on Thursday. 

Arabdho Majumder (3-1)
Busy work
Syracuse 18, Holy Cross 7

Syracuse was initially scheduled to play a top-20 opponent, Hofstra, in a tune-up affair this weekend before the big show in Durham, North Carolina against No. 2 Duke. Against Hofstra’s top-five scoring offense, the Orange could have found any final weaknesses at the back before facing a Duke team that scored 44 goals in its last two games. But instead, SU now faces one more team it needs to knock out of the way before beginning the most difficult portion of its schedule. Holy Cross is 48th in scoring offense and 43rd on defense. It wins less than 50% of faceoffs. That’s a recipe for the Orange to filter in some of their future talent on both sides of the ball by the fourth quarter. This game should be over by halftime, and anything else should be a red flag for Thursday’s showdown.

Published on March 19, 2021 at 12:41 pm