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Message: [QUOTE="Powellfan, post: 4403376, member: 4819"] [B]Face-Off: [/B]Johnny Richiusa The biggest question marks about this years Syracuse lacrosse team are focused on the Face-off X. Jakob Phaup took every meaningful face-off for SU last year and his presumed backup, Jack Savage, left SU for non-DI lacrosse at Chapman. SU brings in Richiusa from Canisius. He had a decent freshman season for the Griffs, facing off at 50%. That would be a great percentage to get from him this year, but the talent he'll be going against goes up significantly. The ACC alone is full of elite FOGOs. The last time SU struggled at the dot, in 2021, they gave up huge goal totals. With a defense that seriously struggled last year, this could be a recipe for disaster. Hopefully Richiusa has improved this offseason. Also the unit loses it's Volunteer Assistant and FOGO-Whisperer in TD Ierelan. What sort of impact will that have? [B]SSDM 1:[/B] Brandon Aviles, Carter Rice [B]SSDM 2: [/B]Joe Bolea, Jake Murphy [B]SSDM 3:[/B] Max Rosa, Vinnie Trujlio SU has struggled with SSDM play the last few seasons. This group on paper looks pretty deep with a mix of returning players, transfers and a Power 100 recruit. I thought Aviles looked very good as a freshman, took a step back in 2021 and looked back to his old self last year. Probably won't ever be an All American, but he's solid. Loves to try and cause turnovers but it seemed like he played a bit more conservative last year, which helped. Rice looked very promising last year but had his share of rookie mistakes. Bolea and Murphy from what I've seen and heard look like tough kids. Rosa plays his heart out and had a bunch of injuries last year. If he's healthy he might be a real producer for the team. This unit should have depth but they need to work on consistency. [B]LSM: [/B]Saam Olexo, Dylan Sageder Olexo was a surprise starter for the Orange last year and acquainted himself well. He had an impact in the transition game with four goals and one assist last year. If there were issues it was perhaps he got a little too physical last year and led the team with 11 penalties (next closes only had six). Kind of like Aviles, probably won't ever be AA, but he's a good player. Was first among all non-fogos in groundballs last year with 46. From a recruiting perspective, Sageder is one of the most highly ranked LSM recruits that SU has ever gotten. Not much of a threat in transition but he loves harassing ball carriers. I have to imagine he gets a lot of playing time somewhere on defense. [B]Close Defense: [/B]Nick Caccamo, Landon Clary, Caden Kol I am stealing this from DMV, since there doesn't seem to be a good case to disagree with him. Losing Figuerias would be a huge loss as I have to imagine he would start and play a pretty prominent role. Caccamo is a really good defensemen who I think could start for most other teams in the country. He led the team in Caused Turnovers with 24 (almost two per game) and had 39 groundballs, good for third on the team. I have to imagine he will guard the other teams top player, which I don't know is for the best. Most of his CT's came last year on picked off passes. He could still have the same impact but he might be better as a number two. Either way Syracuse has to be better against other team's "alpha". Players like Brendan Nichtern, Pat Kavanaugh, Chris Gray all put up huge points against the Orange last year. Brett Kennedy was a great player for SU the last few seasons, but being a number 1 close D man was not his best role. The question for Clary and Kol is, are they just keeping the seat warm for one of the younger players? Can they hold off a talented freshman group? [B]Goalie: [/B]Will Mark After really struggling at the goalie position last year, Syracuse has really improved this spot with Mark, and a top goalie recruit in Jimmy McCool (the highest rated goalie recruit since John Galloway, I believe, for the Orange). Goaltending last year was dreadful for the Orange as Bobby Gavin and Harrison Thompson combined for a 41% save percentage. Anything has to be better than that. It wasn't all on the goalies of course last year, we've talked ad nauseum about how many missed slides, slides not taken and how often defenders were beaten last year. The whole unit has to be better, but have to imagine that goalies will be net positive after last year. [B]Overall Assessment: [/B]As positive as I am about the offense, I think the opposite could be said about the defense, especially with Figuerias potentially being out. He was the number 1 ranked defensive recruit after all. I do think SSDM and the goalie position has improved since last year, but has it been improved enough to offset what's going on with the face-off unit? I'm not sure it has. The SU defense was really bad last year and that was with a pretty good FOGO who was able to take pressure off them. I worry that we might return to 2021 when Phaup struggled and most ACC games ended in blowout losses. Could that change? Absolutely. I have to imagine that Mark or McCool will be an upgrade in goal. They almost certainly beat teams like Albany, Cornell, Hopkins and Army last year if they had a goalie who could stop 50%+. But a lot still depends on the faceoff dot. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?