Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Powellfan, post: 5345242, member: 4819"] The Orange have a quick turnaround as they face off against the Tigers from Towson. It's a rematch from last year's NCAA Tournament when the Orange won 20-15. Towson returns a lot of their top players from last year, and this game will certainly be Syracuse's first real test of the season. Lets see how they respond. On defense, I'm most interested to see how Syracuse handles the speed of Towson's offense. The only player for Towson who stands taller than 5'9 I believe is Chop Gallagher, who comes in at 6'3. Syracuse's defense is big, but can they keep up with a bunch of water bugs? I'm guessing they deploy they same strategy against Towson that they did vs Vermont, when they bumped Billy Dwan to the midfield to take on the opponents best player (this time, Mikey Weisssher). Gallagher didn't play last year against the Orange, so it should be interesting to see how Syracuse defends him. They struggled against his replacement in Alex Roussell who starts on attack this year. Against Hopkins, redshirt freshman Ronan Fitzpatrick had a big game with five goals in his debut. They lost their quarterback from last year in Adam Demiao, so unclear who Figeurias will line up against. I'm guessing either Fitzpatrick or Roussell. On offense, it sounds like the Orange might see some zone (Towson did vs Hopkins). I didn't watch the game, so someone who did might be able to add more color (looking at Jeremy here). On paper, Syracuse doesn't seem like a good team to zone (given how well they do on man-up). But I've seen them be flustered by it plenty of times, and early in the season it might not be a bad strategy. Hopkins is also a team that I would think would handle a zone pretty easily, but they only scored 11 vs the Tigers. Maryland struggled against it vs Loyola this weekend. Towson loses their top defender from last year to the PLL (Barsz) so it should be interesting to see how they match-up against Spallina (who finished with eight points vs the Tigers last year). Face-offs will be something to watch, especially after a so-so performance against Vermont. John Mullen had a great game vs Towson last year (who returns their top guy) winning 18-23. Matt Constatindies struggled vs Hopkins last week (5-15), but their backup seemed to do better going 5-9. Syracuse is obviously not deep at this position, so Mullen will need to be at his best. Something else to watch will be turnovers, Towson had 21 vs Hopkins in what sounded like a slop fest (the Jays had 18). Syracuse has taken care of the ball pretty well in it's first two games and has done a good job of punishing teams that turn it over. Let's hope that trend continues. The spread at -5.5 seems high, especially for a team coming off of two days of rest, but Syracuse obviously has the ability to pump in a lot of goals. I'm not very good at predicting scores, but I think this will be higher scoring game and SU will win by 3-4 goals. Obviously I hope it's higher! Go 'Cuse! [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?