Brandon Mullins only remembers the chaos.

After goalkeeper Bobby Wardwell failed in clearing a ball to Henry Schoonmaker early in the fourth quarter, Wardwell was stuck well outside the crease as Cornell attack Matt Donovan flailed to try and tip in an empty-net goal.

But Mullins’ instincts took over. He raced all the way from the sideline and stopped the ball from getting into the net with a full-body slide to preserve an already safe nine-goal lead.

“I just dove to try and stop it,” Mullins said, simply. “And it didn’t go in.”

It was Mullins that captained a stingy Syracuse defense to help keep Cornell’s three starting attacks to just one goal on 17 total shots. The No. 4 Orange (2-0) also forced 16 turnovers and saved 12 shots on goal in its 14-6 win over the No. 10 Big Red (0-1) in the Carrier Dome on Sunday in front of 4,127 fans. It was the 200th career win for SU head coach John Desko.

Syracuse played aggressive man-to-man defense for most of the game and held the Big Red without a goal in the first quarter and just one total before halftime.

“They’re going to keep wearing down at you, keep coming at you,” Cornell head coach Matt Kerwick said. “I’m very impressed with their defense.”

The Orange defense didn’t wait long to show what it was capable of. After Sean Young and Paolo Ciferri cornered Big Red midfielder John Hogan into a near-turnover with just four minutes gone by in the first quarter, Mullins came over with a cross-body check that sent Hogan and the ball flying, and Mullins to the bench.

When Cornell’s Connor Buczek ran up the field with a four-on-three advantage, his seemingly open pass was intercepted by Young, who reached across his body to take the ball away.

Twenty-seven seconds later, Nicky Galasso’s shot made it 4-1.

And after the SU offense took 11 minutes to score its first goal and five and a half more to score its second, the Orange offense had finally taken control of the game after the defense’s strong play kept the team in it.

“It was firing us up on offense, because we knew we were a little bit slow getting going,” SU attack Kevin Rice said. “They’re hitting people and they’re creating turnovers and they’re pushing the ball up the field. It gets the Dome going, it gets the crowd going. And it gives us confidence that we’re still in it.”

Once Syracuse gained momentum, the offense allowed for plenty of room for error. But the defensive let up never came. Cornell’s only grasp at any form of momentum came in a 19-second stretch when it scored two goals to cut the SU lead to 7-3 coming out of halftime.

Desko said it was especially impressive since the Orange wasn’t getting the ball off the faceoffs. Ben Williams was just 9-of-22 from the X, testing the defense to be the catalyst for what would become a breakout offensive performance.

“We were forced to play more defense and it helped us get in a groove,” Desko said. “It’s a good win, but great practice for us, too. It was great for the defense to play well. I thought they slid and recovered well all day long.”

While Desko may have alluded to it being almost a tune-up for the Orange, its containment of a team that averaged nearly 13 goals per game last season suggested otherwise. Mullins acknowledged that SU was not happy with its defensive performance in its season-opening 21-7 win over Siena on Feb. 7.

On Sunday, though, he was confident that those issues were corrected.

“I thought we did a good job bouncing back,” Mullins said. “… We were definitely more physical today. We had some pretty good talk, and I thought we played a lot better.”

Published on February 15, 2015 at 8:48 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3