Sitting in the concrete underbelly of the Carrier Dome, Syracuse head coach John Desko held firm in his stance that SU’s backup goalies are as capable as starter Drake Porter.

“Sometimes you have a goalie here and a goalie here,” Desko said, motioning his hands vertical, slightly lowering each one to represent his backups. “Our goalies are like this, just a half-step behind the starter. And some days they’re better in practice so I don’t hesitate to put these other guys in.”

As Desko mimed his goalie depth chart for reporters, Porter, sitting directly to his left, glanced over, raised his eyebrows and grinned. “But Drake’s been very consistent,” Desko said.

Porter earned his seventh win of the season in net as No. 9 Syracuse (7-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) suffocated No. 8 Cornell (7-4, 2-2 Ivy), 13-8. Against Notre Dame on March 30, Porter was benched at halftime, having let in 11 goals. The swap against the Fighting Irish was simply to change something, Desko said, with no blame on Porter. But with his job in question for the first time all year and a coach comfortable with his backup options, Porter’s risen to the challenge, saving two-thirds of all shots since. On Tuesday, his 10 saves against the Big Red were no exception.

“After that game I didn’t just sit there and go, ‘Oh, I’m so down on myself. I sucked today,’” Porter said of his benching. “I just moved on and tried to — it’s not like I ever doubted myself.”

Against one of the best attacks in the country in Jeff Teat — Cornell ranked second in goals per game (15.9) prior to Tuesday — Porter looked as comfortable as ever.

With six minutes left in the first quarter, Zach Ward took a shot on Porter from his left, trying to go over the goalkeeper’s right shoulder. Porter flicked his stick head upwards and poked the shot above him before calmly catching the ball and starting the clear. Even when defenders couldn’t condone opponents into shallow or long-range shots, Porter fended them off.

Cornell held possession with less than a minute left in the first quarter and no shot clock. In that time, the Big Red worked the ball around for a final shot until a lane cleared with seconds left for Connor Fletcher, who saw a gap on the lower right corner of Porter’s net. He took aim and blistered a shot. Porter couldn’t contort his body to get his stick to the spot, so he kicked out his right cleat and deflected the shot harmlessly skyward to end the quarter.

“Drake made a bunch of big stops for us,” defender Nick Mellen said.

Porter deferred to his defensive teammates when talking about his successes. Defenders forced shots from shallow angles and further out. Moreover, SU’s recently been effective at altering shots, either slowing them or deflecting them entirely. Porter noted he didn’t face many shots against Cornell, anyways.

And while he only contended with 18 shots on Tuesday, a week ago, Hobart unleashed a flurry of shots on cage from the start of the game. Where Cornell wanted to run through the shot clock and take the right shot, Hobart took any shot it found. Still, Porter nullified one of the best offenses in college lacrosse, making 16 saves and allowing five goals last Tuesday. To date, the first half at Notre Dame has been the only aberration to Porter’s reliable play.

“They had 11 goals at halftime, and I wouldn’t blame any of them on Drake,” Desko said on Tuesday of the half. “It was the way the game was going. Again, 14 turnovers, give them 14 more times to score.”

So even though Desko is confident in his other goalies and said they’re sometimes better than Porter in practice, Syracuse will stick with the goalie who’s shown he can hold his own on gameday.

Published on April 9, 2019 at 10:16 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham