When Marist midfielder Drew Nesmith slotted the first shot of the game past goalie Bobby Wardwell less than two minutes in, Syracuse players could have had flashbacks.

In last season’s opening-round loss to Bryant in the NCAA tournament, the Bulldog’s Colin Dunster put the visitors up 1-0 in the opening minutes of the contest to set the tone for what would become one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.

The sparse, but rambunctious contingent of Red Foxes fans roared as the Marist players viciously bumped helmets and shoulders on the sideline. All seven Marist cheerleaders shook their red and white pompoms high in the air.

It would be the last time that sequence of events played out for almost another 23 minutes.

The second-seeded Orange (13-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) collected itself and got out to a 10-1 lead by the middle of the second quarter. SU took down Marist (14-4, 6-0 Metro Atlantic) 20-8 to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in Annapolis, Maryland, where Syracuse will square off against Johns Hopkins.

The offense was jumpstarted by sophomore midfielder Jordan Evans’ first career multi-goal game and Ben Williams’ 8-for-8 first-quarter performance in faceoffs — his 10th perfect quarter this season from the X.

As Evans and the rest of the offense continued its relentless push on the Red Foxes’ defense, a Marist fan continuously shouted “Push them away! Push them out!” to no avail.

On the other side of the ball, the Red Foxes tried helplessly to penetrate SU’s defensive perimeter in the scarce offensive opportunities they had. The shot clock was even activated on Marist — a mechanism to ensure teams with large leads can’t hold the ball for too long.

A once-rowdy visitors sideline had turned motionless, with longpole defenders silently leaning up against their sticks while the cheerleaders put their pompoms down and sat.

There were brief signs of life for the dormant Red Foxes when they rattled off four consecutive goals leading into the start of the third quarter to set their deficit at five goals.

The red-laden fans stood in unison chanting “defense,” trying to will the counterattack back to life against an offense. But the Orange’s veteran attack would take no part in the crowd’s antics.

Senior attack Kevin Rice collected five points in the third quarter and set a career-high with nine in the game. In a brief lapse for the usually stoic Rice, he got into a brief altercation with a member of the Red Foxes.

The senior captain received a 30-second technical and head coach John Desko shouted something at Rice as he jogged off the field and took a knee. He promptly re-entered the game and scored minutes later, subduing his celebration to light taps on his teammates’ helmets.

One final “Let’s go Marist!” cheer rang through a thinned-out Carrier Dome crowd with the score 20-7, and midfielder Patrick Eaker subsequently threw a pass away and Syracuse celebrated its first-round victory minutes later.

Published on May 10, 2015 at 9:43 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman