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BALTIMORE, M.D. — Grant Murphy launched his stick at Jack Keogh’s in the left corner of the field, successfully forcing the ball out and onto the turf. Murphy picked it up and passed to Brett Kennedy, who was on the opposite side of the field. But Kennedy completely missed the ball as he was trying to track it in the air, resulting in an unsuccessful clear.

After the turnover, Kennedy was one of the only SU players in position near the crease. Still, Garrett Degnon easily got past Kennedy down the middle of the field, finding the back of the net to give the Blue Jays an 8-6 lead.

“We did a great job, and Coach (Dave) Pietramala had us prepared for the team in front of us,” Kennedy said. “But when you fail to clear the ball, that’s a smack in the back.”

Head coach Gary Gait said that No. 17 Syracuse’s (2-4, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) defense played its “best game” of the year in its 10-7 loss to Johns Hopkins (4-3, 0-0 Big 10) on Sunday. The Orange held the Blue Jays to 29 shots throughout the game, but plays in certain situations, like after faceoffs or in transition, helped them put away SU, Gait said. Harrison Thompson also finished with just seven saves, with none in the second or third period.

“It was more of the situational play that hurt us more than anything,” Gait said.

So far in 2022, Syracuse has changed who’s been in the cage almost every game. Only Bobby Gavin has played the entirety of two matchups, which came during the Orange’s losses to Maryland and Virginia. But he was taken out in the first period against Army for Thompson, who then started consecutive games against Hobart and Johns Hopkins.

The Blue Jays found the back of the net first on Sunday afternoon as Thompson held his stick high with Jacob Angelus driving from the left side of the field. Angelus passed directly to Joey Epstein at the crease, and Epstein found the back of the net while Thompson was still shifting toward him.

Thompson made up for his earlier mistake though, falling to one knee as Degnon launched an underhand attempt from 15 yards out. He caught the ball in his stick, repeating the same play in the final seconds of the first period to stop Degnon again.

“Harrison did a great job of recognizing their sets and getting us into the right defense that we were preparing all week,” Kennedy said.

But at the start of the second half, the Orange’s defense started to fall apart, specifically in transition play. Following an attempt from Brendan Curry that hit the post, Lucas Quinn turned the ball over to Scott V. Smith near the crease.

Smith launched the Blue Jays in transition, passing to Keogh, who positioned himself on the left side of the field. Again, Kennedy was one of the only players in position as no other SU player slid to help him guard Keogh. Keogh easily ran past Kennedy, getting enough separation to run down the center of the field and score from 5 yards out.

“We did well on some of the transitions trying to locate people, but it’s just simple mistakes that we need to fix,” Thompson said.

The Orange’s defense continued to dominate in the second period, holding the Blue Jays to a game-low four shots throughout the quarter. But Johns Hopkins continued to find the back of the net as SU was out of position, scoring directly after a faceoff win with four minutes left in the first half.

Jakob Phaup had received his second faceoff violation of the evening, and the Blue Jays set up their offense while Phaup was still running off the field. They scored as Degnon was open at the crease, six seconds after Quinn scored, to tie the game at 4-4.

In the third period, Syracuse’s offense continued to be unsuccessful as Gait said they were trying to get too many shots out of “frustration.” Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins continued to capitalize on the offensive end, scoring four times in the period.

With 10 minutes left in the third period, Phaup earned another faceoff violation, and Angelus moved the Blue Jays quickly onto offense. As the Orange started to set up their defense once Thompson had recognized what set they were in, Angelus passed to Johnathan Peshko, who was left wide-open on the right side of the crease.

Peshko scored, and a few minutes later, Thompson abandoned the cage to guard Epstein behind the cage. But no Syracuse defender took over Thompson’s stop in the cage, and as he tried to sprint back from behind the cage, Epstein passed to Peshko, who secured the second hat trick of his career.

Thompson briefly bounced back at the start of the fourth quarter, falling to one knee again to break his saveless streak that had lasted two periods. He stopped a bouncing shot from Epstein before falling to his right knee again to stop Degnon with 10 minutes left in the game.

In the final minutes of regulation, Thompson purposefully went out of the cage again to try and help the Orange force a turnover while trailing by two scores. But Epstein was left open behind him, scoring to give the Blue Jays a 10-7 lead, and the final dagger of the game.

“You look down the stat sheet and you’d think we outplayed them,” Gait said. “Our guys are doing 110% percent. They bought in, they’re leaving everything they have on the field — they’re just not getting the execution.”

Published on March 13, 2022 at 9:30 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu