Johns Hopkins faceoff specialist Hunter Moreland picked up a ground ball in stride with no one around him. Moreland quickly dished the ball to Shack Stanwick, who raced toward Syracuse’s Dom Madonna in net.

Nick Mellen was the only defender around the crease, standing between Stanwick and Kyle Marr. As Mellen stepped up to guard Stanwick, the attack dropped a quick pass off to Marr, who easily beat Madonna to put JHU up 2-0 on Syracuse.

After nine minutes, the Blue Jays led 2-0 on the scoreboard and at the faceoff X. After SU won the next faceoff, David Lipka coughed up the Orange’s third turnover to give Hopkins another opportunity to score, and it did, extending the early lead to 3-0. JHU never trailed, going on to win 18-7 in the Carrier Dome on March 10.

SU beat itself up against the Blue Jays, allowing them to go on three different runs of at least three goals. None of the runs took longer than six minutes.

Losing at the faceoff X, committing turnovers and making a plethora of other mistakes are problems No. 10 Syracuse (4-3, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) has struggled with all season. When combined together, they’ve led to — or nearly caused — defeat. Whether it be finding weak links or benefiting from missed Orange opportunities, SU opponents have put together scoring runs that have led to SU losses in the first half of this 2018 season.

“We’ve been having these lapses since Albany,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “We’ve got to be able to play more composed, stop that and value our possessions.”

SU has given up at least a four-goal run in six of its seven contests, and the Orange has surrendered multiple three-goal runs in four separate contests.

The first issue comes at the faceoff X. Syracuse is not the dominant faceoff team it’s been in previous years. This season, Syracuse ranks 37th in the country, winning 47.9 percent of its faceoffs. The only time SU held a faceoff advantage greater than five was against Binghamton, when SU went 24-of-29 at the faceoff X and starter Danny Varello finished 15-of-17. That’s also the only game SU has not allowed a three-goal run.

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In the Orange’s next contest, a 15-3 loss to now-No. 1 Albany, Varello finished 3-of-13, and Syracuse as a whole went 5-of-22 at the faceoff X as the Great Danes dominated possession the entire game.

From the 11:50 mark in the first period until the 6:02 mark in the third, SU did not muster a goal, while Albany rattled off seven straight. Then following SU’s second goal, the Orange couldn’t score until there was 7:46 left in the fourth quarter. By that time, Albany led 13-3. When the final whistle blew, the Great Danes had won 12 more faceoffs and scored 12 more goals than the Orange.

“It’s too much to ask our defense to play 75, 80 percent of the game,” Desko said.

Through the first three quarters, Syracuse held the ball for 10 of the 45 minutes, including a minute and a half in the third quarter when Albany scored seven goals and limited the Orange to one.

“We (the defense) played possession after possession after possession,” Nick Mellen said. “I know I felt tired. … It was a long game defensively. We need to be able to play sharp while we’re tired.”

A week later, Army led Syracuse 6-1 at the half behind a 7-2 faceoff edge. The Orange took advantage of Black Knights turnovers to come back and win, 11-10, in triple overtime, even as SU won 9-of-26 faceoffs.

In some games, though, Varello and the Orange faceoff crew have performed well, while other units struggled. Against Rutgers on March 18, SU won 57.1 percent of its faceoffs, but Syracuse turnovers keyed the Scarlet Knights to seven-straight goals in the second half and a four-goal win.

Ahead 8-7, Madonna attempted a clear downfield. When he followed through on his pass, the ball slipped out of his pocket, traveling only a few feet and falling directly into the stick of Rutgers attack Jules Heningburg. With no defenders in striking distance, Heningburg easily scored on a backtracking Madonna to tie the game before scoring another goal 34 seconds later. The Orange never led again.

That was just one of a season-high 22 turnovers Syracuse gave away in the 14-10 road loss. After SU led 4-2, Rutgers outscored the Orange 12-4 from 4:15 remaining in the first quarter until the final 1:20 of the last quarter, when SU added two garbage-time man-up goals.

“In the second half we lost our composure,” Desko said. “We made a lot of mistakes in clears (and) offensively. … Any time you’re forcing things and you’re trying to catch up, you’re going to get turnovers.”

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In other games, the Orange has simply struggled to find the back of the net. On March 4 in Charlottesville, Virginia, UVA handed SU opportunities. The Cavaliers lost the faceoff battle 16-11 and committed 19 turnovers. Syracuse recorded 13 more shots with six on goal, earned an extra man-up opportunity, and one of Virginia’s top offensive weapons, midfielder Ryan Conrad, left the game with an injury.

At one point, SU led Virginia 10-5, but a 6-1 Cavaliers run in the fourth quarter meant Syracuse needed a Tucker Dordevic game-winner to escape with a 12-11 win over Virginia.

Syracuse has shown it has the talent to beat nearly any team in the country — especially after the Orange won 15-14 on the road against Duke — but due to a few minutes-long lapses each game, Syracuse has struggled to compete consistently.

The Orange nearly blew the win against Duke, as SU led 11-9 before Duke rattled off four-straight goals to take a 13-11 lead. Syracuse eventually rallied to win by one, but a game that seemed in control suddenly didn’t.

“We just need to settle down and get back to the basics,” Desko said.

Published on March 28, 2018 at 8:12 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu