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To begin the second half, Alex Simmons grabbed a pass from Johnny Richiusa. He was trying to dart around the UAlbany defense and find an opening for a shot and to build on Syracuse’s 5-1 lead. It clamped down on Simmons, the Denver graduate transfer, starting his second game for the Orange. So he looked elsewhere. He’d already assisted on one goal and was trying to find another lane as it opened up heading toward the crease. Before, it was Jackson Birtwistle in front of the net; this time, Carter Rice flew down the field toward the goal.

Simmons juked out his defender and then bursted past him. Rice, meanwhile, was charging and opened up inside the heart of the Great Danes defense. Simmons flung a pass over to Rice, who grabbed the ball, pivoted to his left and flung a shot from within five yards into the back of the net. Syracuse led 6-1, and Simmons, the veteran presence amidst a youthful offensive lineup, was on his way to a game-high four assists.

Syracuse needed something to change after scoring just seven goals in an opening week win over Vermont. It was 1-0, and there were flashes of what this iteration of the Orange could become. This clearly wasn’t 2022’s 4-10 team, but there was pressure to prove that. The Orange went on to score 20 goals, the most since the 2022 season opener, and Simmons led all players with four assists. He helped catalyze scoring by Birtwistle, Joey Spallina and others in Syracuse’s (2-0, 0-0 ACC) 20-7 onslaught of the Great Danes (0-1, 0-0 America East).

“I’ve been able to see the game open up in different ways against different teams. Luckily for the guys around me, they make it pretty easy to make a one-on-one pass, especially on the man-up,” Simmons said.

His role, Simmons says, is to be the veteran presence on a team that includes freshmen like Spallina, guiding a unit under offensive coordinator Pat March attempting to return the Orange to their pre-2021 heights. At Denver, Simmons started every game in 2022, scoring 30 goals and adding 15 assists, both of which were the third-most on the team. In 2021, he had 31 goals and 24 assists despite missing the first three games. When he transferred to the Orange last May, they knew they were getting someone that was going to galvanize offensive production.

Simmons notched a goal and two assists last week, but showed out against UAlbany. Cole Kirst said that Simmons does a good job of finding lanes and seeing when players cut where they’re going to be, what lanes are opening up and where to pass inside. Just a few minutes after assisting Birtwistle on a man-up goal, Simmons found Spallina standing wide left of the crease working around his man. Once Spallina gained position, he cut in a few steps. The lane that Simmons was looking for opened up, and the attack capitalized, quickly darting a pass down to Spallina.

The freshman then spun around and bounced in his fifth goal, burying it in the right corner of the net. UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said that starting goalkeeper Tommy Heller, who is still recovering from a broken toe, played well in the Great Dane’s preseason game in January and had earned the starting job. But after allowing nine goals before the end of the second quarter, Marr felt that Heller had played “sluggish” and pulled him in favor of junior Jack VanValkenburgh. Had Simmons not been so decisive and impactful assisting a litany of the nine goals, Heller wouldn’t have been challenged as much.

“If we dodge super hard, it allows the lanes to open up,” Kirst said. “Alex did a great job of finding that lane and finding guys inside and being able to make that pass for a great opportunity.”

Even to end the third quarter, Simmons fired across the field to Michael Leo, who was noticeably open on the far edge of the offensive formation. Leo quickly fired in a shot, and the freshman grabbed his first collegiate goal. Simmons was tactical, and despite not scoring a goal off of two shots, he finished behind Spallina with the second-most points for an electric Syracuse scoring offense. Someone always penetrated UAlbany’s defense and found their way in front of the net, and someone — mostly Simmons — was there to locate the opening and pounce on it with a quick feed in. “Alex does a great job seeing the field,” Kirst said.

Simmons was everywhere, and nowhere, the focal point of the offense, yet not the forefront, the catalyst, but not the executioner. With 11:20 left in the first half, Birtwistle worked off of a screen set by Simmons, another hallmark of Simmon’s game Friday night. Birtwistle broke to his right and crouched down a bit in an attempt to get around Alex Pfeiffer, who continued to bump into him, trying to knock him over. Once he gained position, he leaned to his right and fired a quick shot past the goaltender for the goal.

“Just the offense that we have, coach March has kind of given us the offense,” Simmons said. “There’s a lot of creativity and a lot of youth that we have.”

Published on February 10, 2023 at 11:06 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt