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Expectations for this Syracuse team had never been lower than they were heading into Saturday’s game. The Orange beat Virginia 20-10 in the second game of the season but hadn’t won an Atlantic Coast Conference game since.

Syracuse came out strong in Saturday’s game, never trailing against the Cavaliers and securing a winning season with its sixth victory of the year.

Here are three takeaways from Syracuse’s rematch win:

Faceoffs shine

Virginia’s Petey LaSalla is one of the best FOGOs in the country, with the eight-best faceoff percentage. But with Jakob Phaup’s up-and-down season, the Orange needed him to show up this afternoon, which he did.

Phaup came out and won 13 of 14 second-half faceoffs, including the first nine to start the game. LaSalla was replaced by Gavin Tygh, who won two, but not before the Cavaliers accumulated three faceoff violations.

In total, Phaup was 24-for-26 from the faceoff X, his highest percentage of the year and nearly a career-high. Both of Virginia’s wins were also by Tygh, as Phaup held LaSalla to one faceoff win for the first time in his career.

Share the wealth

Five Syracuse players scored multiple goals, including hat tricks by Owen Hiltz and Jamie Trimboli. In Chase Scanlan’s absence, Owen Seebold and Lucas Quinn both saw minutes at the first-line attack, a promotion from their usual second-line midfield. Seebold made the most out of his first career start, finding the back of the net twice.

But, the most noteworthy performance was from Trimboli, who had been quiet all season. Trimboli was a first-team All-American in 2020, however, he has only scored 11 goals in nine starts. He finally caught a stride Saturday, leading the Orange in scoring alongside Hiltz.

In the first half, Trimboli came up on the wing, running through a double team to have a good look at the net. He shot to the lower left side, right past UVA goalie Alex Rode, to start off scoring for the Orange. In the fourth quarter, he shot through traffic, threading the ball between the legs of Virginia defenders to give the Orange a five-goal lead. That goal also gave Trimboli his first hat trick of this season.

Stuck on the ride

Syracuse’s ride holds opponents to an 82% success rate this season, but Virginia was successful on all but one clear attempt Saturday. The Cavaliers have a middle-of-the-road 84.4% clear percentage but thrived against the Orange. After a fourth-quarter save by Rode, Cole Kastner ran up through the middle unguarded for an easy clear.

But when the ride failed, the defense usually made up for it. A defense that has struggled all year once again held Virginia under 12 goals, especially at the end of the game, when the Orange were able to prevent a comeback.

Published on April 24, 2021 at 3:06 pm

aekaylor@syr.edu | @cincinnallie