'Cuse Hangs Tough in 34-24 Loss to LSU

Saturday, September 26

Syracuse, NY

12 pm

Syracuse University

3-1

LSU

3-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

LSU

Syracuse

Photo by: Charles Wainwright

9/26/2015 3:54:00 PM | Football

Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Orange football team (3-1) had its three-game winning streak snapped against No. 8 LSU (3-0) at the Carrier Dome on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Orange kept it close against the Tigers before losing by a final score of 34-24 in front of a season-high crowd of 43,101.

Syracuse held LSU to seven points in the first half and trailed by four at the break, but the Tigers scored 27 points in the second half to hold off the Orange. Running back Leonard Fournette was the difference-maker for LSU, rushing for 244 yards and two touchdowns.

Orange sophomore quarterback Zack Mahoney completed 16-of-38 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start. Junior Brisly Estime also had a solid day for Syracuse, finishing with a career-high 261 all-purpose yards. Estime racked up 202 return yards, including 158 yards on six kickoff returns to tie Jim Turner for 10th on the Orange single-game record list. Turner recorded 158 yards on four kickoff returns versus Rutgers in 1994.

In addition, Estime was SU's leading receiver, tallying 50 yards on two catches. He was on the end of Mahoney's first career TD pass, a 40-yard strike in the third quarter that made the score 17-10. Estime also carried the ball twice for nine yards and returned two punts for 44 yards.

"I liked the effort from our players, but there were too many big plays," SU head coach Scott Shafer said. "I thought [Zack] Mahoney settled down in the second half and made some good football plays, but LSU showed today why they are a good football team. We were just about there, but a few plays were the difference."

The Tigers finished with 425 yards of offense, more than half of which came via Fournette. Their quarterback, Brandon Harris, was 8-of-16 passing for 157 yards, including a pivotal fourth-quarter touchdown to Malachi Dupre that put LSU up by two touchdowns.

LSU opened the scoring in the first quarter on a six-play, 91-yard drive capped by a 14-yard touchdown run by Fournette at the 3:56 mark.The drive's key play was a 48-yard Fournette run. The Tigers' star took a desperation pitch from Harris, who was nearly sacked, and raced down the sideline to set up LSU in the red zone. Fournette finished off the drive two plays later for the game's first touchdown.

Syracuse closed the gap to four with 6:58 left in the second quarter when sophomore kicker Cole Murphy booted a 43-yard field goal. The nine-play, 33-yard drive featured a fourth-and-one conversion by freshman running back Jordan Fredericks.

The Orange converted another fourth-down attempt on the final possession of the half. Syracuse lined up for a field goal, but instead of Murphy Shafer sent out senior punter Riley Dixon who took a pitch and ran around the right end. Dixon picked up five yards, hurdling a Tigers' defender in the process, to move the chains. The Orange ultimately settled for a 31-yard Murphy field goal try, but he pushed it right and the score remained 7-3 at halftime.

In the third quarter, LSU scored 10 straight points to extend the lead to 17-3. Trent Domingue hit a 21-yard field goal and, after a Syracuse three-and-out, Dixon punted to Tre'Davious White who returned it 69 yards up the middle for a touchdown with 7:48 remaining in the stanza.

Mahoney answered less than two minutes later, hitting Estime from 40 yards out for Syracuse's first touchdown. However, LSU snatched the momentum back on the next series as Fournette rumbled 62 yards for a touchdown to reclaim a 14-point lead for the Tigers (24-10) late in the third.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Orange closed to within seven again. Junior Ben Lewis capped a seven-play drive by catching the second touchdown of his career on a 2-yard pass from Mahoney. Murphy followed with the extra point to make it 24-17 with 12:06 left in regulation.

Following Lewis' score, LSU, which had leaned on Fournette for most of the day, utilized Harris' arm and its defense to finally take control of the game. Harris converted a crucial third down by finding Travin Dural for a 51-yard gain down to the Orange 11-yard line. On the next play, Harris lobbed a pass to the corner of the end zone that was hauled in by Dupre for a touchdown.

Deion Jones gave the Tigers the ball right back by intercepting Mahoney on third down from the SU 25. The Syracuse defense kept LSU out of the end zone, but the turnover resulted in a 37-yard field goal by Domingue that extended the visitors' advantage to 34-17 with 5:11 left.

Now trailing by 17, Mahoney connected with Dontae Strickland for a 5-yard touchdown with 1:53 remaining to make the score 34-24, but LSU recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock to secure the victory.

Safety Antwan Cordy led the Orange defense with a career-high eight tackles, including a personal-best 2.5 for a loss and a sack.

Dupre paced the Tigers with four receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown.

Syracuse has a bye next week. The Orange plays its first road game of the year Saturday, Oct. 10 when it wraps up the non-conference portion of its schedule at USF.

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