GENEVA, N.Y. — Randy Staats didn’t have enough time to step into the biggest pass of the game. He could only plant his right foot, but that was still enough.

Dylan Donahue called for the ball, streaking and wide open in front of the net. Staats shook a Hobart defender and unleashed a pass that traveled 25 yards and straight into the pocket of Donahue’s stick.

A perfect combination of pace and placement, the pass allowed Donahue to give Syracuse its first lead since the opening quarter — one it would hold onto for the remainder of the game.

“I reached back and threw up a prayer and it got to him,” Staats said.

And while it was the kind of play Syracuse has grown used to from the crafty Staats, it shocked the Statesmen while permanently hampering their upset bid.

“That’s the beast you’re playing against,” said Hobart head coach Greg Raymond, before senior attack Cam Stone added that he had never seen anything like it.

With Hobart threatening to edge Syracuse for the second straight season, Staats’ acrobatic assist came on the back end of a comeback orchestrated by him and fellow attack Kevin Rice. No. 4 Syracuse (9-3, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) beat unranked Hobart (4-8, 3-2 Northeast) 15-9 at Boswell Field on Saturday, and rode the play of Staats and Rice in the second and third quarters to capture its fifth straight win.

Staats collected five goals and three assists in the contest, while Rice netted four and dished out two, totaling 14 points that helped the Orange hoist the Kraus-Simmons Trophy in the 100th meeting between the two teams.

“Initially we weren’t playing too well,” Rice said. “We weren’t able to get the ball where we wanted to, but I think we sort of just settled down and let the offense work.”

With Hobart starting goalie Peter Zonino sidelined with a head injury, freshman Jackson Brown stepped into the cage. Brown had played just eight and a half minutes on the season before the opening faceoff, but even with Staats and Rice netting first-quarter goals, the Orange attack was largely stymied by Hobart’s quick-sliding defense.

Rice and Staats were pressured behind the cage, and the Statesmen face guarded all cutters — a defensive effort that allowed them to go on a four-goal run and build a 6-2 lead late in the second quarter.

Then Staats found his stride.

The first goal came off a pass from Rice. Then from Ward. Then from Rice again when he surfaced in front of the Hobart cage before scoring, falling down and popping up with a crowd of teammates smacking his helmet.

“Randy was able to score four goals in the first half that really kept us in it,” SU head coach John Desko said.

The second half belonged to Rice.

After Matt Opsahl bumped Hobart’s lead to 7-5, Rice scored two goals in 40 seconds to tie the game at 7-7. Then he knotted it again at 8-8 with 33 seconds left in the quarter before Staats connected with Donahue to send Syracuse into a 6-1 fourth quarter to end the game.

“Our middies do a great job drawing slides and making the defense rotate,” Rice said, “and we got some goals off of that.”

Staats and Rice possess contrasting styles and have had contrasting seasons.

Staats likes to use his frame to get into the crease and artful stick work to beat defenders and goalies. Rice is pass-first, but takes what the defense gives him, only shooting from the right angles and at the right time.

Staats has had to battle injuries and the adjustments of transferring onto a perennial contender, only showcasing his true potential in the latter half of the Orange’s current winning streak. Rice’s performance against the Statesmen was business-like, and further confirmation that the offense goes as he does.

But on Saturday, the two co-piloted the SU attack and their differences meshed into one working machine.

Both operated from behind the cage. Both gracefully found open teammates. Both showcased the ability to score from the doorstep, the right alley and the left.

And even after they accounted for the Orange’s first eight goals — and nine of 15 on the day — their collective effort was, to them, just a small factor in the team’s offensive success.

“We just try and create offense with the whole team,” Staats said. “It’s not just me and Kevin, we got six guys out there.”

Published on April 19, 2014 at 5:15 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse