by SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The #9/9 UAlbany men’s lacrosse team put together a late 4-0 run but could not make up the deficit, falling to #2/2 Syracuse 17-12 in the Carrier Dome on Thursday night.
UAlbany (7-2) had its six-game winning streak snapped against Syracuse (8-1). UAlbany led 4-3 late into the first quarter, but a pair of Syracuse 3-0 runs gave the Orange the lead for good.
“I am certainly proud of our team for the effort they put forth,” said UAlbany coach Scott Marr. “[Ben Williams] was unbelievable at the faceoff-x. The amount of time we had to play defense, I thought we played very hard.”
Lyle Thompson (Onondaga Nation) led UAlbany with seven points off four goals and three assists. Connor Fields earned two goals and an assist while Matt Garziano and Seth Oakes each scored two goals.
“We came in knowing we had to play a good game, faceoffs, ground balls, everything,” said Thompson. “They were pressuring and denying me the ball in the second half.”
For Syracuse, Williams won 24 faceoffs as the team grabbed 28-33 faceoffs on the night. Henry Schoonmaker netted five goals, Nicky Galasso scored four goals while Kevin Rice finished with three goals and four assists.
After some back and forth play caused by the goalies making saves, UAlbany got a transition play, seeing Garziano rip a long range shot for the goal over the goalie’s shoulder. After Harry Erickson intercepted a pass, with Riorden helping the clear, Thompson avoided the coverage, passed to Fields for a ground ball shot and score. With the Orange continuing to win faceoffs, Syracuse kept possession and scored three goals in a span of 2:10 to take the lead. Forcing turnovers after losing faceoffs, UAlbany got back to offense, with Thompson scoring high while being shoved next to the crease and Kyle McClancy netting a goal on the run after getting past his defender. Jordan Evans tied the game for Syracuse with a high shot after shaking off his defender. The score was 4-4 after one quarter.
UAlbany started to win some faceoffs in the second quarter, but turnovers put Syracuse on the offense, leading to the Orange scoring the first two goals in the opening five minutes off a Tim Barber race and score and Rice move to get inside a defender’s path and goal. Thompson pulled UAlbany within one, coming from around the cage, coming straight towards and defender, shooting and scoring while getting hit. Syracuse added two more before the end of half, including Nicky Galasso getting around a defender and scoring with 16.8 seconds left, to make it 8-5 going into the locker room.
Action was fast-paced to begin the third quarter as Schoonmaker made a bounce shot and score in the opening seconds. Oakes countered with a low shot in transition for a goal. Syracuse added two more with catch and shoot scores to make it 11-6 3:13 in. The teams went back and forth the rest of the quarter: Thompson used a juke move to get the close shot and score, Schoonmaker netted a man-down goal on the run, Thompson slid and found Oakes for the catch and shoot goal, then a Syracuse goal off a failed UAlbany clear made it 13-8 Syracuse after three.
Continuing to win faceoffs and get UAlbany penalties, Syracuse scored the first three goals in the fourth quarter to lead 16-8 with 8:40 left. UAlbany put together a final run with a Garziano close shot, a Derrick Eccles one-handed flick and score near the crease, a Thompson shot and score with two defenders in front of him and a Fields low fire and goal to pull within four at 16-12 with 2:43. UAlbany could not get closer as Galasso scored for Syracuse with 1:40 left to set the final score at 17-12.
UAlbany has a quick turnaround, heading north to Burlington for an America East matchup, playing Vermont on Saturday, April 4th at 1 p.m.
