JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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Wanted to get this out earlier but wanted to wait until the Yale scrimmage was over to get a full picture of where the team is going into the season. Going to try and hit every position and just offer some quick takes/thoughts and then try to wrap it all up with some final season thoughts.
If you take a look at the team right it would appear that the Defense is clearly ahead of the offense right now. With SU replacing so much scoring and trying to fit in so many Freshmen I don't think that is any sort of surprise. I think that is likely to be the story until the staff can integrate this offense together fully and we get everyone on the same page.
Attack - The starting 3 at this point seems to be Rehfuss, Solomon, and Bomberry
Solomon has showed pretty well in pre-season and seems to be more aggresive with his dodging. This should bode well as Rehfuss will now draw every teams best cover guy after drawing the third pole or a short stick last year. Speaking of Rehfuss as I noted big change going from the 4th attackmen to essentially the QB type who is going to draw a lot of attention. Expect some up and down performances. The third spot is the biggest question mark right now. Bomberry and Voigt both play a similar style and both have little dodging ability. Bomberry seemed to struggle to play attack last year after being bumped down so Mariano could run out of the box and draw a shorty (until teams wised up). Does Desko end up moving Bomberry back to the midfield if Dearth struggles? Can Voigt see major minutes at attack or is he only an option against a zone? Where does Seebold stand, can he force Desko's hand? Not much in the way of production this pre-season from Voigt despite glowing words from Dekso to start camp. Bomberry was hurt and only really played extended minutes vs Yale but I don't believe he scored a goal vs Vermont or Yale. My feelings have been noted before but I still believe Bomberry is at his best when he is at the midfield but for now he will play as a crease attackmen
Starter most vulnerable - Bomberry
Player looking to breakout - Voigt
Dark Horse - Seebold
Final Thoughts - Look for Dekso to use a 4 man attack rotation of Rehfuss, Solomon, BB, and Voigt for at least the first few games or quarter of the season. If the unit underporms or struggles will be interesting to see if Seebold can work his way into getting minutes. Seebold while just a true frosh offers a more diverse skill set at attack then either Bomberry or Voigt. Wouldn't be schoked if he is playing a role by later part of the season.
Midfield - The same line has been used all three games so one would assume Dordevic, Trimboli, and Dearth will be the starters against Bingo. Dordevic has been a revelation and might already be the #1 midfielder despite Trimboli's ACC pre-season team recognition. Kid appears to have the full package and will be a 4 year starter. Trimboli had a nice run last year but did disappear a bit in some games which you would expect for a Frosh going up against SU's schedule. Syracuse will need him to be more consistent this year with Salcido and Mariano gone and the staff expecting him to step into a larger roll. Was hoping for him to stand out a bit against Yale but he didn't register a point. Fanbase will need to be patient with him as he is still a very young player but again he will need to be more consistent with his production and help lead a young offense and midfield. Dearth bounced back and forth form SSDM to the mid line last year and seems to have finally settled at midfield. He would apepar to have made a big impression to jump from the third line to starter this year despite a ton of competition. Dearth had some nice flashes last year but struggled with accuracy. He was fairly quiet in the pre-season but you would think big things are on top once he can put it all together.
Second line contains stalwarts Matt Lane and Ryan Simmons and True frosh Brendan Curry. Curry like Dordevic has done a great job this pre-season and has been involved in each game to date. Curry can play attack or midfield and brings a high end pedigree and skill set to the position. Putting him with two seniors on the second line was a great decision by the staff. With Lane and Simmons its all about consistency. Lane has played fairly well this pre-season and looks to finish his career here off strong. Both Lane and Simmons will need to play well as there are a large number of midfielders behind them looking to make the jump to the second line. With so many options at Desko's disposal a multi game slump could make a top 6 spot tenous at best.
Starter most vulnerable - Dearth
Player looking to breakout - Lane/Curry
Dark Horse - Lipka/Lauder/Quinn
Final Thoughts - With so many options its hard to know how the midfield might look on Saturday vs how ti will look against Colgate. The main takeway is the overall depth of the position. Guys like O'Sullivan, McKinney, Carlin, Quinn, Lipka, Lauder Buttermore, Small etc could all be challenging for a top 6 spot somewhere else yet there on the outside looking in for the top 6 here. It seems Dekso has the ability if he wants to, to run 3 mid lines fairly regulary. The young guys are the most intruiging at this point but its unclear how many the staff may want to red-shirt. A player like Quinn may take a month or more to get fully adjusted to Div 1 but assuming he does will the staff get him some minutes or look hold the redshirt. Troy Lauder has been impressive this pre-season can he force his way up the ladder? Hopefully SU can run the third line against Bingo and we can get a feel for who is out there and who they maybe looking to red-shirt. SO many young midfielders, will be fascinating to see who can break away as the season progresses.
Man up Unit - Per the DO the Man up unit is Solomon, Lane, Rehfuss, Voigt, Trimboli and Brendan Bomberry. I wasn't overly surprised to hear that unit struggled against Yale. They lost half of the unit to graduation and Mariano and Evans were very heady man up players. The current unit also only has 1 true feeder in Rehfuss and the closest second would be Lane. Personally I think the unit needs another mid fielder type who fan feed and finish. I think Dordevic should absolutely be out there. As for who to take off my initial thought would probably be Solomon. Voigt is a good midrange guy on man up and Bomberry can play the crease. Id rather have Dordevic who can play out on top with Lane.
Face offs - Putting this under offense for this preview.
Pretty cut and dry here I think based on the pre-season results. Varello will clearly be the starter and take a majority of the draws assuming he is holding his own. He was 6 of 12 against Yale which is not bad at all and he held up against both Vermont and Hofstras specialist. As noted by Dekso, Varello has to continue to develop his post draw skills ie gb's smart passing etc. Delisle is going to be a nice piece to add this year as Dekso can turn to him to give Varello a blow or take some draws if he is struggling. Martin would appear to be the third guy as Garlow didn't take any draws vs Yale. I really hope that Desko will rotate a bit at the X this year as we don't want to wear down Varello as we clearly did to Ben Williams who looked like a shadow of himself by the Yale game. Would like to see SU go with the Maryland plan this year and just throw wave after wave of faceoff guys against the elite specialists. Against Ierlan of Albany last year Maryland ran 4 guys against him and their third guy had some success and they did a good job keeping him off balance. Varello and DeLisle are a nice 1-2 punch that hope can ease the transition from the great Ben Williams.
Will do the defense in a seperate post and will include my season thoughts in that post.
If you take a look at the team right it would appear that the Defense is clearly ahead of the offense right now. With SU replacing so much scoring and trying to fit in so many Freshmen I don't think that is any sort of surprise. I think that is likely to be the story until the staff can integrate this offense together fully and we get everyone on the same page.
Attack - The starting 3 at this point seems to be Rehfuss, Solomon, and Bomberry
Solomon has showed pretty well in pre-season and seems to be more aggresive with his dodging. This should bode well as Rehfuss will now draw every teams best cover guy after drawing the third pole or a short stick last year. Speaking of Rehfuss as I noted big change going from the 4th attackmen to essentially the QB type who is going to draw a lot of attention. Expect some up and down performances. The third spot is the biggest question mark right now. Bomberry and Voigt both play a similar style and both have little dodging ability. Bomberry seemed to struggle to play attack last year after being bumped down so Mariano could run out of the box and draw a shorty (until teams wised up). Does Desko end up moving Bomberry back to the midfield if Dearth struggles? Can Voigt see major minutes at attack or is he only an option against a zone? Where does Seebold stand, can he force Desko's hand? Not much in the way of production this pre-season from Voigt despite glowing words from Dekso to start camp. Bomberry was hurt and only really played extended minutes vs Yale but I don't believe he scored a goal vs Vermont or Yale. My feelings have been noted before but I still believe Bomberry is at his best when he is at the midfield but for now he will play as a crease attackmen
Starter most vulnerable - Bomberry
Player looking to breakout - Voigt
Dark Horse - Seebold
Final Thoughts - Look for Dekso to use a 4 man attack rotation of Rehfuss, Solomon, BB, and Voigt for at least the first few games or quarter of the season. If the unit underporms or struggles will be interesting to see if Seebold can work his way into getting minutes. Seebold while just a true frosh offers a more diverse skill set at attack then either Bomberry or Voigt. Wouldn't be schoked if he is playing a role by later part of the season.
Midfield - The same line has been used all three games so one would assume Dordevic, Trimboli, and Dearth will be the starters against Bingo. Dordevic has been a revelation and might already be the #1 midfielder despite Trimboli's ACC pre-season team recognition. Kid appears to have the full package and will be a 4 year starter. Trimboli had a nice run last year but did disappear a bit in some games which you would expect for a Frosh going up against SU's schedule. Syracuse will need him to be more consistent this year with Salcido and Mariano gone and the staff expecting him to step into a larger roll. Was hoping for him to stand out a bit against Yale but he didn't register a point. Fanbase will need to be patient with him as he is still a very young player but again he will need to be more consistent with his production and help lead a young offense and midfield. Dearth bounced back and forth form SSDM to the mid line last year and seems to have finally settled at midfield. He would apepar to have made a big impression to jump from the third line to starter this year despite a ton of competition. Dearth had some nice flashes last year but struggled with accuracy. He was fairly quiet in the pre-season but you would think big things are on top once he can put it all together.
Second line contains stalwarts Matt Lane and Ryan Simmons and True frosh Brendan Curry. Curry like Dordevic has done a great job this pre-season and has been involved in each game to date. Curry can play attack or midfield and brings a high end pedigree and skill set to the position. Putting him with two seniors on the second line was a great decision by the staff. With Lane and Simmons its all about consistency. Lane has played fairly well this pre-season and looks to finish his career here off strong. Both Lane and Simmons will need to play well as there are a large number of midfielders behind them looking to make the jump to the second line. With so many options at Desko's disposal a multi game slump could make a top 6 spot tenous at best.
Starter most vulnerable - Dearth
Player looking to breakout - Lane/Curry
Dark Horse - Lipka/Lauder/Quinn
Final Thoughts - With so many options its hard to know how the midfield might look on Saturday vs how ti will look against Colgate. The main takeway is the overall depth of the position. Guys like O'Sullivan, McKinney, Carlin, Quinn, Lipka, Lauder Buttermore, Small etc could all be challenging for a top 6 spot somewhere else yet there on the outside looking in for the top 6 here. It seems Dekso has the ability if he wants to, to run 3 mid lines fairly regulary. The young guys are the most intruiging at this point but its unclear how many the staff may want to red-shirt. A player like Quinn may take a month or more to get fully adjusted to Div 1 but assuming he does will the staff get him some minutes or look hold the redshirt. Troy Lauder has been impressive this pre-season can he force his way up the ladder? Hopefully SU can run the third line against Bingo and we can get a feel for who is out there and who they maybe looking to red-shirt. SO many young midfielders, will be fascinating to see who can break away as the season progresses.
Man up Unit - Per the DO the Man up unit is Solomon, Lane, Rehfuss, Voigt, Trimboli and Brendan Bomberry. I wasn't overly surprised to hear that unit struggled against Yale. They lost half of the unit to graduation and Mariano and Evans were very heady man up players. The current unit also only has 1 true feeder in Rehfuss and the closest second would be Lane. Personally I think the unit needs another mid fielder type who fan feed and finish. I think Dordevic should absolutely be out there. As for who to take off my initial thought would probably be Solomon. Voigt is a good midrange guy on man up and Bomberry can play the crease. Id rather have Dordevic who can play out on top with Lane.
Face offs - Putting this under offense for this preview.
Pretty cut and dry here I think based on the pre-season results. Varello will clearly be the starter and take a majority of the draws assuming he is holding his own. He was 6 of 12 against Yale which is not bad at all and he held up against both Vermont and Hofstras specialist. As noted by Dekso, Varello has to continue to develop his post draw skills ie gb's smart passing etc. Delisle is going to be a nice piece to add this year as Dekso can turn to him to give Varello a blow or take some draws if he is struggling. Martin would appear to be the third guy as Garlow didn't take any draws vs Yale. I really hope that Desko will rotate a bit at the X this year as we don't want to wear down Varello as we clearly did to Ben Williams who looked like a shadow of himself by the Yale game. Would like to see SU go with the Maryland plan this year and just throw wave after wave of faceoff guys against the elite specialists. Against Ierlan of Albany last year Maryland ran 4 guys against him and their third guy had some success and they did a good job keeping him off balance. Varello and DeLisle are a nice 1-2 punch that hope can ease the transition from the great Ben Williams.
Will do the defense in a seperate post and will include my season thoughts in that post.
