GENEVA, N.Y. — For the first time in nearly a month, the final horn blanketed Syracuse with relief. It didn’t stop a fruitless comeback attempt. It didn’t pierce a blown fourth-quarter lead. It ended the game, with the scoreboard favoring the visitors.

The last three games dampened a perfect start to the Orange’s season. It started with two Johns Hopkins goals in the final minutes of the fourth quarter three weeks ago, prefacing an eventual overtime loss. Then Deemer Class bullied Syracuse for seven goals, leading Duke’s five-goal fourth quarter before finishing the job quickly in overtime.

Last Saturday in the Carrier Dome, SU’s defense killed any chance its offense had of outpacing then-No. 2 Notre Dame in front of an alumni-filled crowd celebrating the program’s 100th year. But Wednesday night provided the quick turnaround the Orange needed to push its season the right direction.

“Anytime you have three losses,” head coach John Desko said, “your next win is pretty big … It was almost a blessing that we had a game quick, early in the week.

“It was nice after that kind of loss to get back out there.”

No. 9 Syracuse (6-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) handled Hobart (5-5, 1-1 Northeast) in a 13-6 win on Wednesday night at Boswell Field, the Orange’s first win since beating St. John’s, 15-4, on March 12. It didn’t come flawlessly as the Statesmen stretched SU’s defense thin. They fired away at first-time starting goalkeeper Evan Molloy, and at one point nearly climbed back from a five-goal deficit with four unanswered goals across the second and third quarters.

But Syracuse did what it’s struggled most to do this year: Hold on. Largely in part to its key cogs turning as smoothly as they have all year. Jordan Evans dropped in four goals to give him seven in the last two weeks, as he’s finally assuming the goal-scoring attack role SU imagined for him when Kevin Rice and Randy Staats exited last year. Ben Williams won 13-of-21 faceoffs, and even made a few runs at the goal after winning the draw, an otherwise-fabled plan laid out for him in the preseason.

The rest of Syracuse’s offense filled in the blanks, and the defense held up long enough for the final horn to blare, leaving no chance at another fourth-quarter casualty.

“It would’ve been a tough loss today,” Desko added after applauding Hobart’s mid-game comeback.

Evans was the sparkplug all game for Syracuse’s offense. He perfectly timed a cut through the Statesmen perimeter to snag a feed from Ryan Simmons, and put Syracuse up early, and for good. Just over a minute later he charged behind the left side of the crease and slotted one in by himself to cap off a three-goal ambush in a 73-second span.

He’s been the lifeblood of the Orange offense the last two weeks, perhaps more so than ever showing signs he could fill the prolific attack role laid out for him three years ago when he committed to Syracuse as the country’s top recruit. He’s been held back his first two years by more seasoned offensive players, but now on a more youthful Orange team, Evans’ finally answered the call to do more.

“It definitely helps my confidence a lot,” Evans said of his goal-scoring spurt. “I think I’ve been taking advantage of my shots, and they’ve been falling for me.

“That’s kind of allowed me … to try to spark the offense when it needs to get going.”

He teamed up with Dylan Donahue for his third goal to stretch the lead out, 6-2, and Donahue added a couple goals of his own to tack onto his assist. While primarily filling the role of distributor this year with a career-high 22 assists, Wednesday he moonlighted the scoring role he held last year while Sergio Salcido racked up most of the team’s assists.

Eight players tallied a point in the seven-goal win, illuminating a spread-out offense that features six players with double-digit goals while still averaging 13 goals per game as a team.

“It’s awesome,” Nick Mariano, the team’s goal-scoring leader, said about Syracuse’s offensive depth. “We don’t have to rely on one guy. It doesn’t matter who’s out there. We just play with our offense and find the open guys.”

Nearly everything went according to plan against the Statesmen, much like it did for the first three quarters against the Blue Devils and Blue Jays. Though this time, Syracuse never let go of its hold on the lead, and affirmed promise in a season that showed so much of it in the first five weeks.

Published on April 6, 2016 at 9:11 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman