JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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Here are a few thoughts for todays game:
As I mentioned in my season preview St. Johns lost a lot to graduation last year including their entire starting attack. Those graduation losses have really slowed the red storm as they are 1-4 with a loss to Jacksonville (a team Army beat by 15+) and an 8-7 loss to Siena. Give some credit to Jason Miller the HC of St. Johns who does a great job in getting his team to play hard, this was clear on Tuesday when they took #6 Yale to Overtime before losing 14 seconds in.
Despite Miller's efforts St. Johns is extremely over matched this game especially from a defensive standpoint. St. Johns is starting two Sophmores at close D and they went to their back up goalie last game for the first time in his career. The game notes are still showing Joe Danaher as the starter but I expect Harry Burke to get the start after his good performance against Yale. Unless Syracuse is looking ahead to JHU and just shows up without any motivation I don't see how they don't easily eclipse double digit goals. I don't think SJU has the high level defenders to slow down 2 of the three starting attack less all 3. Also look for a breakout game from Schoonmaker or Evans today with so much attention on the attack and Galasso.
Assuming Ben Williams plays SU should again have a huge advantage at the X. St. Johns won the battle at the X against Yale but is under .500 for the year. Siena and Jacksonville both beat up the red storm badly at the X, even if Williams only plays the first half SU should have success with Vehar or Paduda. Ricky Buhr may make an appearance for St. Johns at the X but he hasn't seen much PT and still seems to be struggling to win draws at the D1 level.
Former Cuse attack men Eric Dejohn is far and away the leading scorer for St. Johns with 23 pts on the season. He will surely draw Mullins who I expect will slow him down considerably. The 2nd and 3rd point leaders are also attack players. Desko may choose to put Young on Dejohn because Dejohn does play closer to the crease but either way SU would seem to have a match up edge. I suspect St. Johns middies are going to have a hard time with SU's short stick d mids and LSM especially Firman.
Hard to see how this game isn't in doubt by halftime. St. Johns would really need to catch SU looking ahead and have their goalie stand on his head. If the game is going to be close I suspect Wardwell and Williams (assuming he plays) will have to really have let down games for the Orange. I am curious to see how Wardwell plays this game his first outdoors. As a Syracuse fan the best thing that can happen is for SU to come out early like they did versus UVA and get a big lead. St. Johns doesn't have near the firepower UVA does so a 6-7 goal lead early will pretty much salt the game away and allow Desko to get the young guys some much needed PT. Only concern I have about this game is Syracuse getting an early 2-3 goal lead and then losing focus, similar to Hobart in 2013 where SU kept a 2-3 goal lead the entire game but couldn't put Hobart away and then got ambushed in the 4th. I dont see that happening today but it will be something to keep an eye on.
Final Prediction Cuse 17 - St. Johns 9
As I mentioned in my season preview St. Johns lost a lot to graduation last year including their entire starting attack. Those graduation losses have really slowed the red storm as they are 1-4 with a loss to Jacksonville (a team Army beat by 15+) and an 8-7 loss to Siena. Give some credit to Jason Miller the HC of St. Johns who does a great job in getting his team to play hard, this was clear on Tuesday when they took #6 Yale to Overtime before losing 14 seconds in.
Despite Miller's efforts St. Johns is extremely over matched this game especially from a defensive standpoint. St. Johns is starting two Sophmores at close D and they went to their back up goalie last game for the first time in his career. The game notes are still showing Joe Danaher as the starter but I expect Harry Burke to get the start after his good performance against Yale. Unless Syracuse is looking ahead to JHU and just shows up without any motivation I don't see how they don't easily eclipse double digit goals. I don't think SJU has the high level defenders to slow down 2 of the three starting attack less all 3. Also look for a breakout game from Schoonmaker or Evans today with so much attention on the attack and Galasso.
Assuming Ben Williams plays SU should again have a huge advantage at the X. St. Johns won the battle at the X against Yale but is under .500 for the year. Siena and Jacksonville both beat up the red storm badly at the X, even if Williams only plays the first half SU should have success with Vehar or Paduda. Ricky Buhr may make an appearance for St. Johns at the X but he hasn't seen much PT and still seems to be struggling to win draws at the D1 level.
Former Cuse attack men Eric Dejohn is far and away the leading scorer for St. Johns with 23 pts on the season. He will surely draw Mullins who I expect will slow him down considerably. The 2nd and 3rd point leaders are also attack players. Desko may choose to put Young on Dejohn because Dejohn does play closer to the crease but either way SU would seem to have a match up edge. I suspect St. Johns middies are going to have a hard time with SU's short stick d mids and LSM especially Firman.
Hard to see how this game isn't in doubt by halftime. St. Johns would really need to catch SU looking ahead and have their goalie stand on his head. If the game is going to be close I suspect Wardwell and Williams (assuming he plays) will have to really have let down games for the Orange. I am curious to see how Wardwell plays this game his first outdoors. As a Syracuse fan the best thing that can happen is for SU to come out early like they did versus UVA and get a big lead. St. Johns doesn't have near the firepower UVA does so a 6-7 goal lead early will pretty much salt the game away and allow Desko to get the young guys some much needed PT. Only concern I have about this game is Syracuse getting an early 2-3 goal lead and then losing focus, similar to Hobart in 2013 where SU kept a 2-3 goal lead the entire game but couldn't put Hobart away and then got ambushed in the 4th. I dont see that happening today but it will be something to keep an eye on.
Final Prediction Cuse 17 - St. Johns 9
