GENEVA, N.Y. — Hobart dreaded the whistle. Every time a referee sent one of its players to the sideline with a penalty, Syracuse ruthlessly took advantage on Wednesday night at Boswell Field. Every time the Statesmen adjusted its defense to cover up the blow it had just taken, Syracuse found a newly exposed patch and punched again.

The No. 2 Orange (8-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) went 5-for-5 on man-up opportunities, its best performance of the season, and thumped Hobart (4-6, 1-1 Northeast), 17-11, to capture its fourth consecutive Kraus-Simmons trophy. The unit’s performance also stopped a late Hobart run to snap the program-record stretch of seven consecutive one-goal games.

“We know what we want to do, where we want to get the ball,” said Nick Mariano, who tied a career high with seven points in the win. “A lot of the times we feed it to (Brad) Voigt on the crease, and he’s usually open. Today, they didn’t give that up. We just got to the outside and got our hands free for our shooters.”

Hobart crumbled on Wednesday despite remaking its man-down defense in hopes of surprising Syracuse. Hobart head coach Greg Raymond said his team wasn’t covering the inside when Syracuse got its first man-up opportunity late in the first quarter after defender Grant Soucy held SU midfielder Ryan Simmons on a slash to the goal.

Contrasting Hobart’s make-over, Syracuse trotted out the same man-up unit it has all season. Six-foot-six, 222-pound Matt Lane, despite recently demoted from the first midfield line for freshman Jamie Trimboli, helped Mariano control the pace from up top but did not look to shoot.

On the Orange’s first man-up chance, Lane swung to midfielder Sergio Salcido, who hit a cutting Voigt to put Syracuse up 4-1 with 6:41 to go in the first quarter. But Hobart, as it often has in the 103 times the teams have played each other, wouldn’t let up.

The Statesman scored two quick goals and remained lurking within three for much of the night. On one of Syracuse’s runs, Mariano scored SU’s second man-up goal and Raymond shifted his man-down to not cover the pipes and push out on SU midfielders. But, Raymond said, it’s difficult no matter which way he played it because the Orange has six scorers on the field. SU responded by probing the defense and looking for its new soft spot.

“Coach kept saying he wouldn’t get mad if we got a stall warning every now and then,” said sophomore attack Nate Solomon, who had four goals. “We kept the ball more in our sticks.”

That left the man-up at the discretion of Mariano, who SU head coach John Desko shifted to midfielder from attack two weeks ago. Since then, he’s regularly drawn short sticks and responded by tallying three or more goals in three straight games. Wednesday, he tied a career high with seven points and pocketed three rockets from the outside on the man up alone.

Mariano’s most important of the day came with 3:17 to go in the third quarter, about three minutes after his second tally on the extra man, when a bullet from about 10 yards on the right side out found twine and gave SU its then-largest lead of the day, 13-8.

“I knew he could stretch a defense,” Raymond said, “but he really put some velocity behind those shots. One thing our goalie (Jackson Brown) said — and our goalie sees the ball pretty well — was that he said that kid with his feet set is tough.”

The Statesmen struck quickly for two goals to open the fourth quarter, but Mariano’s earlier lead-building nullified any momentum. The senior found Trimboli just before the extra man could be called with 7:33 to go, and the freshman stamped out Hobart’s attempt to wriggle back into the game. Hobart defenders left SU midfielder Brendan Bomberry open on the crease 15 seconds later on the man up and the junior dutifully cashed the check.

Bomberry’s goal delivered Syracuse back its five-goal lead, and the Orange never relinquished its hold.

“Man-up was a good thing tonight,” Desko said. “We cleaned some things up.”

Published on April 5, 2017 at 11:23 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR