Hopkins Preview | Syracusefan.com

Hopkins Preview

Powellfan

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After a disapointing finish to the UVA game - how does the Orange respond? It's gut check time on the hill as things do not get easier after a tough contest with the Hoos. Where does Syracuse go from here against the Blue Jays, who have two bad losses, but to two very good teams.

On paper I like this match up with Hopkins - the Orange have a strong close defense to contend with Hopkins' strength (their attack) - and I think the Orange midfield should be able to cause problems for the Jays. But the fact remains that Hopkins thumped the Orange last year in a game I felt similarly confident about. So what gives?

I think the defensive matchups are pretty clear - Mellen on Epstein, Bomberry on Williams and Cunningham on Marr. The Blue Jay midfield has been struggling so far this year. Bomberry I don't believe played last year and Williams had a big day. It will be important for the 'Cuse defense to have a bounce back game after last week.

Offensively the match ups with Hopkins are murky - they return almost all their starters but they have given up some big goal totals and their goalie is under 50%. Curious to see who gets the pole between Curry and Trimboli. Hopefully Rhefuss continues his upward trajectory after a rough start to the year, but he will have his hands full with Pat Foley. Others will have to step up.

After last year I think the big x-factor will be at the face-off X. Syracuse had a rough game last year at the dot. Hopkins brings in a new FOGO who has put up pretty good numbers, so should be a real test for Phaup, who will hopefully be back to full strength.

Needless to say, a big game for the Orange who would fall below 500 with Rutgers, Duke and Notre Dame up next. Orange will need to bring a full 60 of HHH to the Dome this Saturday.
 
After a disapointing finish to the UVA game - how does the Orange respond? It's gut check time on the hill as things do not get easier after a tough contest with the Hoos. Where does Syracuse go from here against the Blue Jays, who have two bad losses, but to two very good teams.

On paper I like this match up with Hopkins - the Orange have a strong close defense to contend with Hopkins' strength (their attack) - and I think the Orange midfield should be able to cause problems for the Jays. But the fact remains that Hopkins thumped the Orange last year in a game I felt similarly confident about. So what gives?

I think the defensive matchups are pretty clear - Mellen on Epstein, Bomberry on Williams and Cunningham on Marr. The Blue Jay midfield has been struggling so far this year. Bomberry I don't believe played last year and Williams had a big day. It will be important for the 'Cuse defense to have a bounce back game after last week.

Offensively the match ups with Hopkins are murky - they return almost all their starters but they have given up some big goal totals and their goalie is under 50%. Curious to see who gets the pole between Curry and Trimboli. Hopefully Rhefuss continues his upward trajectory after a rough start to the year, but he will have his hands full with Pat Foley. Others will have to step up.

After last year I think the big x-factor will be at the face-off X. Syracuse had a rough game last year at the dot. Hopkins brings in a new FOGO who has put up pretty good numbers, so should be a real test for Phaup, who will hopefully be back to full strength.

Needless to say, a big game for the Orange who would fall below 500 with Rutgers, Duke and Notre Dame up next. Orange will need to bring a full 60 of HHH to the Dome this Saturday.

Good post as usual. I agree with you in that I do think SU matches up pretty well from a defensive standpoint but you have to wonder if this grind of a schedule is already catching up to them as the D looked worn out in the 4th quarter against UVA.

I disagree slightly in the matchups, I think it will be Mellen on Epstein for sure but Bomberry gets Marr and Desko/Rogers have to again decide if they go Cunningham or Bump Kennedy to take on Cole Williams. Williams is built a bit like Nanticoke but hes taller and faster. I think Bomberry would have a real hard time trying to stay with him. I could be wrong but thats seems like a terrible matchup. Cunningham was OK last week, but Kraus eventually wore him down. Williams is no Kraus but he can be close when he gets his A game going. Personally I would look to go Kennedy here, but I assume staff may roll the dice again with Cunningham. Hopkins from the midfield has really missed Tinney a lot. Their top 3 scorers are far and away the starting attackmen with the 4th guy is also an attackmen, with the 4 guy being the 1st middie in Desimone who has 4 pts but only 1 goal on the year. Unlike UVA there is no Dox Aiken to have to try and account for. Desimone has struggled against LSM's this year and I have no doubt SU will pole him with Fusco. Hopkins will run two mid lines but again midfield is far from their strength. Baskin rotates in at attack I believe and does have 5 goals on the year so he is someone to keep an eye one. They have a frosh in Zinn who is seeing sometime at SSDM who is a middie but hasn't been able to crack the lineup for PT. Kid is pretty fast and he will try and push transition if he can.

Hopkins struggles defensively are a bit of a mystery. They brought back pretty much everyone save for the goalie who wasn't exactly Galloway last year. Darby has apparently held up fairly well but has seen a barrage of shots this year already. Foley is an AA close defender so whether its Solomon or Rehfuss there going to have their hands full. Teams have been attacking their third pole Colwell and the SSDM's. Loyola and Towson especially had success with that strategy and of course having a guy like Spencer helps. Rapine is their #2 and after a pretty good year last year seems to have taken a step back. He will likely draw Solomon. Petro may try and get tricky and double pole the midfield but I don't think it will hold up as JHU has big issues at SSDM despite Danny Jones having 6 CT against Princeton. I expect SU to try and attack whoever draw the shorties, Buttermore getting some 1st line run this game would make a lot of sense.

Hopkins back up FOGO from last year started the year and really struggled. They went to Narewski a 6'3 frosh who has done a nice job and is over 50%. He's apparently not 100% so its evolved into a split similar to ours. Assuming Phaup plays ( I assume he will), I would give SU slight advantage here but I don't expect either side to have a huge advantage. Hopkins wing play runs hot and cold like our own, tough to know what to expect. Porter I think has an advantage in goal that 4th quarter against UVA not withstanding.

What does it mean regarding our chances to win? Tough to say. Hopkins destroyed us at the X last year which is a big reason why they won. We were also missing Solomon and Bomberry and it showed big time. If we can hold our own at the X and generate points like we did last week I like our chances a lot. That said the Hopkins defense is better then what they appear on paper and like SU play a brutal schedule so they are very much battle tested. Hopkins is a better team Defensively then UVA in my opinion but offensively I don't think they are close to UVA's level as their midfield is a huge issue despite a very good and complex attack unit. A big if but if this team can get a second half lead of 4 goals like they did against UVA I would like our chances much more then last week. Penalties will again be an issue, we have a bad habit of coming up on the wrong end when we play Hopkins despite what Hopkins fans will tell you.

Keys for SU will be to limit Epstein, even as a frosh he's probably the best Hopkins offensive player already. Epstein's listed at 5-11 and I think Mellen matches up very well but hard to gauge when he has never seen him before. Don't give Marr open looks - he isn't much of a dodger but will kill you if left open. Williams has turned the ball over a ton and hasn't looked anywhere close to the player he was last year when he had Tinney and Stanwick drawing the attention. He will look to initiate especially if Mellen is locking down Epstein, this matchup is critical.

On our end we need to continue the depth scoring. Despite the loss I thought SU looked the best it has all year on offense (that last possession not withstanding). We need to see more out of Cook, he keeps getting runs at middie and getting a step but he then roll dodges back into his defender for some reason. Not sure what he's trying to accomplish but we need him to break out a bit here. Seebold has gotten some run but looks lost out there, id rather see Cook take the run at attack to be honest. Carlin and Magnan scoring a goal each Sat would be a very positive development.
 
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Thanks Jeremy, always appreciative of your comments

Does anyone remember who was guarding Williams last year? I agree that matchup will be key. They were just highlights of last year, but Hopkins had really good ball movement against the Orange and the defense looked discombobulated. Everyone will have to be on their toes.

The UVa quotes in the IL post game article are pretty brutal to read - seems like we played right into their hands with our inability to switch and play picks correctly. Too often it looks like defenders are freelancing out there. Ohiomilax brought this up on the fanlax site, but the Orange on offense don't seem to pick all that often - is that why on defense they seem to struggle against it? The Hopkins fans seem to think they will have an upper hand in this department. Hope the coaches are spending extra time trying to correct this.
 
Thanks Jeremy, always appreciative of your comments

Does anyone remember who was guarding Williams last year? I agree that matchup will be key. They were just highlights of last year, but Hopkins had really good ball movement against the Orange and the defense looked discombobulated. Everyone will have to be on their toes.

The UVa quotes in the IL post game article are pretty brutal to read - seems like we played right into their hands with our inability to switch and play picks correctly. Too often it looks like defenders are freelancing out there. Ohiomilax brought this up on the fanlax site, but the Orange on offense don't seem to pick all that often - is that why on defense they seem to struggle against it? The Hopkins fans seem to think they will have an upper hand in this department. Hope the coaches are spending extra time trying to correct this.

SU has struggled to defend picks for years. That loss to Hopkins a few years ago in the tourney they killed us with their big/little game and picked us to death. We need to do a much better job there starting this weekend because Petro will copy it to a T with Epstein and Williams. It appears from the article that Desko noted there was a mis-communication as there wasn't supposed to be a switch but Murphy slide to Kraus and Cunningham stuck with Kraus as well leaving Herring wide the freak open. We have play picks correctly, either fight through them or if were going to switch we have to be prepared to properly slide once the guy dodges for the cage. I don't mind SU switching on Picks but we can't leave our guys to die afterwards, a slide has to come at some point. Hopefully the staff is working on this for this week. The one thing that will be different is that Mellen should be directly involved as Epstein is there #1 guy so it will be him deciding whether to switch or not versus Cunningham..
 
I agree with Jeremy that we should have Cunningham on Williams instead of Bomberry and also would prefer Cunningham on him instead of bumping Kennedy or someone else down. The main reason for that is the height differences. I've seen plenty of footage of Williams simply acting like he doesn't have a defender right on him because the height difference is so severe that he is still able to shoot perfectly despite there being a body and stick right on him. Cunningham has a somewhat comparable height to Williams, maybe 1 or 2 inches shorter, and his speed actually looked pretty solid against Kraus. I wouldn't say Kraus dominated his match up against him at all. Cunningham did a good job of forcing poor angle shots when he dodged from behind. The goal to tie it up was more on Porter than Cunningham imo, since it was a low percentage shot from that angle. Williams will not be as fast as Kraus and also doesn't really utilize quick direction changes or finalizer moves. He's more of an Oshae Brissett style dodger, if you will pardon the bball comparison. Leans in and goes in one direction and uses his size and strength to create space. Works a lot better in Lacrosse than in basketball Oshae!! A Canadian like yourself may have picked the wrong sport!
 
I wouldn't change much as I thought our m2m D by all was good and required few slides beyond a down defender sliding quicker to Krauss when he ran past his defender from upfield to score unimpeded before 1q buzzer. On that play, someone faster has to be playing Krauss if he starts from up top.
D was again aggressive and physical coverage was just fine but a few mental mistakes cost . Krausss goal on dive outside crease couldn't have been defended better. Gave up a few goals right in front of circle due to mental mistake of ball watching ( another goddamn buzzer beater which deflates good mo, gotta keep awake! ) , a few goals were the result of being man down nine freeking times ( includes down two men a few times) our man down unit fought off seven but bs reffing had our defense onfield too long especially in fourth when we were penalized several times.
. There were several UVA goals around crease, the dives by Krauss and Aiken were defended well by poles and didn't require help. UVA talked about inversions that resulted in some other goals outside crease but even those were covered fairly well by short sticks. Maybe crease defender has to come but UVA spaces well and slides there would likely have left Laviano or someone else wide open. Saw it earlier when top sunk in low to help and Conrad was wide open. A few highly questionable push calls didn't help. Our goalie play has been very good but believe some crease shots could have been approached at better angles and believe they will be given the learning experience.

As far as piks, you had the one mentioned by Desko but another was cd on Krauss being screened down by Conners , the lsm running on field correctly picked up Krauss coming upfield off pass but cd didn't stay with screener. Another mental mistake that will be addressed in film. . Getting piked was a problem last year but we have improved. Not sure why we dont incorporate some of those basic principles into our offense but we have seen it with Refhus to Voigt.
JHU is facing a better D, last year we had major issues with ssdm getting beat constantly resulting in many slides ,both early and late , that left others open. The ssdm play is much improved as they have gained experience and familiarity and has not required the same help. Have reversed from a weakness to perhaps a strength. Eliminate some mental mistakes and poor reffing

Encouraged by play even in loss. JHU is a good team but so is Cuse , expect another tight game
 
SU has struggled to defend picks for years. That loss to Hopkins a few years ago in the tourney they killed us with their big/little game and picked us to death. We need to do a much better job there starting this weekend because Petro will copy it to a T with Epstein and Williams. It appears from the article that Desko noted there was a mis-communication as there wasn't supposed to be a switch but Murphy slide to Kraus and Cunningham stuck with Kraus as well leaving Herring wide the freak open. We have play picks correctly, either fight through them or if were going to switch we have to be prepared to properly slide once the guy dodges for the cage. I don't mind SU switching on Picks but we can't leave our guys to die afterwards, a slide has to come at some point. Hopefully the staff is working on this for this week. The one thing that will be different is that Mellen should be directly involved as Epstein is there #1 guy so it will be him deciding whether to switch or not versus Cunningham..


Know many lax players play hockey that help sticks but playing hs basketball teaches you the principles of defending and switching on pick and rolls since it is such a big part of basketball offenses . Good defenders communicate , learn to go above or under screens, know when a matchup dictates staying or passing on, know to hold up screener . Was really frustrating to see us get screened off so often last year but improvement has been noted. Im sure we practice against but ingrained in hoopsters who are geared to D
 
An interesting point is that Hopkins first mids are all pretty small and don’t tend to play good defense when they get stuck on defense. Look for Syracuse to take advantage of this whenever possible.
 
Thanks Jeremy, always appreciative of your comments

Does anyone remember who was guarding Williams last year? I agree that matchup will be key. They were just highlights of last year, but Hopkins had really good ball movement against the Orange and the defense looked discombobulated. Everyone will have to be on their toes.

The UVa quotes in the IL post game article are pretty brutal to read - seems like we played right into their hands with our inability to switch and play picks correctly. Too often it looks like defenders are freelancing out there. Ohiomilax brought this up on the fanlax site, but the Orange on offense don't seem to pick all that often - is that why on defense they seem to struggle against it? The Hopkins fans seem to think they will have an upper hand in this department. Hope the coaches are spending extra time trying to correct this.
This has been a problem for years. It's chronic.
 
Head scratcher as elementary. If there is a switch called or seen, the one being picked gotta drop n stay with screener not follow and trail . If the player switching on is being clearly beat then slid has to come elsewhere.
 
We need to take advantage of Hopkins lack of midfield athleticism. They are very skilled offensively, but not nearly as athletic as our previous 2 opponents (at least offensively). Keep their mids on D, and get them stuck with a trimboli/buttermore/curry matchup. We def have the advantage in between the pipes imo, and the defenses will be interesting. They tend tend to struggle w ssdm production, and we tend to struggle playing the picks. The FO matchup will be quite interesting. Overall they might have a more momentum coming in, but I think we’re slightly the better team.
 

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