(Photo Courtesy of Syracuse Athletics)
Gary Gait’s Syracuse Orange welcomed the Duke Blue Devils into the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon and made a statement, taking down the 11th-ranked Blue Devils 14-10 to earn their biggest win of the season.
Tucker Dordevic’s seven points (5G/2A) helped push the Orange past the Blue Devils. Four of his goals came in the second half of play, including a ridiculous between the legs score to cap off a Syracuse transition sequence.
Owen Seebold, Brendan Curry, Mikey Berkman, and Matteo Corsi each had two goals as they got in on the offensive party that Syracuse put together on Saturday.
Bobby Gavin made 10 saves to anchor a Syracuse defense that caused 12 turnovers and saw Nick Caccamo lead the way (4GB/3CT). Jakob Phaup went 16-for-28 (57%) at the faceoff dot.
Dordevic was apart of all four of the Orange’s fourth quarter goals as he scored the first of the period and his highlight reel score was the start of a game-ending, three-goal run. He then assisted on the final two goals of the game.
That late game run was the first multi-goal run the Orange were able to get since the 7:21 mark in the second quarter when Berkman got his second of the day, bookending a five-goal run for the Orange that put them up 7-1 after previously leading 5-1 at the conclusion of the first quarter of play.
After a slow start, Duke was able to finally settle in during the middle of the second quarter with Brennan O’Neill, Reed Landin, and Andrew McAdorey helping to outscore the Orange 3-1 in the final six minutes of the first half. O’Neill would later get two more to help cut the lead to one-goal (10-9) with less than a minute left in the third and give himself a hat trick, which helped him reach the 100 career points milestone.
Despite winning the third quarter 5-2 and continuing to keep things within one score through the early portion of the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils were never able to tie things up or get ahead as the Orange’s dominance down the stretch proved to be too much. Duke only got five shots off in the fourth quarter while Syracuse got off 15.
In addition to O’Neill’s hat trick, McAdorey had two goals. Mike Adler made 10 saves in cage.
Virginia Grabs Bounce Back Win Over Notre Dame
After suffering their first loss of the season last week to Maryland, the Virginia Cavaliers earned a bounce back victory as they took down the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 12-8 at home.
The Cavaliers led from start to finish, never trailing and only seeing things tied up once in the 60 minutes of play.
Connor Shellenberger proved to be catalyst for Wahoos on Saturday, tallying five points off three goals and two assists. Payton Cormier, Griffin Schutz, and Xander Dickson each had two goals to help aid that Virginia offensive performance.
Virginia came firing out of the gates and never looked back. Up 6-2 at the half, a pair of back-to-back goals from Shellenberger to end the third quarter helped extend the Cavaliers’ lead to 9-3 heading into the fourth quarter of play.
Two more from Will Cory and Payton Cormier midway through the fourth gave the Cavaliers their biggest lead of the game, 11-4, and effectively put this one out of reach. However, four Irish goals during the final 3:15 of the game helped make the final score a bit better in this one.
Pat Kavanagh led the Irish with three points off two goals and one assist while Eric Dobson had two goals. Will Lynch had himself a strong day at the faceoff dot, going 15-for-20 (75%).
Yale Knocks off Princeton
Behind a 19-save performance from Jared Paquette, the 14th-ranked Yale Bulldogs knocked off the No. 2 Princeton Tigers, 14-12.
Matt Brandau led the way on the offensive end with eight points off five goals and three assists.
Paquette made 10 saves in the second half alone (five in each quarter) to slow down a Princeton offense that came back from down 4-7 late in the first half to eventually take the 10-9 lead with 5:29 remaining in the third quarter. That comeback effort can be heavily attributed to three consecutive scores from Chris Brown, Alexander Vadaro, and Jake Stevens.
However, Princeton wouldn’t hold onto the lead long as a pair from Matt Brandau and Chris Lyons made it an 11-10 Yale lead heading into the fourth.
Princeton tied it up once more at 11-11 before the Bulldogs were able to get a little more comfort for the first time in the second half. Brandau got one to go for himself before finding Johnny Keib on a roll back for a score to put Yale ahead 14-11 with 6:42 left. While each team would ultimately get one more, Keib’s score effectively sounded the end of this one.
The Tigers went 1-4 shooting in those final six minutes and change as Paquette made two huge saves on Sam English and Coulter Mackesy to stifle any late-game effort Princeton may have had in them. The Tigers also committed four turnovers (two caused) during those final minutes.
Vadaro led Princeton with six points off four goals and two assists. Erik Peters made 13 saves and Tyler Sandoval went 18-for-28 (64%) at the dot.
Penn Takes Down Cornell
The Penn Quakers earned their biggest win of the season on Saturday afternoon, knocking off the previously undefeated Cornell Big Red, 15-11, in a top-10 Ivy League battle.
Sam Handley led the way for the Quakers with six points off three goals and three assists while Patrick Burkinshaw made 15 saves to anchor the defense, and Jamie Zusi went 21-for-29 (72%).
A Ben Bedard goal got the scoring started and gave Penn the early lead, which they would hold onto for the remainder of the game as they never trailed. Due to two separate big runs, one in the first and one from late in the second through the early third, helped the Quakers extend that lead to 11-4.
Cornell was able to make it a game late, using a four-goal run in the third quarter to cut the Quakers lead to three, 11-8. Michael Long assisted on the last three goals of that run to help get the Big Red back in it. They would score three more times before the final buzzer sounded, but the Quakers, on the other hand, got four more of their own to hold off the Cornell effort.
Long’s three assists helped him to a five-point (3G/2A) day to lead the for Cornell.
Georgetown Tops Lehigh
In their final game before Big East play gets underway next week, the Georgetown Hoyas took down the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 14-11.
After what had been a back and forth battle early on, the Hoyas started to heat up and went on a 7-1 run from late in the first quarter through the end of the half to take a 10-5 lead at the intermission. Dylan Watson had a hat trick during that strong stretch for the Hoyas.
However, the Mountain Hawks wouldn’t go away that easy. Lehigh answered with four of their own in the third quarter, two of which were assisted by Cole Kirst, to make it a one-goal game once again heading into the fourth.
Georgetown got two quick goals in the fourth to push their lead back out to three. They then added two more late in the final minutes of play to put this one to bed and secure the win. One of those final goals came off a Lehigh turnover, which is a spot where the Mountain Hawks struggled all day with 23 total to Georgetown’s 16.
Dylan Watson led the way for the Hoyas with five goals while TJ Haley had six points off two goals and four assists. Freshman Michael Scharfenberger got his first career start, stepping in between the pipes for an injured Owen McElroy. The freshman made nine saves.
Cole Kirst (1G/4A) and Christian Mule (4G) led the way for Lehigh on offense while Mike Sisselberger won the battle at the faceoff dot against James Reilly, going 16-for-29 (55%).
Late-Game Run Pushes Hopkins Past Michigan
After a pair of historically bad losses last weekend, the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays beat the Michigan Wolverines 15-12 at Homewood on Saturday afternoon to open Big Ten play on solid footing.
Two straight from Gavin Legg and Emmett Houlihan pulled Michigan within one with 8:31 left to play, but the four-goal Blue Jays run that ensued was too much to overcome. Garrett Degnon two goals during that run to help him finish with six points (3G/3A). Jacob Angelus had seven points (3G/4A).
Josh Kirson made 11 saves in cage to anchor the Hopkins defense.
Michael Boehm (2G/2A), Josh Zawada (3G/1A), and Ryan Cohen (1G/3A) each had four points to lead Michigan. Justin Wietfeldt went 17-for-23 (73%).
Nichtern Leads Army Past Loyola
In the biggest Patriot League game of the weekend, the Army West Point Black Knights earned a 14-12 road victory against the Loyola Greyhounds.
Behind a seven-point outing from Brendan Nichtern, the Black Knights outscored the Greyhounds 9-6 in the second half of play to earn the victory. Army led 11-8 midway through the fourth after their largest run of the game (four) and then pulled ahead 14-10 late before Loyola got the final two.
Wyatt Schupler made 13 saves in cage for Army and LSM Joey Stillings grabbed four ground balls and caused two turnovers.
Seth Higgins led Loyola with four points off three goals and one assist. Bailey Savio went 18-for-29 at the dot.
Other Notable Scores
- Bryant beat Hobart 14-11 to move to 2-0 in NEC play.
- Brenden Crouse and Brandon Dodd combined for 12 points in Air Force’s 16-9 win over Marquette.
- Boston U. beat Lafayette 12-11 to stay unbeaten in Patriot League play.
- UMass beat Brown 11-7 in a big non-conference matchup.
- Sam King had nine points (6G/3A) in Harvard’s 19-10 win over Dartmouth.
- North Carolina ended the game on an 8-0 run to escape Bellarmine, 15-8.
- Matt Campbell’s eight points (7G/1A) helped lead Villanova past Delaware, 18-13.
- Denver escaped Towson 12-9 behind a 76% (19-for-25) effort from Alec Stathakis.
Lacrosse Bucket 
One thought on “Saturday Recap: Syracuse Makes a Statement and Virginia Bounces Back; Paquette, Brandau Lead Yale Past Princeton”