Orange Sweep Opening Scrimmages

The No. 5 Syracuse men's lacrosse team got its first taste of opposing competition on Sunday when the Orange welcomed Hofstra and Le Moyne to the Ensley Athletic Center or a pair of scrimmages.

'Cuse won both matchups, first defeating Hofstra 7-6 in a matchup that was slightly shortened to 3.5 quarters to keep the day's events on schedule, then defeating defending NCAA Division II Champions Le Moyne 8-3 in 2.5 quarters to close out the afternoon.

"We would have liked to score more in the first game, but I thought their goalie played extremely well, especially early in the game," said head coach John Desko. "He made three or four point-blank saves. We could have put two-or-three goals really early in the game. We didn't use [Evan Molloy] in the second game, but our goalie played pretty well too. I thought their goalie made big saves all through the game, so when we watch the film I think we'll be happy with the kind of shots we got.

"I thought we got a lot of good looks, especially early on when we were running our offense. I don't think we had as many goals as we wanted on the scoreboard, but I think we ran things pretty well especially in our first contest against another team."

First, 'Cuse came out hot against the Pride, with Matt Lane scoring a pair of goals in the opening quarter, one unassisted and another on a rocket off a pass from Jordan Evans. Brad Voigt also added his first goal of the day in the frame with Sergio Salcido providing the helper, leaving the Orange with a 3-1 lead after 15 minutes of action.

Hofstra scored all-three goals in the second quarter to take a 4-3 lead though, one of the Pride's tallies came on a man-up opportunity.

'Cuse turned it back on in the third though, with Sergio Salcido beating the Hofstra's Jack Concannon high off a pass from Brendan Bomberry to open the second half scoring.

Concannon, had a big day in net for Hofstra, stopping 14 Syracuse shots on the afternoon. Evan Molloy got the start in net, making seven saves and allowing only four of the Pride's goals. Dom Madonna made three saves and allowed the other two goals after coming in to spell Molloy midway through the third.

After Salcido scored his goal to knot things at four, he provided the helper less than two minutes later on the goal that gave Syracuse the lead. He setup Voigt for his second tally of the afternoon with 10:59 remaining in the third.

Hofstra scored twice more in the third, but Nick Mariano found the back of the net in the closing minutes of the period to knot things at six.

Tyler Ford provided the eventual game-winner during the 10-minute running clock fourth period.

Syracuse dominated at the faceoff X against the Pride, winning 11-of-16 restarts. Cal Paduda went 5-of-8 and freshman Danny Varello won 6-of-8. Returning All-American Ben Williams only participated in the Le Moyne scrimmage due to an academic commitment during the morning session.

'Cuse again got off to a fast start in the second session of the day, scoring the game's first-four goals to jump out to an early lead.

Evans proved to be the distributor early on, dishing out two assists on the first-two goals. He found Stephen Rehfuss and Ryan Simmons for goals before Nate Solomon and Brad McKinney provided two more to give Syracuse the 4-0 advantage.

After the Dolphins scored their first of the afternoon, Solomon quickly provided an answer and Voigt finished a feed from Mariano on a man-up chance to lead 6-1.

The Dolphins added back-to-back goals to close out the second, but Syracuse was the only one to score in the third period, which was 10 minutes running time, to finish the game with an 8-3 win.

Sam Romano and Voigt were the goal scorers in the final frame, with Peter Dearth chipping in an assist.

Williams went 6-of-11 at the X in the second matchup, with Dom Madonna making four saves and Drake Porter adding one.

Syracuse will have one more closed scrimmage on Saturday when the team squares off with Harvard before opening the season against Siena on Feb. 11.

Season and single game tickets for Syracuse men's lacrosse are now on available at Cuse.com/tickets, by calling 888-DOMETIX or by visiting the Carrier Dome Box Office. To stay up to date on the Orange, follow @CuseMLAX on Twitter and Instagram or visit Facebook.com/CuseMLAX.

Players Mentioned

Brendan Bomberry

Peter Dearth

Jordan Evans

Tyler Ford

Matt Lane

Dom Madonna

Nick Mariano

Brad McKinney

Evan Molloy

Cal Paduda

Drake Porter

Stephen Rehfuss

Sam Romano

Sergio Salcido

Ryan Simmons

Nate Solomon

Danny Varello

Bradley Voigt

Ben Williams

Syracuse University Athletics