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Holy Cross head coach J.L. Reppert looked down at the stats sheet and asked himself how many turnovers the Crusaders had committed. “Jeez,” he said, as he saw the number 23 staring back at him. Holy Cross had little wiggle room against a dynamic Syracuse team that blanked them last year.

Three minutes into the third quarter, Miles Jackson tried to pick up a ground ball and clear it for Holy Cross. Cleared or not, the Crusaders were still going to have to overcome a 9-2 hole and rack up a few more than — at the time — seven shots on goal. Fans shouted for Holy Cross to shoot more faded off, but Jackson didn’t clear it anyway.

The stick of a Syracuse attack hit him from behind, forcing a ground ball that the Orange quickly picked up. Another turnover, another failed clear. Then the ball got to Cole Kirst about 10 yards in front of the net. He turned back to his left and riled a shot past the right shoulder of junior goalie Dawson Friers, giving Syracuse a 10-2 lead.

The Orange (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) held the Crusaders (0-3, 0-0 Patriot League) to just 17 shots on goal, amounting to a 15-6 win. Questions of the viability of this young offense stemming from the Vermont game have all but been quieted. Even a “sluggish” team, according to head coach Gary Gait, one playing its third game of the week, could capitalize on Holy Cross’s turnovers and win.

“When you play a team of this caliber, any team you play is going to be opportunistic and take advantage of it,” Reppert said.

The Crusaders have won just three games in the last three seasons, entering Sunday’s game against the Orange off to a winless start. Syracuse’s offense is humming, as the young players are quickly growing into the weapons Syracuse thought they’d be. With 5:44 left in the first quarter, Reppert called a timeout following a third Syracuse goal from Owen Hiltz. He needed to talk it over with his team, because before he was simply yelling while pacing the sidelines.

After goalie Friers tossed the ball out of bounds following an impressive save, Reppert instructed his team to be “disciplined.” Through just 10 minutes, the Crusaders had already committed six turnovers, many of which came from errant passes on offense or trying to clear. Holy Cross called two timeouts in the first quarter and emphatically broke the huddle after the first quarter break. But the turnovers — that sloppy play that opened up more chances for Syracuse to lay into the Crusaders — kept coming.

With 11:30 left in the second quarter, Holy Cross failed to clear, and Hayes Reding turned the ball over mere yards from the Syracuse goal. Caden Kol picked up the ground ball and easily cleared it as he bolted past the Crusaders’ midfielders. Then, he passed down to Alex Simmons in the middle of the Holy Cross defense, where he turned around and found Joey Spallina sitting to the left of the goal. Spallina grabbed the ball, cut around his man and in front of the net and smoothly ripped over a low shot to put the Orange up 7-2.

“Some of it is just Syracuse being athletic and putting pressure on you and making you feel uncomfortable,” Reppert said. “You kind of get a quick yip because you get an athletic guy getting to your glove.”

Gait said the Crusaders were playing to slow the game down, and from the first possession, they showed their willingness to work through the majority of the shot clock. At 30 seconds, the entire Holy Cross bench would yell out “30,” which they did each time the Crusaders worked through a possession. Gait said that that style of play gave the Orange more opportunities to create turnovers, extra time to “knock the ball down, get a check and turn the ball over.” Twenty-three turnovers against Syracuse for a second straight year was a byproduct of wanting to slow the game down and pass more frequently each possession.

The Orange also went 4-for-4 on extra man opportunities, capitalizing on Holy Cross’s sloppy penalties. Finn Thompson said SU was trying to “just execute” on man-up opportunities. The Orange outmatched the Crusaders throughout. Syracuse’s attackers were quicker and more shifty, its defenders more astute. There was hardly anything Holy Cross could do for a 60-minute game that would have stopped the avalanche of goals the Orange piled on it for the second straight year. Still, the Crusaders held, shoved and committed crease violations trying to get better position on Will Mark.

Tyler Strub tried to help out by double-teaming Simmons, who already had two assists and a shot on goal. Not only did it not work — Simmons darted a pass inside to Jackson Birtwistle — Strub was assessed a holding penalty. Seconds later, on a man-up opportunity, Leo crashed the net and grabbed an easy pass up from Hiltz at the X. He was wide open, and flung in a shot to move Syracuse’s lead to 9-2.

“I thought our offense rode pretty well and got some turnovers there. I thought we got some turnovers on the faceoff,” Gait said. “Our defense got after them when they got a chance.”

After Friday night’s win and Simmons’ four-assist performance, he said that the Orange’s offense, one that is meant to spread the ball around and get several players involved, allows Syracuse to take creative liberties. Offensive coordinator Pat March lets his players create their own offense, Simmons said. The youth, like leading goal scorer Spallina, helps the offensive ingenuity.

“Coach March has kind of given us the offense a little bit,” Simmons said.

The Orange continued that creativity, cutting in front of the net and working around the edge of Holy Cross’s defensive formation with nifty passing. They sent 35 shots on goal and fired at a 42.8% rate. To end the third quarter, Syracuse whipped four consecutive passes around the outer rim of its offensive formation. It distracted Holy Cross’s offense and allowed Thomson to crash in toward the net. He looked left and grabbed a pass in from Simmons, then faked out the goalie by raising his stick up before dumping off a successful shot underneath Frier.

For the third time, the Orange won and held its opponent to less than 10 goals. They were poised and sliced apart Holy Cross’s defense, standing tall on the other end to force turnovers that it then parlayed into goals and more shots on goal. The Crusaders looked like they never had a chance, and kept hindering their own opportunities with costly turnovers, errant passes and violations.

“We did what we were supposed to do,” Spallina said.

Published on February 12, 2023 at 3:16 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt