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

When Stephen Rehfuss’ shot in traffic deflected off Griffin Cook’s back, the sophomore scooped up the loose ball and unleashed a follow-up effort in one smooth motion.

Cook’s behind-the-back highlight goal — his first of the season — caused the SU bench to erupt into cheers. On a day where SU’s defense held firm, allowing just eight goals, the offense was less efficient than usual, notching just 13 goals on 50 total shots.

In the No. 9 Orange’s (5-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) final nonconference game of the regular season, they did enough to defeat the Great Danes (5-3, 3-2 America East) and secure a victory. Here are three takeaways from SU’s 13-8 win on Thursday:

SU dominates ground balls after past struggles

Head coach John Desko has emphasized time and again that with SU’s recent faceoff struggles — which SU bounced back from on Thursday evening — factors such as ground balls and faceoffs carry even more weight.

After a seven-goal loss to Notre Dame last week, Brett Kennedy said Syracuse was too slow to the ball. They were “outworked,” he said, and they needed to be bigger, faster and stronger.

Syracuse showed improvement in getting loose balls from the opening faceoff against Albany, where Jakob Phaup shoveled the ball toward Peter Dearth, who scooped it up with pressure in his face. Phaup went 5-of-9 on faceoffs before Danny Varello came in, but a number of those wins were ones where Phaup got a loose ball toward one of his wings. Varello’s four wins on five faceoffs were, too.

Varello shoveled one toward Kennedy, who snatched the ball out of the air. Kennedy did it again a goal later in the second quarter, and Desko called timeout as soon as he saw his long-stick midfielder corral the ball and escape the initial wave of pressure. Kennedy snagged another in the waning minutes of the third quarter, which led to an unassisted Chase Scanlan goal, and Brett Barlow got another after the next faceoff.

Defender Mitch Wykoff missed what appeared to be a routine ground ball that Albany attack Graydon Hogg got instead, leading to the Great Danes’ opening goal. He redeemed himself in the third quarter when a scramble for the ball after an Alex Burgmaster turnover led to Wykoff scooping one up along the left sideline and SU getting clear.

For the better part of Thursday evening, SU was first to the ball. The Great Danes entered the matchup third in the nation in ground balls, averaging 39 per game, but notched just 25 against SU.

Syracuse’s defense shows improvement

Besides struggles at the faceoff X for the past few weeks, the Orange’s offensive possessions have been limited because the defense couldn’t get the necessary stops. Against Albany, Syracuse showed improvement, sliding when it needed to — for the most part.

During a two-man-down situation in the third quarter after both Owen Hiltz and Scanlan picked up penalties, SU’s defense successfully slid for the entire 30-second period. The Great Danes scored just as the 30 seconds expired, and Dearth sprinted back onto the field. But for a unit that slid when it didn’t need to and failed to slide when it did, it was a strong outing.

Goalie Drake Porter made a save against Corey Yunker as the buzzer sounded for the end of the first half after SU successfully defended the Great Danes’ 12-second set. Short-stick midfielder Brandon Aviles did well to pressure Logan Tucker, shoving the Albany midfielder backward using his stick and getting physical to close him down.

The Orange did have a handful of mishaps, including when Steve Ramirez drew a slide from Barlow but Nick DiPietro couldn’t slide to close down the backdoor option in time. Ramirez picked out Hogg for an easy, slam-dunk goal past Porter. But for the majority of the evening, including a fourth quarter where Albany didn’t score, SU’s defense did its job.

Rehfuss doing Rehfuss things

In the first half, Rehfuss’ four points were on pace to tie his career-high. The attack was scoreless in the second half, finishing with two goals and two assists, but his play in the second quarter helped fuel a 4-0 spurt where the Orange took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

With the game tied 4-4, Rehfuss stood stationary at X, surveying the field. He watched Hiltz cut but elected not to pass. He watched a plethora of other SU offensive options spin, cut and try to shake off defenders to get into space before he finally chose Lucas Quinn. Rehfuss dished to the junior, who dunked the easy goal into the back of the net for a 5-4 lead.

Moments later, he headed back to the X using a pick-play from Tucker Dordevic. This time he found Brendan Curry, who unloaded a top-shelf goal to stretch SU’s lead to two.

Rehfuss fired into the top corner for a goal that was disallowed because of an illegal Jamie Trimboli screen, but he added two goals to his tally later in the first quarter. Syracuse’s offense wasn’t at its usual efficiency, with just 27 of its 50 shots coming on goal, but Rehfuss was still a mainstay in the SU offense’s operation.

Published on April 8, 2021 at 7:20 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16