Orange shut out Danes in fourth
Ualbany falls to No. 9 Syracuse at Carrier Dome to drop to 2-17 in the series
The University at Albany men’s lacrosse team went scoreless for the final 18 minutes, 22 seconds of a 13-8 loss to ninth-ranked Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Thursday.
The Great Danes (5-3) were held to their fewest goals of the season and fell to 2-17 all-time against the Orange, with every meeting played at the Dome.
“I just think, again, we just struggled to execute our offense,” Ualbany coach Scott Marr said on a Zoom call. “We had some chances. We had some shots in the fourth quarter. We don’t bury them. We shot some sidearm stuff and some high-to-high stuff that we talked about not doing. But we did. I thought we had some looks. … We missed some opportunities there. We just didn’t shoot the ball well in the fourth quarter.”
Ualbany didn’t score on nine shots in the final quarter, including five on goal.
The Great Danes pulled to within 11-8 on Alex Burgmaster’s man-up goal off a Kyle Casey assist with 3:23 remaining in the third quarter. But the Orange won the ensuing faceoff, which led to a goal by Chase Scanlan, and Ualbany never scored again.
Ualbany graduate attack Jakob Patterson, an important playmaker, was limited to no goals and one assist.
“Jakob comes in as our best player, our ball carrier and stuff like that,” Marr said. “He had some good looks, the ball doesn’t go in the goal for him. I thought the (Syracuse) kid did a nice job of playing defense on him. And if you notice, too, watching it, they slid from behind him a lot and didn’t allow him to get up to the island and sit there and make some reads and stuff.”
Burgmaster tied the game at 4 with his high shot from 10 yards out past Syracuse goalie Drake Porter (12 saves) with 8:48 left in the second quarter.
Syracuse (5-3) responded with four unanswered goals to take an 8-4 lead with 3:48 remaining in the half. The Great Danes got no closer than three the rest of the way.
“I was very proud of how we played,” Marr said. “I thought we played extremely hard. I thought defensively we did a super, super job against a very athletic and very talented offense. They got some good bounces their way that turned into goals that just kind of separated us a little bit.”
Burgmaster, Ron John and Graydon Hogg each scored two goals for the
Great Danes. Scanlan and Brendan Curry each had a hat trick for Syracuse, while Shaker High graduate Stephen Rehfuss added two goals and two assists.
Ualbany goalkeeper Liam Donnelly made 14 saves.
Syracuse had a 50-30 edge in shots, a 42-25 advantage on ground balls and won 15 of 25 faceoffs. The Orange caused 11 of Ualbany’s 15 turnovers.
The Great Danes will turn around to play America East co-leader Maryland-baltimore County on Sunday at John Fallon Field. Marr said they should have enough rest.
“I’m glad we played on Thursday (instead of Friday). Having that extra day is going to be very helpful for our guys,” he said. “It’s really hot in here (the Dome). It was really hot and it was very dry as usual, so we just need to get hydrated here on the way home and into tomorrow and the next day and kind of get ourselves back. We should probably play some more people on Sunday just to give some of these guys who played the whole game a little bit of rest, especially on defense.”