Jacksonville Gameday...

[OrangeXtreme]

Kyle’s POTG

Close D plus Leo

 

[Ozone!]

A great start to this season!​

​

 

[OttosDad]

x.com

x.com

Thought Mac looked good in net but this save by Ippoliti is noteworthy. Lightning quick top hand

 

[cuselaxss26]

I swore their first emo chance leo scored ? i thought they were least 2-3 on emo

 

[llandz]

Koby White and Jimmy McCool from my prep school, New Hampton, where I serve on the capital campaign board. The current Lacrosse coach at New Hampton connected me with Jimmy before he came to Syracuse. I'll be rooting hard for them.

 

[tech37]

24-4

O’Farrell.

6:20

This goal was sick. Hope he gets more PT.

 

[tech37]

Props to Mike Grace... improves the close D

 

[BillSU]

This is GREAT! 24 - 5 Whoa!

 

[OrangeXtreme]

First, Jacksonville head coach John Galloway talks to the media following his return to Syracuse.

"Staff will get back after it and we'll address it on the plane home."

"There are no moral victories and we have to be honest with the tape."

"You can't make a mistake. Teams like this [Syracuse] take advantage of it pretty quick... and they did."

"I think there's a clear expectation... they expect to play the way they did today."

____________________

Gary Gait, Joey Spallina, Michael Leo, and Billy Dwan III now take the podium.

"I thought it was overall a great start and a great team effort." Coach Gait on his assessment of SU's play in the opener.

"We like to try cool things and coach emphasizes us to try those." Spallina on the Orange's creativity offensively.

"They're all leaders on this team and they can all change the flow of the game... very proud of what they did."Gait on the 'Cuse junior class and its step up.

"I think he does everything well, I don't see a weakness in his game."Dwan III on his first time playing with transfer Michael Grace.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I swore their first emo chance leo scored ? i thought they were least 2-3 on emo

2-4.

 

[HtownOrange]

First, Jacksonville head coach John Galloway talks to the media following his return to Syracuse.

"Staff will get back after it and we'll address it on the plane home."

"There are no moral victories and we have to be honest with the tape."

"You can't make a mistake. Teams like this [Syracuse] take advantage of it pretty quick... and they did."

"I think there's a clear expectation... they expect to play the way they did today."

____________________

Gary Gait, Joey Spallina, Michael Leo, and Billy Dwan III now take the podium.

"I thought it was overall a great start and a great team effort." Coach Gait on his assessment of SU's play in the opener.

"We like to try cool things and coach emphasizes us to try those." Spallina on the Orange's creativity offensively.

"They're all leaders on this team and they can all change the flow of the game... very proud of what they did."Gait on the 'Cuse junior class and its step up.

"I think he does everything well, I don't see a weakness in his game."Dwan III on his first time playing with transfer Michael Grace.

Thanks, OX. The quotes make it look like the old swagger of the lacrosse team is back!

 

[bjred]

Good game.

Starting defense didn't let up a goal in settled 6 on 6. Communication looked good, didn't feel like there was much, if any, ball watching going on. Granted it's not a higher caliber offense but the SSDMs held their own today. McCool looked good in net as did Ippoliti when he got his chance.

Clearing looked good after the reports that it wasn't so good in the scrimmage. Couple times they seemed to quickly recgonize that Jax was trying to set up a 10 man, and quickly moved the ball up the field. Maybe once they looked a little confused/deer in the headlights when attempting the clear.

Was a little surprised that Mullen struggled for a stretch in the first half but seemed to finally get into a groove. Didn't realize that Richiusa and Fine were still on the team, I honestly thought Richiusa had graduated.

The offense looked like what we thought. Team has a lot of weapons. Spallinas play at first reminded me of his freshman year, seemed to be forcing things before finally settling in. Hiltz not only looked slimmer but a step faster as well. Thomson two goals on two shots, hopefully a good sign. Deere with some great stick skills. Was surprised to see a third line used so early in the game. Does't seem like there's much of a drop switching between the first two lines, and maybe a little drop with the third probably only because the guys on the third line haven't seen the field much.

I know English has the motor but I'd probably dial back on where he's being used. Probably sub him off the man up unit, and maybe plug in McCarthy or Birtwistle. I don't mind him on the man down as it gives the "junkyard dogs" a guy who can clear which was something they seemed to struggle with last year.

Anderson is gonna be good once he gets adjusted to the D1 level. He made his goal look easy backing down the defender and casually shooting. Can see him swapping in at attack depending on how the opponent is defending.

Feels like the entire roster got to play today.

I don't see them struggling with Vermont this year so Towson might be the first real test, and on short rest as well.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Great win to start the season. But, you have to wonder how much of an impact the Jacksonville goalie's injury had.

 

[cuselaxss26]

anyone know what happen to aiden kelly ? doesn’t seem be on roster anymore not sure if he decided to graduate or there were cuts or he just left .

 

[SUlax88-09]

Good game.

Starting defense didn't let up a goal in settled 6 on 6. Communication looked good, didn't feel like there was much, if any, ball watching going on. Granted it's not a higher caliber offense but the SSDMs held their own today. McCool looked good in net as did Ippoliti when he got his chance.

Great evaluation of the game. I agree with all of your points.

My first impressions of this year’s team:
Solid defense and solid goalie. Those are the two most important parts of any final four team. Unfortunately, we also had both of them last year, too, and then we still lost to Denver because our offense was inept and couldn’t dodge against a good defense. Unfortunately, this year’s offense looks similar to last year’s team, so we may have the same result (I understand we scored a bunch of goals today, but let’s see how many goals we can score against a good defense).

I still worry about our SSDMs besides Rice and that our attackmen cannot dodge (when going up against a good defense).

I would actually play Leo and Anderson on Attack because they will both be able to dodge and draw a slide (which triggers Gait’s passing attack) and I would put Hiltz on Attack as the finisher. Having all ‘finishers’ and no dodgers at Attack got exposed last year and it will again this year. Hiltz is just a better version of Spallina (both are good finishers that have good vision, but they cannot dodge), so having both of them out there will hurt us. There’s a reason why Spallina wasn’t even selected to the All ACC team last year, and that included 8 attackmen! He scores a lot of unassisted points against inferior opponents, but struggles against good defenders because of his lack of speed. I think our offense is best when we have 2 Attackmen that can dodge and draw a slide and then have 1 finisher (instead of again having 3 finishers).

I would put Finn back to Middie with Rhoa and Birtwistle. English will be too tired from face-offs and man-down to be relied upon to give us much on offense.

I would also stop the Junkyard Man-down team. Even if they prevent a man-down goal, then we’re at such a disadvantage when we’re at even strength because our best defenders aren’t on the field.

Hopefully the coaches get us ready and get our best players on the field because this is the year to try to grab a chip. Last year’s ND team was an all time great team and some other teams had a few all time great players, so we had no chance of winning it all last year. There will be more parity this year, so we could have a chance!

 

[Powellfan]

Good game.

Starting defense didn't let up a goal in settled 6 on 6. Communication looked good, didn't feel like there was much, if any, ball watching going on. Granted it's not a higher caliber offense but the SSDMs held their own today. McCool looked good in net as did Ippoliti when he got his chance.

Clearing looked good after the reports that it wasn't so good in the scrimmage. Couple times they seemed to quickly recgonize that Jax was trying to set up a 10 man, and quickly moved the ball up the field. Maybe once they looked a little confused/deer in the headlights when attempting the clear.

Was a little surprised that Mullen struggled for a stretch in the first half but seemed to finally get into a groove. Didn't realize that Richiusa and Fine were still on the team, I honestly thought Richiusa had graduated.

The offense looked like what we thought. Team has a lot of weapons. Spallinas play at first reminded me of his freshman year, seemed to be forcing things before finally settling in. Hiltz not only looked slimmer but a step faster as well. Thomson two goals on two shots, hopefully a good sign. Deere with some great stick skills. Was surprised to see a third line used so early in the game. Does't seem like there's much of a drop switching between the first two lines, and maybe a little drop with the third probably only because the guys on the third line haven't seen the field much.

I know English has the motor but I'd probably dial back on where he's being used. Probably sub him off the man up unit, and maybe plug in McCarthy or Birtwistle. I don't mind him on the man down as it gives the "junkyard dogs" a guy who can clear which was something they seemed to struggle with last year.

Anderson is gonna be good once he gets adjusted to the D1 level. He made his goal look easy backing down the defender and casually shooting. Can see him swapping in at attack depending on how the opponent is defending.

Feels like the entire roster got to play today.

I don't see them struggling with Vermont this year so Towson might be the first real test, and on short rest as well.

Great stuff here. I don’t think that English played man up, just man down. Pretty sure EMO was Spallina, Thomson, Hiltz, Leo, Deere and Birtwistle. I could be wrong.

His man down usage is interesting. I don’t love it, but he made the two most impactful plays I can remember of the unit (causing a TO and a great one man clear). In a perfect world I would hope he didn’t play there every time, but coaches really like consistency on those units.

Really liked what I saw from Hiltz. Just looked much more aggressive and faster than in years past. Agree with DMV, he’s got to be poised for a big year.

I don’t want to overreact, but I was also really impressed with Deere. He looked bigger than last year and a lot more confident. I’m probably getting a head of myself, but he looks like he has an aura to him. Looked comfortable playing midfield and could also handle the ball a little bit. Hopefully he gets a lot of playing time this year.

And speaking of the second midfield line, Birtwistle looked healthy to me and looked a lot more aggressive than last year. Some great shots and also some nifty dodging (that fake jump pass was pretty awesome). He and Deere could really be something this year. McCarthy on the second line was a bit of a surprise, but he looked like he belonged.

Last point but it looked like Kucynski was backing up Caccamo at LSM today? Was really hard to tell since they wear numbers 28 and 26. I thought both looked good. Kucynski looked extremely aggressive out there (maybe a bit too much at some points). Defense had a tough stretch with penalties in the third, but overall really hard to argue with the overall performance. Just a bit surprised there were no long pole goals. Something to work on for the next game!

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Great stuff here. I don’t think that English played man up, just man down. Pretty sure EMO was Spallina, Thomson, Hiltz, Leo, Deere and Birtwistle. I could be wrong.

His man down usage is interesting. I don’t love it, but he made the two most impactful plays I can remember of the unit (causing a TO and a great one man clear). In a perfect world I would hope he didn’t play there every time, but coaches really like consistency on those units.

Really liked what I saw from Hiltz. Just looked much more aggressive and faster than in years past. Agree with DMV, he’s got to be poised for a big year.

I don’t want to overreact, but I was also really impressed with Deere. He looked bigger than last year and a lot more confident. I’m probably getting a head of myself, but he looks like he has an aura to him. Looked comfortable playing midfield and could also handle the ball a little bit. Hopefully he gets a lot of playing time this year.

And speaking of the second midfield line, Birtwistle looked healthy to me and looked a lot more aggressive than last year. Some great shots and also some nifty dodging (that fake jump pass was pretty awesome). He and Deere could really be something this year. McCarthy on the second line was a bit of a surprise, but he looked like he belonged.

Last point but it looked like Kucynski was backing up Caccamo at LSM today? Was really hard to tell since they wear numbers 28 and 26. I thought both looked good. Kucynski looked extremely aggressive out there (maybe a bit too much at some points). Defense had a tough stretch with penalties in the third, but overall really hard to argue with the overall performance. Just a bit surprised there were no long pole goals. Something to work on for the next game!

LSM was Caccamo, Kuczynski, and Sageder.

 

[4evaOrange]

Longer highlight. I don’t know how good it is but better than our 1 minute piece lol.

 

[Gettysbrg10]

Longer highlight. I don’t know how long it is but better than our 1 minute piece lol.

Thank you posting. Apparently the next Indiana Jones movie is going to be Harrison Ford searching for Syracuse lacrosse game highlights.

 

[Laxfanshutt]

 

[tech37]

Great evaluation of the game. I agree with all of your points.

My first impressions of this year’s team:
Solid defense and solid goalie. Those are the two most important parts of any final four team. Unfortunately, we also had both of them last year, too, and then we still lost to Denver because our offense was inept and couldn’t dodge against a good defense. Unfortunately, this year’s offense looks similar to last year’s team, so we may have the same result (I understand we scored a bunch of goals today, but let’s see how many goals we can score against a good defense).

I still worry about our SSDMs besides Rice and that our attackmen cannot dodge (when going up against a good defense).

I would actually play Leo and Anderson on Attack because they will both be able to dodge and draw a slide (which triggers Gait’s passing attack) and I would put Hiltz on Attack as the finisher. Having all ‘finishers’ and no dodgers at Attack got exposed last year and it will again this year. Hiltz is just a better version of Spallina (both are good finishers that have good vision, but they cannot dodge), so having both of them out there will hurt us. There’s a reason why Spallina wasn’t even selected to the All ACC team last year, and that included 8 attackmen! He scores a lot of unassisted points against inferior opponents, but struggles against good defenders because of his lack of speed. I think our offense is best when we have 2 Attackmen that can dodge and draw a slide and then have 1 finisher (instead of again having 3 finishers).

I would put Finn back to Middie with Rhoa and Birtwistle. English will be too tired from face-offs and man-down to be relied upon to give us much on offense.

I would also stop the Junkyard Man-down team. Even if they prevent a man-down goal, then we’re at such a disadvantage when we’re at even strength because our best defenders aren’t on the field.

Hopefully the coaches get us ready and get our best players on the field because this is the year to try to grab a chip. Last year’s ND team was an all time great team and some other teams had a few all time great players, so we had no chance of winning it all last year. There will be more parity this year, so we could have a chance!

Good post

 

[richmondcuse03]

Great evaluation of the game. I agree with all of your points.

My first impressions of this year’s team:
Solid defense and solid goalie. Those are the two most important parts of any final four team. Unfortunately, we also had both of them last year, too, and then we still lost to Denver because our offense was inept and couldn’t dodge against a good defense. Unfortunately, this year’s offense looks similar to last year’s team, so we may have the same result (I understand we scored a bunch of goals today, but let’s see how many goals we can score against a good defense).

I still worry about our SSDMs besides Rice and that our attackmen cannot dodge (when going up against a good defense).

I would actually play Leo and Anderson on Attack because they will both be able to dodge and draw a slide (which triggers Gait’s passing attack) and I would put Hiltz on Attack as the finisher. Having all ‘finishers’ and no dodgers at Attack got exposed last year and it will again this year. Hiltz is just a better version of Spallina (both are good finishers that have good vision, but they cannot dodge), so having both of them out there will hurt us. There’s a reason why Spallina wasn’t even selected to the All ACC team last year, and that included 8 attackmen! He scores a lot of unassisted points against inferior opponents, but struggles against good defenders because of his lack of speed. I think our offense is best when we have 2 Attackmen that can dodge and draw a slide and then have 1 finisher (instead of again having 3 finishers).

I would put Finn back to Middie with Rhoa and Birtwistle. English will be too tired from face-offs and man-down to be relied upon to give us much on offense.

I would also stop the Junkyard Man-down team. Even if they prevent a man-down goal, then we’re at such a disadvantage when we’re at even strength because our best defenders aren’t on the field.

Hopefully the coaches get us ready and get our best players on the field because this is the year to try to grab a chip. Last year’s ND team was an all time great team and some other teams had a few all time great players, so we had no chance of winning it all last year. There will be more parity this year, so we could have a chance!

Thank you for sharing. Love reading intelligent takes.

Honest Q - How can you tell about the dodging ability against an average defense? Don’t we need to see how they do against better teams? Or is this more because of the offensive strategy we play? Just curious as I don’t know as much about lacrosse so like learning from those who do.

 

[SUlax88-09]

Thank you for sharing. Love reading intelligent takes.

Honest Q - How can you tell about the dodging ability against an average defense? Don’t we need to see how they do against better teams? Or is this more because of the offensive strategy we play? Just curious as I don’t know as much about lacrosse so like learning from those who do.

Thank you for the nice comment and the question.

I recommend to rewatch any of the games we played against top 5 teams last year (ND, Denver, Maryland, Army, or Duke in the ACC tournament). Our team last year looked Very similar to this year’s team (we basically have the same players), so you’ll be able to see how our offense struggles to beat good defenses 1 on 1. Our attackmen could not create unassisted goals by just beating their long stick defenders 1 on 1. In field lacrosse, beating your defender 1 on 1 is the essence of lacrosse. Gait, as a coach, puts more emphasis on ball movement on offense (which is ironic because Gait, as a player, was one of the most unstoppable 1 on 1 players ever!), but ball movement is only effective if you have a man advantage, either through a man-up or a fast break or by beating a defender and then drawing a slide and creating an open player. If we can’t beat a defender 1 on 1, then we end up just passing the ball around in a circle… Almost all of Spallina’s goals will come in fast break, and mostly true for Hiltz, too. At some point we’ll need an attackman who can beat a defender 1 on 1, and Spallina and Hiltz are just too slow. All good lacrosse teams (including all of the great past SU teams) have a balanced attack with each of the 3 attackmen serving a role of either dodging, shooting/finishing, or passing (most good attackman can do 2 out of those 3; only the special Tewaarton-candidate players can do all 3, and we, again, don’t have one of those), but having 3 ‘finishers’ on attack and no dodgers is not smart and is not a strategy that has ever shown to be successful for winning a national championship.

Leo is again the team’s best player, and he’s actually a natural attackman, a good dodger, is even a lefty, so he should be on the field the whole game as an attackman.

You’ll see it when we play Maryland in a few weeks. Our non-Rice SSDM will get exposed and our offense will have difficulty scoring if we’re not in a fast break or man-up (just like last year; it’ll feel like Deja vu, although I’ll be shocked if Maryland again puts a SSDM on Leo; that was a big mistake they made against us last year).

I’m also really concerned that we have No depth at the face-off X. Mullen is very aggressive after he gets the ball, so he will get tired and banged up as the season goes on. We don’t appear to have a solid second face-off specialist. That will be a horrible case of Deja vu if we lose a big game because we get dominated at the X again. I think we should have gotten a solid face off specialist back up through the portal or recruitment

 

[GrowTheGame]

Great evaluation of the game. I agree with all of your points.

My first impressions of this year’s team:
Solid defense and solid goalie. Those are the two most important parts of any final four team. Unfortunately, we also had both of them last year, too, and then we still lost to Denver because our offense was inept and couldn’t dodge against a good defense. Unfortunately, this year’s offense looks similar to last year’s team, so we may have the same result (I understand we scored a bunch of goals today, but let’s see how many goals we can score against a good defense).

I still worry about our SSDMs besides Rice and that our attackmen cannot dodge (when going up against a good defense).

I would actually play Leo and Anderson on Attack because they will both be able to dodge and draw a slide (which triggers Gait’s passing attack) and I would put Hiltz on Attack as the finisher. Having all ‘finishers’ and no dodgers at Attack got exposed last year and it will again this year. Hiltz is just a better version of Spallina (both are good finishers that have good vision, but they cannot dodge), so having both of them out there will hurt us. There’s a reason why Spallina wasn’t even selected to the All ACC team last year, and that included 8 attackmen! He scores a lot of unassisted points against inferior opponents, but struggles against good defenders because of his lack of speed. I think our offense is best when we have 2 Attackmen that can dodge and draw a slide and then have 1 finisher (instead of again having 3 finishers).

I would put Finn back to Middie with Rhoa and Birtwistle. English will be too tired from face-offs and man-down to be relied upon to give us much on offense.

I would also stop the Junkyard Man-down team. Even if they prevent a man-down goal, then we’re at such a disadvantage when we’re at even strength because our best defenders aren’t on the field.

Hopefully the coaches get us ready and get our best players on the field because this is the year to try to grab a chip. Last year’s ND team was an all time great team and some other teams had a few all time great players, so we had no chance of winning it all last year. There will be more parity this year, so we could have a chance!

Interesting thoughts, but I would argue a few counterpoints:

1. You’re proposing essentially changing up the entire scheme March has and a team offense that just put up 24 points. Joey also isn’t a 6v6 player - he’s a guy who thrives at unsettled situations. He isn’t the dodger he was in high school because of the increased athleticism in the NCAA game, but very much has adjusted his game where he’s mainly feeding in 6v6 settings (still the best passer we have), and finding his goals on uneven situations such as FBs/man up/riding. Pat prefers to attack the shorties to trigger slides and hence puts our best dodgers up top (Leo/Rhoa/English/Anderson/Birt).

2. I was left wanting a bit more out of McCool. I could be wrong but I think he was at 2 goals allowed off 4 shots at half? Not amazing against that team. I was actually really pleasantly surprised by Ippoliti. Seemed to be reacting faster/getting it out of his stick faster on clears. That will be a competition to watch as the season goes on. With McCool’s size I hope he does a bit better next go around. Defenders looked really good though!

 

[DoctahLexus]

Said my piece on this before, but I disagree pretty strongly that the only way an attack can be valuable is by being able to score 1v1 on an elite long pole match up. To say that ball movement can only create looks on man up, is something that I would call just not true. This is not just true for our team but every team in college lax right now. Skip passes, pick plays/two man game, quick ball movement after a defensive rotation, set plays involving offball picks, even just feeding a guy whose man loses him for a fraction of a second or is not right on his hands, are extremely common ways of scoring 6v6 in the game today, by all teams!

I would have more of an issue with Thomson and Spallinas lack of high end speed if 1) They were not literally tops in the nation at creating scoring opportunities with those methods above and 2) if we did not have several different guys in the midfield who were capable of drawing slides and rotating a defense on a regular basis.

And I think we can expect some wrinkles in the lineup like late last season where we put Leo at attack for more traditional speed dodging, depending on what type of defense we face. I do not disagree entirely with 88-09 and he’s clearly knows the game well, but think his view is too black and white on what makes an attack quality. Could certainly say a lot more about this topic and appreciate the discussion.