GENEVA, N.Y.—The nationally ranked Syracuse University lacrosse team used a dominating performance at the faceoff X and a late scoring surge to retain the Kraus-Simmons Trophy by a 13-6 count over Hobart College on Boswell Field tonight.
Senior Ben Williams won 13-of-21 faceoffs and scooped up a game-high nine ground balls for the Orange, who are ranked 10th in the coaches poll and ninth in the media poll. He was at his best in the fourth quarter, winning 4-of-5 and giving SU the possessions it needed to outscore the Statesmen 4-0 in the frame. Junior midfielder Sergio Salcido and junior attackman Jordan Evans paced the offense. Salcido had two goals and three assists for a game-high five points, while Evans recorded a game-high four goals. In goal, junior Evan Molloy made seven saves to earn the win in his first collegiate start.
Hobart (5-5) got a 12-save performance in goal from junior
Jackson Brown. Junior attackman
Frank Brown scored a pair of goals and senior midfielder
Gavin Llewellyn added a goal and an assist.
The Orange (6-3) got off to a fast start, scoring three goals in just over a minute's time early in the first quarter. Evans sandwiched goals around a tally by senior midfielder Derek DeJoe to make it a 3-0 game before the contest was five minutes old. Syracuse added a man-up goal near the eight-minute mark of the first. It was the first extra-man goal allowed by the Statesmen since the second quarter of the Canisius game back on March 15. Two minutes later, the Orange scored again, this time even strength, to carry a 5-0 lead into the second quarter.
Frank Brown got Hobart on the board with an unassisted strike four minutes into the second quarter and first-year
Chris Aslanian followed suit less than a minute later to make it 5-2. Syracuse slowed the home team's momentum with back-to-back goals, including another by Evans, to restore the five-goal lead, but Brown closed out the first half scoring, burying a feed from Llewellyn with 16 seconds left in the half and cutting Hobart's deficit to 7-3.
The Statesmen burst out of the gate to start the second half. Llewellyn scored a man-up goal 31 seconds in on a penalty that carried over from the first half. Thirty-nine seconds later sophomore
Mason Burr posted his first collegiate goal and two minutes after that first-year
Bryan Hancock scored to make it a one-goal game. Malloy helped SU regain the momentum with a pair of key saves.
Syracuse began its six-goal run to end the game when Salcido broke through at the 6:49 mark of the third, ending a nearly 14-minute scoring drought for SU. The Orange's leading scorer, senior attackman Dylan Donahue, hit the back of the net two minutes later for a 9-6 lead heading into the final quarter. This season, only No. 2 Notre Dame and Army West Point have held Donahue to fewer than the three points he produced tonight.
About five minutes into the fourth quarter, Evans' final goal of the night gave SU a four-goal lead. The Orange put the contest out of reach with three goals in the final six minutes to secure their 74th victory in 102 meetings with the Statesmen.
Hobart will return to Northeast Conference play on Saturday, April 9 when Robert Morris visits Boswell Field. The opening faceoff is scheduled for noon. Syracuse will travel to Cornell on Tuesday, April 12 for a 7 p.m. faceoff.
