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Last Monday, Syracuse nearly upset No. 4 Cornell before two key defensive mistakes helped the Big Red pick up an overtime win. But the back-and-forth game saw the Orange record five of their 15 goals through non-offensive starters.

“We had other guys scoring,” head coach Gary Gait said. “So hopefully that’ll build their confidence for next week, or at the end of this week I guess, and hopefully we can continue to get all players involved, not just our go-to guys.”

Syracuse’s seasonal defensive mishaps continued in its 14-13 loss to No. 15 North Carolina over the weekend, but its secondary scoring success persisted again. Jackson Birtwistle did the most damage, scoring three of the five goals that came from outside of SU’s starting attack.

Here’s a look at how SU’s secondary players fared against North Carolina:

Double pick

After Jakob Phaup won the opening faceoff, Tucker Dordevic immediately sent the ball to Jacob Buttermore — who saw limited time last season after a season-ending injury his junior year — to set up the attack behind the cage. Usually the Orange utilize Owen Seebold in this position, as his 6-foot-1 frame allows him to look over the cage for cutting players.

Seebold eventually arrives here, setting a quick screen on Connor Maher to give Buttermore some separation. And as Buttermore comes around the left side of the cage, Brendan Curry sets another screen.

Curry’s pick was even more timely than Seebold’s, though Maher was still able to work past it and get back in front of Buttermore. Still, Buttermore slightly bends down and sends a shot to the bottom left corner at Collin Krieg, one of the few spots he wasn’t able to stop the entire game.

Cutting and more cutting

After Buttermore’s goal, Syracuse missed its last 15 shots of the first quarter. Dordevic, Curry and Seebold brought the Orange back in the second quarter, helping open up SU’s secondary players at the start of the second half.

In the final 30 seconds of the third quarter, Curry ran down the left side of the field. He was able to get Birtwistle’s defender, Sean Morris, to slide toward him. Birtwistle immediately recognized this move and cut toward the cage to create a passing lane for Curry. Birtwistle shot quickly, cutting the Tar Heels’ lead to three before Seebold found the back of the net 15 seconds later.

On 32 man-up opportunities this season, the Orange have scored 13 times, a rate that’s 27th-best in the country. In the fourth quarter, they earned a man-up opportunity with six minutes left in the game. To take advantage of the short-handed Tar Heels, Syracuse started to send cuts near the crease again.

The Orange circled the ball around 15 yards out, and Pete Fiorini mimicked Birtwistle’s earlier play, finding the soft spot in North Carolina’s defense. Curry sends a high pass to Fiorini, allowing him to send a jumping left-handed shot into the top right corner of the net.

Ride and empty net

This was one of the smartest plays Syracuse has run all season. UNC brought out an aggressive ride early in the first half, leading to a goal from Chris Gray after Bobby Gavin had abandoned the cage. But the Orange weren’t able to create the same pressure on their end of the ball.

That changed in the second half as SU inched closer to the Tar Heels’ lead. The ride started with Seebold, Dordevic and Birtwistle dropping back to cover North Carolina’s players who were trying to get open at midfield to earn the successful clearance.

Birtwistle launched himself at Krieg, who brought the ball up the middle of the field. Fiorini took over covering Birtwistle’s man, forcing Krieg to slightly shift left in order to find another open player. Krieg thought that he had an open player in Matt Wright, but Birtwistle timed his switch perfectly, intercepting the ball and sending it straight to the back of the net.

Published on April 18, 2022 at 8:47 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu