Powellfan
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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The Syracuse Orange face-off against the Delaware Blue Hens in Chantilly, VA (for some reason) this Saturday. The Blue Hens come in with a record of 3-2, with the three wins against Lafayette, St. Johns and Monmouth. Their two losses came against the only top 20 teams they've faced this year, a 11-10 set back against Penn and a 13-8 loss to Michigan. I'll be honest and say I haven't seen much of anything on Delaware so this will mostly be a stats based deep dive.
Ben DeLuca always seems to have a good defense, and the offense has two very good players in Mike Robinson and JP Ward, both of whom lead the Blue Hens in scoring with 22 and 20 points respectively. Robinson is a lefty Canadian sniper who went to Culver and has 17 goals and five assists on the season. Ward has 12 and eight this year, but last year was one of the only players in D1 to finish with over 40 goals and 40 assists (he finished with 85 points). That said, in their two losses, Ward and Robinson have combined for just 10 points. That maybe wouldn't be so bad but the next leading scorer for Delaware on the season has just 10 points and half of those points came against Monmouth (freshman John McCurry). I expect Delaware to lean heavily on Ward and Robinson. I imagine Figuerias will take Ward and Dwan will mark Robinson. Syracuse's inability to mark Garrett Degnon of Hopkins makes me a little worried about how they will mark Robinson, though in theory the Blue Hens will have less threats on the field to distract Syracuse in this match up.
The wild card for Delaware is their FOGO OJ Morris, who owns a 69% winning percentage. However, he didn't play against Michigan and only went 1-5 against Penn. He's put up monster numbers in Delaware's three wins, but I am not sure that says much. Last year he played in eight games and had a 44% winning percentage. I am guessing that he comes back down to earth against Mason Kohn and Johhny Mullen, but it still remains something to watch for. Delaware's main backup this year has only gone 33% for what its' worth.
In goal Kevin Ellington owns impressive numbers with a 8.76 GAA and a 57% save percentage. Again, DeLuca always puts together a good defense. Against Penn he had a really good day and kept Delaware in the game, saving 58% with 15 saves, and allowing just 11 goals (Delaware went just 6-18 at the face-off that game). Michigan was not as kind, as he saved only 40% on the day and had nine saves. Syracuse will have to shoot well in this one and of course can't let the Delaware keeper get into a groove.
This is the second neutral field game in a row for the Orange. Of course the game within the game is that on Wednesday they face-off in their first ACC game of the year with a meeting from Duke. Syracuse can definitely not afford to sleepwalk in this one and has to focus on Delaware. I think a lot of us have been a bit dismissive of the Blue Hens, but again this Syracuse team, while explosive can be prone to lapses. If they aren't careful this could be a huge trap game. Losing this would make the rest of the season quite difficult from a resume building standpoint. This will likely be Delaware's last top 20 game for the season with Towson the most difficult remining game. I can't imagine their RPI at the end of the season will be very good. A win won't do much for the Orange, but a loss here could be devastating. I think this one will be a little more low scoring, something like 13-10, in Syracuse's favor. Go Orange.
Ben DeLuca always seems to have a good defense, and the offense has two very good players in Mike Robinson and JP Ward, both of whom lead the Blue Hens in scoring with 22 and 20 points respectively. Robinson is a lefty Canadian sniper who went to Culver and has 17 goals and five assists on the season. Ward has 12 and eight this year, but last year was one of the only players in D1 to finish with over 40 goals and 40 assists (he finished with 85 points). That said, in their two losses, Ward and Robinson have combined for just 10 points. That maybe wouldn't be so bad but the next leading scorer for Delaware on the season has just 10 points and half of those points came against Monmouth (freshman John McCurry). I expect Delaware to lean heavily on Ward and Robinson. I imagine Figuerias will take Ward and Dwan will mark Robinson. Syracuse's inability to mark Garrett Degnon of Hopkins makes me a little worried about how they will mark Robinson, though in theory the Blue Hens will have less threats on the field to distract Syracuse in this match up.
The wild card for Delaware is their FOGO OJ Morris, who owns a 69% winning percentage. However, he didn't play against Michigan and only went 1-5 against Penn. He's put up monster numbers in Delaware's three wins, but I am not sure that says much. Last year he played in eight games and had a 44% winning percentage. I am guessing that he comes back down to earth against Mason Kohn and Johhny Mullen, but it still remains something to watch for. Delaware's main backup this year has only gone 33% for what its' worth.
In goal Kevin Ellington owns impressive numbers with a 8.76 GAA and a 57% save percentage. Again, DeLuca always puts together a good defense. Against Penn he had a really good day and kept Delaware in the game, saving 58% with 15 saves, and allowing just 11 goals (Delaware went just 6-18 at the face-off that game). Michigan was not as kind, as he saved only 40% on the day and had nine saves. Syracuse will have to shoot well in this one and of course can't let the Delaware keeper get into a groove.
This is the second neutral field game in a row for the Orange. Of course the game within the game is that on Wednesday they face-off in their first ACC game of the year with a meeting from Duke. Syracuse can definitely not afford to sleepwalk in this one and has to focus on Delaware. I think a lot of us have been a bit dismissive of the Blue Hens, but again this Syracuse team, while explosive can be prone to lapses. If they aren't careful this could be a huge trap game. Losing this would make the rest of the season quite difficult from a resume building standpoint. This will likely be Delaware's last top 20 game for the season with Towson the most difficult remining game. I can't imagine their RPI at the end of the season will be very good. A win won't do much for the Orange, but a loss here could be devastating. I think this one will be a little more low scoring, something like 13-10, in Syracuse's favor. Go Orange.