(Photo Courtesy of UAlbany Athletics)

The UAlbany Great Danes and Syracuse Orange had played 19 times in history coming into Thursday night. All 19 of those contest were held in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

But on their 20th meeting of all-time, the two sides met in the Empire State Capital at Tom & Mary Casey Stadium on the Campus of UAlbany. And despite a consistent downpour that lasted from the opening faceoff through the final buzzer, the Danes made sure to capitalize on the moment, beating the Orange 14-12 in front of a crowd of 3,688.

The win puts the Danes at 4-5 on the season, but it marks their third consecutive victory as Scott Marr’s squad has seemingly turned things around as of late. On the other side, Gary Gait’s Syracuse squad drops to 4-6 on the year. They have a quick turnaround with Cornell coming to town on Monday before closing out their season with games against North Carolina, Virginia, and Notre Dame.

On Thursday night, the Danes gained a lot of energy in the first half and never seemed to let go. Much of that energy can be attributed to a pair of pole goals from Jake Piseno in those first two frames. His first knotted things up at 2 early in the first and his second was part of a three-goal run that lasted from late in the first through early in the second to help push the Danes ahead 6-4.

A Jack Pucci man-up score with 4:09 remaining in the second quarter proved to be the spark for what was a game-changing run for the Danes as they would outscore the Orange 5-1 over the next 14 minutes to gain their largest lead of the contest at 11-6. However, that cushion wound’t last long as an Albany penalty led to a Tucker Dordevic man-up score for the Orange, which they then relayed into into a four-goal run to make it a one-goal, 11-10, game heading into the final frame.

Nick Karnes went 3-for-9 as the secondary option at the dot for the Danes behind Regan Endres. The junior, however, had arguably one of the most important plays of the game as he won the opening draw of the fourth quarter and sprinted right down the middle of the field for the score to both end the Orange’s run and get the energy back on the Danes side.

Graydon Hogg and Camden Hay scored a pair of man-up goals later on in the quarter to effectively seal the deal. Additionally, Will Ramos made four saves in the quarter to help stifle the Orange offense and hold them to just two goals on 14 shots in the final period.

Hogg had four goals to lead the way for an uber-proficient Danes offense while Thomas Decker (3G/1A) and Corey Yunker (3A) also contributed heavily. Albany took 30 shots and put 25 of them on cage. All of five of those off-cage shots came in the fourth quarter.

Tanner Hay led the defense out in front of the cage with four caused turnovers and three ground balls.

Owen Seebold, Tucker Dordevic, and Jacob Buttermore each had hat trick for the Orange. Jakob Phaup went 18-for-30 (60%) at the faceoff dot.