by The No. 7 Syracuse men’s lacrosse cruised to a dominant 18-5 win against in-state foe Siena in its first action of 2016 behind nine points from Dylan Donahue, including a career-high five assists. Fellow senior Tim Barber also turned in a career afternoon for the Orange, with two goals and three helpers.
Senior goalkeeper Warren Hill (Six Nations Mohawk) provided five saves in net, while only allowing two goals through the first-three quarters before being lifted for Evan Molloy, while freshman Nick Mellen turned in a sound performance on defense in his collegiate debut , leading the team with four caused turnovers and six ground balls.
Junior Ben Williams picked up right where he left off at the faceoff X, winning 12 of his 16 attempts and picking up five ground balls.
“We started off well today,” said head coach John Desko. “Obviously we made some mistakes throughout the day, but I was happy with our execution early in the game. Our scoring, we did a pretty good job. Their defense was pretty stingy. In the second period Siena had some opportunities to score on three or four one-on-one situations and Warren came up big for us. They would have had three or four goals on the scoreboard in the first half and we could have gone in 7-4, 8-4, 9-4. It would have been a very different situation and he came up big for us.
“Our defense played pretty well. And in the second half we came out and scored right away. That gave us confidence in the second half and we were able to get some players into game situations as the game went on, so a good day for us. We obviously have a lot of things to work on, but to get the W and get guys into a game situation is very good for us.”
It was Donahue that opened the scoring for the Orange less than two minutes into the game and ‘Cuse never looked back, with new faces seamlessly finding their way into the scoring almost immediately.
Graduate student Nick Piroli fed junior Nick Mariano, who found the back of the net from about 12 yards out nearly five minutes into action. It was one of three points on the afternoon for Piroli, who also scored twice in the game.
Another midfielder scored less than two minutes later, when Salcido scored off a pass from Donahue to give the Orange a 3-0 lead.
Piroli then scored his first goal at Syracuse with 4:16 to go in the first quarter, receiving a pass from Donahue on the right side of the field and firing through Siena goaltender Tommy Cordt’s legs for the fourth Orange goal of the day, which allowed Syracuse to take a 4-0 lead into the second quarter.
A caused turnover by Mellen on a Siena clear attempt led to Syracuse’s first goal of the second, asJoe Gillis put the Orange up 5-0 off a fast-break pass from Paolo Ciferri just over two minutes into the frame.
‘Cuse would tally five more goals in the quarter, with Donahue playing a role in four of them.
Donahue found Jordan Evans for his first goal on the year, then scored one of his own on a feed from Barber less-than 50-seconds later.
After a six-minute scoring draught, Barber scored an unassisted goal to put ‘Cuse up 8-0, before Donahue struck on a man-up goal with Matt Lane providing the assist, and the Barber to Donahue connection gave the Orange a 10-0 lead with 2:36 to play before halftime.
The Saints scored their lone goal of the half when Brian Prunty finally broke through and beat Hill, but Syracuse entered the locker room with a comfortable 10-1 lead.
The Orange maintained their control on the game to start the third, with Salcido scoring on a pass from Donahue at the 13:39 mark to push the score to 11-1.
Nearly three minutes later, the Orange faced their second man-up opportunity of the game. After working the ball around the depleted Siena defense, Donahue passed across the crease to Barber, who tapped it by the Siena goaltender to convert for ‘Cuse. The assist for Donahue marked his ninth point of the day, tying his career high which also came against the Saints in 2014.
At the 4:22 mark of the third quarter, Nick Mariano found Jordan Evans right in front of the cage for Evans’s second goal of the day. The goal came on another man-up opportunity for the Orange, and put them ahead 13-1.
With just under a minute remaining in the quarter, Piroli extended the Orange lead, scoring off a pass from Barber for his second goal of the game to make it 14-1.
Just as it did to end the second quarter, Siena found the back of the net with time ticking down. This time, Mike Reilly scored for the Saints, receiving a pass in front of the goal from Jon-Michael Tokar and firing a low shot for the team’s second goal of the game.
The Saints narrowed the gap to 14-3, as Eric Munn scored unassisted after Molloy came into the game to start the fourth quarter, but Syracuse quickly provided the answer.
One minute later, Derek DeJoe got on the board for the Orange, beating his defender and firing a shot past Siena’s Aaron Lewis to put the Orange up 15-3.
Tokar picked up his second goal of the game for Siena at the 10:20 mark, but the Orange countered with one of its own just a short time later. Devin Shewell recorded his first career goal off a pass from Brad Voigt. A minute later, with 8:33 to go in the game, Shewell notched another, putting the Orange up 17-4 on an assist from Gale Thorpe.
Following a Munn goal, Thorpe recorded a goal of his own off an assist from freshman Nate Solomonwith 1:46 left, putting the Orange up 18-5, where the game would end.
Syracuse returns to action on Sunday against Albany, with faceoff scheduled for 4 p.m.
