No. 12 Syracuse (8-6, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) entered Saturday’s matchup against in-state rival Colgate (7-8, 3-5 Patriot League) on the right side of the bubble. Inside Lacrosse ranked the Orange as the No. 9 seed in its mock NCAA tournament bracket — teams outside the top eight are technically not seeded, but the Orange was ranked as the ninth-best team.

A loss to Colgate could have potentially eliminated that safety and push SU back into the mix of teams trying to plead their cases for a spot. With that looming overhead, Syracuse dismantled the Raiders from the opening whistle, winning 17-5.

Defensively, SU held strong. Syracuse held Colgate scoreless for the first 21:37, and by that point, the game was out of hand. When Syracuse needed a win to affirm its place in the tournament field, it answered, avoiding a losing non-conference record. Offensively, while the Orange racked up 17 goals, it struggled at times and scored goals oftentimes because Colgate struggled to react to missed plays.

Here are three fast reactions from Saturday’s contest.

Barring a disaster in the selection process, Syracuse is in the NCAA tournament, and easily

SU did what it had to, crushing Colgate 17-5. Syracuse jumped out to a 6-0 lead before the Raiders eventually answered. The win gives SU its eighth on the season, and Syracuse remains the only team in the country this season with two top-five wins and another top-10 win.

Other teams that had a chance to jump over the Orange faltered. Ohio State lost in the Big Ten semifinals to Johns Hopkins, Villanova lost to Georgetown in the Big East and Albany won the America East title.

As the rest of the field continues to finish its regular season, SU’s position holds firmer. Denver, the team directly above SU in the Inside Lacrosse bracketology, lost in the Big East Championship to Georgetown. Should the committee decide to swap the two, SU would earn a home game.

How long can Syracuse’s defense withstand bailing out Danny Varello?

Entering the Carrier Dome on Saturday, Colgate ranked eighth in the nation in faceoffs. Exiting the Dome, only one person on SU failed to boast a winning record in faceoffs against the Raiders: Danny Varello.

The sophomore continued his slide at the faceoff X, finishing with a losing margin for the third-straight game. Colgate’s Collin Orr dominated Varello, beating him nine of 14 times. But Orr struggled against SU’s backups. Seth DeLisle played tall on Senior Day, winning five of his seven faceoffs, and Nick Martin capitalized in his only opportunity to bring SU to even on faceoffs.

Aside from that, Syracuse did a great job forcing turnovers, as the Raiders coughed up the ball 16 times, and forcing Colgate to take long, closely contested shots. But Colgate does not have the same talent offensively as a team SU will face in the tournament. If SU’s offense has to keep up, can Varello? That’s the question that has yet to be answered against top opponents.

Colgate was nothing more than a tune-up

When the buzzer sounded to mark the end of the game, SU players on the field included: Jacob Buttermore, Nate Garlow, Troy Lauder and Jakob Phaup. Those are players that have barely stepped foot onto the field all season, and they had their way with the Raiders.

Buttermore scored three goals in the game, all coming in the fourth quarter, and Phaup went 3-3 at the faceoff X. Phaup appeared in three other games at the faceoff X this season, going one for one against Hobart and Cornell, and one for seven against Duke.

It is a strong sign that these players played so well against a Colgate team that won seven games this season and beat Cornell, but this season has shown they won’t be playing much against Yale, Albany or Maryland.

Published on May 5, 2018 at 4:15 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu