Game Notes: With the victory, Syracuse improved to 7-0 this at home this season and 12-1 all-time against Albany … The win was SU's sixth of the year against a nationally-ranked opponent and its fourth against a top-10 team … Williams' 15 grounders were the most for an SU player since Sam Bassett set the team single-game record with 21 on May 6, 2000 versus Georgetown. Williams has 96 ground balls on the year, good for fourth on the team single-season record list … Junior Ralph D'Agostino made his first start on close defense for the Orange. He replaced senior Sean Young in the lineup, ending Young's streak of 40 consecutive starts … At halftime, Syracuse honored former All-American and 2015 Spirit of Tewaaraton recipient Oren Lyons, as well as members of the undefeated 1957 Syracuse team and members of the 1983 and 2014 Iroquois Nationals.
At times, it looked more like a chess match than a lacrosse game, with one-on-one matchups, man-up situations and strategic timeouts filling Syracuse and Albany’s yearly in-state tilt.
But there was one player that stood well above the game plans rolled out by Orange head coach John Desko and Great Danes head coach Scott Marr. That was SU face-off specialist Ben Williams, who won 24-of-27 face-offs — including every one in the first and third quarters — to lead No. 2 Syracuse (8-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) to a 17-12 win over No. 9 Albany (7-2, 3-0 America East) in the Carrier Dome on Thursday night. ..
Midfielder Henry Schoonmaker emerged once again to provide much needed offense for Syracuse as the Orange took Down Albany 17-9. SU now sits at 8-1 while the Great Danes fall to 7-2...
Ben Williams is off to a hot start, and possibly a historic season. The Holy Cross transfer is second in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and first in the nation in groundballs per game. He is on pace to break school, and possibly national, records...
Ben Williams, Syracuse, So. M The importance of Ben Williams' transfer to Syracuse from Holy Cross is something that has been the talk of the lacrosse world from the start of the year, and it was on full display on Thursday at the Carrier Dome as the Orange rode a dominating possession game to down Albany in a showdown game of the Interstate-90 neighbors.
With his team hoping to limit the touches of a Great Danes offense that came in scorching hot, having scored 25 goals its last game and over 20 several times this spring, Williams was near-perfect. He won 24 of 27 faceoffs to help the Orange keep Albany and its star Lyle Thompson from putting together a significant run. Thompson put together a solid seven-point game, but never made it close after Syracuse went on a big mid-game run, fueled by Williams, who also had 15 ground balls.
On the year, Williams has gone 147-for-210 (70 percent), scooped 96 ground balls and given the Orange the confidence that they can hold off just about any team trying to put together a run.