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

In Syracuse’s season-opener against Army, the Black Knights strung four passes together in under seven seconds to go end-to-end for their first goal. They traveled the length of the field again after scooping up a loose ball to catch SU’s defense off guard in the second quarter. 

They scored twice on man-up opportunities, too, striking before the Orange could properly set their defense and marking assignments.

“We did not get back on defense,” head coach John Desko said after the loss. “We knew that they would push the ball if they had numbers going from defense to offense.”

That was Feb. 21. More than a month later, No. 4 Syracuse’s defense has evolved and improved. Aggressive defense early in the shot clock is something the unit worked on frequently after the Army loss, Desko said. 

The Orange (4-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) faceoff against No. 2 Duke (8-0) on Thursday evening for their second conference game of the year and their first matchup away from the Carrier Dome. Syracuse has recently been doing transition drills more often, Desko said, which benefit the attacks and defenders and will be particularly important for “Duke week.” 

The Blue Devils rank No. 22 in the country in clear percentage (87%), the highest of an SU opponent so far this season. Even though it’s a short week — the Orange played Saturday and play again on Thursday — the transition drills will be crucial heading into arguably SU’s biggest regular season matchup of the season, Desko said.

“We’ve had to get some (transition drills) in, even on a short week, because Duke really loves the transition game,” Desko said Tuesday.

Defending early in the shot clock is all about whether the unit is clicking, Brendan Curry said. Its steadily increasing overall communication correlates with the improvement in transitional play, defender Mitch Wykoff said. 

The Orange use a variety of drills that simulate fast breaks, transition play and full-field situations. They vary from 6-on-5, 5-on-4 or 4-on-3, but all the drills emphasize numbers-down situations for the backline.

Regularly executing transition drills at practice has helped the defense get on the same page, Wykoff said Tuesday. The graduate transfer from Gettysburg made his Division I debut in the UVA game on Feb. 27. It was a difficult adjustment to be thrown into the lineup, as he had little time to develop chemistry with the other players on the field, he said. 

“It takes really efficient conversation, really efficient, quick conversation, and we’re on the same page I think,” Wykoff said. 

Playing against Syracuse’s offense, especially in transition drills, forces the defense to be mentally and physically quick, Wykoff said. The Orange average 16 goals a game, the seventh-most in the nation.

This season, goalie Drake Porter has highlighted three points for his defensive unit to focus on before each game. Against Holy Cross, transition was one of the defense’s three points of emphasis, Porter said. The starting defense allowed just two goals — neither of which came in transition — prompting Porter to say postgame that “we hit all those (points) really well.” The defense’s effort against Holy Cross showed measurable progress in transition since February. 

Down by a goal in the waning minutes of the first half, Black Knights’ defenseman Jack Weigand scooped up a ground ball on his own half of the field and connected with Bryan Lehman across the midfield line. Army advanced the ball forward, and within seconds, Nickolas Edinger had ripped a sidearm shot past Porter to tie the game.

Moments earlier, longstick midfielder Landon Clary scrambled on at midfield. A voice from the sideline shouted “man on” as Clary charged onto the field, but he was too late. Clary tried to recover, but his defensive unit was left shorthanded. 

The miscommunication in transition cost SU a goal. In the weeks since, Syracuse has practiced to avoid those same errors — for the most part, they’ve proved that the errors could be chalked up to season-opener rust. The defense showed progress when it shut down then-No. 2 UVA in transition and did the same in the next three games, albeit against nonconference opponents. 

Now, in the Orange’s second conference game of the year, they’ll have to prove it once again. 

“(The defense is) just so athletic and experienced that one game isn’t going to write the story,” Curry said.

Published on March 25, 2021 at 12:20 am

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16