Powellfan
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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St Joe's comes to town this weekend for their season opener against the Orange.
The Hawks are led by a first year head coach, and have to replace a good amount of impact players from last year. But they still have good players, including their leading scorer from last year and a good goalie in senior Tommy Gross.
Offensively, the Hawks are led by Ben Dutton who scored 55 points last year on 47 goals and eight assists. The issue for St Joe's however might be assists, as they lost their leading passer last year and second leading scorer in Richi LaCalandara. No other returning player last year had more than nine assists. So, I'm curious to see how they move the ball. Will Dutton change up his game, or is their a new player ready to take the QB mantle?
Good news for John Mullen is that the Hawks did not face-off well last year, as their top FOGO won just 45% of his draws (he returns). That said, St Joe's rides like crazy. Opponents cleared at just 72% against them last year. They are stung in that department by losing their top LSM Levi Verch who led them in groundballs and caused turnovers. But still, it's something obviously that SU needs to prepare for, especially after last week's amateurish performance against the ride.
The big issue, for me, is the Hawk's goalie - Gross finished with a 57% save percentage last year, which is very good especially when you consider how fast the Hawks like to play. Syracuse really needs to shoot the ball better than they did last week as this is a real step up in quality. In addition to losing Verch, they also lost defender Ryan Bradly who was second on the team in CT's and their top SSDM. So hopefully the Orange can expose a bit of a re-worked defense in front of Gross.
St Joe's is unranked, but they should not be overlooked. I know scrimmage results shouldn't be treated with much weight, but it sounds like they outplayed Hopkins in a scrimmage a few weeks back, ultimately losing but winning the first half (typically when starters play) by a couple of goals. This team is tough and will certainly test the Orange. Syracuse needs to be ready. Hopefully they can play make-it-take which will help mitigate the ride.
The Hawks are led by a first year head coach, and have to replace a good amount of impact players from last year. But they still have good players, including their leading scorer from last year and a good goalie in senior Tommy Gross.
Offensively, the Hawks are led by Ben Dutton who scored 55 points last year on 47 goals and eight assists. The issue for St Joe's however might be assists, as they lost their leading passer last year and second leading scorer in Richi LaCalandara. No other returning player last year had more than nine assists. So, I'm curious to see how they move the ball. Will Dutton change up his game, or is their a new player ready to take the QB mantle?
Good news for John Mullen is that the Hawks did not face-off well last year, as their top FOGO won just 45% of his draws (he returns). That said, St Joe's rides like crazy. Opponents cleared at just 72% against them last year. They are stung in that department by losing their top LSM Levi Verch who led them in groundballs and caused turnovers. But still, it's something obviously that SU needs to prepare for, especially after last week's amateurish performance against the ride.
The big issue, for me, is the Hawk's goalie - Gross finished with a 57% save percentage last year, which is very good especially when you consider how fast the Hawks like to play. Syracuse really needs to shoot the ball better than they did last week as this is a real step up in quality. In addition to losing Verch, they also lost defender Ryan Bradly who was second on the team in CT's and their top SSDM. So hopefully the Orange can expose a bit of a re-worked defense in front of Gross.
St Joe's is unranked, but they should not be overlooked. I know scrimmage results shouldn't be treated with much weight, but it sounds like they outplayed Hopkins in a scrimmage a few weeks back, ultimately losing but winning the first half (typically when starters play) by a couple of goals. This team is tough and will certainly test the Orange. Syracuse needs to be ready. Hopefully they can play make-it-take which will help mitigate the ride.
