Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

After Syracuse ended the third quarter by scoring twice in the final 30 seconds, making it a one-goal game, Maryland answered right back. First it was Logan Wisnauskas, then Jonathan Donville and finally, Daniel Maltz, who came around from the X and scored unassisted to stretch Maryland’s lead to 12-8.

Syracuse had chances all afternoon to even the scoreline, aided by a solid defensive performance and the ride. It forced 16 Maryland turnovers and five failed clearances and held the Terps’ high-powered offense to just 14 goals behind 11 saves from goalie Bobby Gavin, who made a number of stops against point-blank attempts. And faceoff specialist Jakob Phaup won 15-of-28 attempts, earning his team a number of crucial possessions.

But SU wasn’t good enough on the offensive end. The unit appeared in spurts during the second quarter, the final minute of the third and brief periods of the fourth, but the slow start, combined with other offensive lulls, proved too much for SU to overcome.

“We just didn’t get the job done on the offensive end, and we need to get better,” head coach Gary Gait said postgame.

No. 9 Syracuse (1-1) fell 14-10 to No. 1 Maryland (3-0) on a Sunday afternoon where Gait’s jersey was retired before the game and Roy Simmons Jr.’s name was added to the Ring of Honor at halftime. After trailing early, SU clawed back via Tucker Dordevic and Lucas Quinn in the second quarter and then once more in the final minute of the third quarter. Syracuse was too inconsistent on offense, though, and Maryland’s five-goal lead out of the gate provided enough padding to earn it the victory.

“That’s the difference in the game, right? Spot them five and then you fight, spend the whole game trying to get close,” Gait said.

At the start, Syracuse struggled to generate dangerous offensive opportunities. Dordevic tried to dodge but slipped and then had the ball jarred out of his stick moments later. Brendan Curry tried a low-rising shot that didn’t connect, and Dordevic tried the same thing but also missed wide.

The chances were there for SU — Phaup won nine of his first 15 faceoffs, Maryland had four failed clears in the first half and the Orange forced nine first-half turnovers — but it just took them too much time.

“We just came out just a little anxious, like we were not sure what to expect, instead of coming out and just doing what we practiced,” Gait said.

Initially, Wisnauskas got the better of SU’s defense. He dodged past Brett Kennedy and bounced off a hit from Saam Olexo to notch Maryland’s third goal, and he later slotted home his second score after a pass from Anthony DeMaio. The Terrapins used a nice skip-pass to beat SU’s defense and cash in on the far side, too.

But what started with shots straight at Maryland goalie Logan McNaney from midfielders Griffin Cook and Curry eventually turned into offensive production. It began when Quinn got SU on the board at the start of the second quarter, turning a pass from Curry into a low-rising shot.

Quinn, who started his first career game, continued that production and finished with a first-half hat trick. The short-stick matchup he drew helped fuel that success — on his second goal, he turned a pass from Cook into a finish. Quinn was almost facing his own goal but turned all the way around and fired a low, powerful shot into the net.

Syracuse fell behind against the Terrapins early before suffering a four-goal loss. Trent Kaplan | Contributing Photographer

“That was something we worked on all week, just that two-man that we were running behind the goal,” Quinn said. “I saw that Cook drove up the side and my guy was stuck in the front of the net. Just back-cut him and Cook threw me a pass.”

Then, on SU’s final possession of the half, Quinn pulled the Orange within one goal, making the score 7-6 when he unloaded a long shot off a Dordevic pass.

But then some of the offense’s inefficiencies returned for the bulk of the third quarter. Curry couldn’t seem to get going at all. He fired seven total shots by continuously using his speed to create shooting windows, but he missed the mark on his efforts. Attack Owen Seebold had five shots, no points and saw very little of the ball. And Mikey Berkman didn’t make his impact until the final seconds of the third quarter.

SU managed to pull within two goals when Tyler Cordes picked out Jackson Birtwistle for a point-blank range shot in the final minute of the third quarter. Then a faceoff violation gifted SU the ball back, and Berkman’s goal made it 9-8, Maryland.

Yet Syracuse’s offense went quiet once more, and Maryland used its 3-0 run to re-extend the lead. It took five minutes before Dordevic was able to answer back, halting the run with his fourth goal of the afternoon on another shot he created off the dodge. Then he unloaded his fifth when he curved a run from right to left and fired a lefty-shot that rifled into the top corner.

It wasn’t enough, though, and Dordevic couldn’t do it without more help. When the final buzzer sounded in the Dome, it was Maryland who walked away with the last word. The Terrapins rattled the post with a shot in the final three minutes, but they recovered the loose ball so Owen Murphy could add the dagger goal that ended SU’s hopes of knocking off the nation’s top team once-and-for-all.

“We need to trust what we’re trying to do, and finish our opportunities and we’ll get better,” Gait said.

Published on February 20, 2022 at 2:27 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16