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In the final six seconds of the first half, short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Dearth received a pass from Stephen Rehfuss and charged toward the cage. The most unlikely scorer, Dearth, unloaded a strike into the back of the net. He walked into the locker room at halftime as the Orange’s leading scorer, with two goals.

Dearth’s offensive success was telling of SU’s failures against Notre Dame. The Orange collapsed in the second quarter, conceding a 10-2 run to close out the half. Plagued by turnovers, limited possessions and a porous zone defense, Syracuse couldn’t prevent a losing record in conference play.

Here are three takeaways from No. 8 Syracuse’s (6-5, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) 22-8 loss to No. 4 Notre Dame (7-3, 3-3):

Turnovers galore

By the end of the first half, Syracuse had 10 turnovers, on pace for a season-high. The Orange cleaned up their play slightly in the second half, but it was too late to recover from the seven-goal deficit that the Orange had dug themselves in the opening 30 minutes.

Dearth threw a sloppy pass toward Brett Kennedy in the first quarter when the long-stick midfielder was surrounded by multiple UND defenders. Kennedy got swarmed and lost the ball, and Notre Dame’s Griffin Westlin was there to collect it.

Later in the second quarter, amid a 10-2 run that Notre Dame eventually used to close out the half, Syracuse’s Jakob Phaup collected the ball after a frantic scramble. The scrum included the two wings from each team and both faceoff specialists. But Phaup eventually emerged with the ball in his stick.

Running toward his own goal, Phaup looked toward Grant Murphy for an outlet pass. Kavanagh jumped into the passing lane, picked it off and converted the easy goal to put UND up four.

To open the second half, Brendan Curry started at X and scrambled before firing a pass that was too high for freshman Owen Hiltz — who was open on the crease. Notre Dame took over possession, using it to chew clock before Wheaton Jackoboice drew a slide and unloaded into the bottom corner.

Pat Kavanagh makes SU pay again

In the dying seconds of the first quarter, Syracuse put backup defensive midfielder Saam Olexo on Notre Dame’s star attack, Kavanagh. The Orange were lucky that the ball didn’t make it to Kavanagh before the buzzer sounded, but they weren’t as lucky in the latter portion of the game.

Kavanagh punished SU with five goals and five assists, complementing his nine-point performance from the team’s first meeting on April 3.

On most of Notre Dame’s offensive possessions, Kavanagh camped out at X. And on most possessions, the ball found its way to Kavanagh, who dished to teammates or elected to go himself. In the first quarter, he created separation from Cole Horan at X and drew a slide from Dearth. Squeezing between the two as he came around to the face of goal, Kavanagh dove and slammed the ball into the far post as he drew contact from both SU defenders.

Later in the second quarter, he started at X before trickling around to the front as teammate Eric Dobson unloaded a deep shot. Porter made the save, but Kavanagh was there to shovel in the rebound. He parked himself back at X moments later, and before SU’s Mitch Wykoff could surround him, the UND sophomore had already picked out Will Yorke for the score.

He later set the Notre Dame record for most points in a single game, 10, when he went back to X once again before dishing to Westlin on the doorstep for a man-up goal. Kavanagh exited the game after that, contributing to nearly half of Notre Dame’s total goals.

Faceoff inconsistencies continue

Phaup won nine faceoffs compared to Charles Leonard and Kyle Gallagher’s combined 18, which still represented an improvement from Phaup’s 1-of-8 performance when the two teams met a month ago.

Phaup entered the game strong off last week’s 24-of-27 performance against Virginia. But that didn’t last beyond midway through the second quarter. Phaup won a handful of faceoffs in the first half due to UND violations but went relatively quiet for the rest of the afternoon.

After winning the faceoff to open the second quarter, one that eventually helped SU earn a 4-3 lead, Leonard shoveled the ball forward and outpaced Phaup. The UND faceoff specialist, who was selected in the Premier Lacrosse League’s College Draft this past week, sprinted downfield and sidestepped past Wykoff for the goal.

Moments later, Leonard shoveled it forward for himself again. Phaup laid out at midfield, extending his stick in an attempt to trap the loose ball. UND’s wings eventually got the better of SU’s after Kennedy missed a chance to recollect it. The Fighting Irish eventually scored via Reilly Gray, giving UND a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Published on May 1, 2021 at 2:25 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16