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While pumping his fists in the air, Drake Porter yelled and took a few steps away from the goal. The Syracuse bench jumped up and down, echoing Porter’s energy. Vermont’s David Closterman had received the ball on a broken play alone on the left wing, and bearing down on Porter’s crease, shot high.

As he did 19 other times during the game, Porter flashed his stick across his face from right to left to parry the ball away and deny the Catamounts their best chance up to that point to score in the second half.

“When they did get their shots off, for Drake Porter to have 20 saves, that says something too,” head coach John Desko said. “I think he was seeing the ball very well today.”

No. 6 Syracuse’s (2-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) defensive issues flared up again Saturday, but this time against an unranked foe, Vermont (1-2, 1-0 America East). Porter’s career-best performance of 20 saves and SU’s continued proficiency in attack prevented a catastrophic early-season upset to the Catamounts in the two teams’ first official meeting after having played only scrimmages before.

The Orange clawed to a 17-13 victory for their 250th win inside the Carrier Dome in a game when fans were welcomed for the first time in 370 days. When Desko told the players that fans would be attending Saturday’s game, everyone’s eyes “lit up,” attack Owen Seebold said, but the Orange left the crowd uneasy for much of the game and were unable to pull away as they did a week ago against Virginia.

Tucker Dordevic scored his eighth goal of the year under four minutes into the game. Owen Hiltz soon added another. But the momentum from the early 2-0 lead didn’t carry through, as Vermont stuck around in the first half, exposing Syracuse’s vulnerabilities at the back.

Every Orange run found a reply waiting at the other end, keeping the Catamounts within striking distance. Vermont called a timeout following a 3-0 Syracuse burst in the second quarter. JJ Levandowski, a transfer from Syracuse, answered with a score off a split dodge on short-stick defensive midfielder Brandon Aviles to open a shooting lane. No SU defender stepped to guard Liam Limoges on the goal-crease, and he dunked the ball home.

Jakob Phaup bailed the defenders out in the first two games by winning 63.9% of his faceoffs. Vermont’s Tommy Burke chased Phaup from the faceoff X in the second quarter and had won 12-of-19 draws at halftime, giving Vermont plenty of possessions to work with. Overall, the Catamounts won the faceoff battle 24-10 and picked up 13 more ground balls than the Orange.

“We tried to check (Burke) and knock the ball loose, but he got away from us a lot today,” Desko said. “My hats off to him. I told (Vermont) coach (Chris) Feifs that he can buy him a big steak on me this afternoon because he did a great job.”

As a result, the Catamounts outshot Syracuse in every quarter on Saturday, ending the game with a 19-shot advantage. Porter’s 10 saves sheltered a three-goal lead for the Orange at halftime. He credited his defense with forcing Vermont players into the alley, where the angle was easier for Porter to close. Only 33 of Vermont’s 51 shots hit the target.

“We were playing to give up the shots I wanted,” Porter said. “They played a ton. They were tired, they were exhausted, and they fought all game, so for them to give me those looks all day, it meant a lot to me.”

One week ago, Syracuse held a high-powered Virginia offense to just three second-half goals. Vermont scored four in the third quarter alone to match Syracuse’s output in that frame. A pair of goals by Hiltz extended SU’s lead to six, the largest all game, midway through the third. But Vermont again found a response and rattled off the final three goals of the period, two of which were by Thomas McConvey, to trail by just three goals into the final frame.

Vermont only beat Porter twice in the fourth. He crouched low and dropped his stickhead to protect the five-hole on an unexpected shot early in the quarter. Then, he read another low shot and completed the clear himself, finding Lucas Quinn at midfield. Porter added another reflex save to his left, using a combination of his stick and hip to deflect the ball away. A late Hiltz goal secured the win for the Orange and validated Porter’s efforts.

Porter struggled in the season-opener against Army, allowing 18 goals while making just 13 stops. Desko said after that game that there wasn’t much Porter could do, as most of Army’s looks came right at the goal-crease. The alarming amount of goals was more a result of communication breakdowns on defense.

That wasn’t surprising, given the Orange only had three weeks of practice coming into the game. They got used to seeing the same offensive players and tendencies in practice, Porter said, making the Army loss a wake-up call.

Porter bounced back to make 15 stops last Saturday against Virginia as SU pulled away in the second half to its largest win against the Cavaliers. And this Saturday, he showed why he earned preseason All-American honors and has been the ACC leader in save percentage the past two years. The open shots kept coming, but he used every part of his body, stopping shots low and high, to deny the Catamounts their first win against an ACC opponent.

“Porter really helped our cause with the saves that he was making,” Desko said. “That was very big for us because they had the ball so much on offense. He was tested, and he rose to the occasion.”

Published on March 6, 2021 at 3:36 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder