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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Senior midfielders Steven Brooks (Libertyville, Ill.) and Brendan Loftus (Watertown, N.Y.) combined for 10 points and six goals as the top-ranked Orange (8-1) defended its No. 1 ranking with a 13-6 victory against #15 Princeton (4-4) Saturday, April 5 in front of a season-best home crowd of 6,501 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Brooks tallied a career-high six points (3g, 3a) and Loftus equaled his career-best scoring total with three goals and one assist. The pair combined for seven of the Orange’s first nine points and four of the team’s first five goals.
Syracuse also got four points from junior attackman Kenny Nims (Watertown, N.Y.) who finished with two goals and two assists in the win.
The Orange led 3-2 after the first quarter behind the play of Brooks who had a hand in all three first-period tallies. He opened the game’s scoring at the 11:57 mark and assisted on scores by Loftus and Nims later in the stanza. Nims’ first goal was his team-leading sixth man-up tally of the year and snapped a 2-2 tie with 1:50 to go in the first period.
The pair continued to key the Orange attack in the second quarter as Loftus scored 51 seconds into the period to put the Orange in front, 4-2. After a goal by Tommy Davis pulled the Tigers within one, Loftus assisted on a Brooks tally that made it 5-3 with 9:56 left in the half. Junior Pat Perritt’s (Holtsville, N.Y.) submarine shot from 10 yards out found the mark and extended SU’s margin to 6-3 with 4:14 to go in the period. A goal by Princeton’s Jack McBride cut the lead to two, 6-4, at halftime.
Brooks and Loftus hooked up again in the third quarter as Loftus found Brooks for another goal to increase the SU lead to 7-4 at the 13:48 mark. The two teams traded tallies after that and the Orange owned a 9-6 advantage with 4:11 remaining the third, but it was all Orange in the game’s last 16 minutes as SU tallied four unanswered goals to produce the final margin.
Freshman
Stephen Keogh (Toronto, Ontario) had two goals in the game-clinching run. He ignited the rally with a dazzling behind-the-back score that pushed SU’s lead to 10-6 with eight seconds left in the third period. Goals by junior midfielder
Dan Hardy (Tully, N.Y.) and Keogh 19 seconds apart in fourth made it 12-6, and sophomore
Chris Daniello (Cross River, N.Y.) closed the scoring on an unassisted goal with 2:37 left to play.
The Orange got another superb effort from its defense as it outscored the Tigers, 7-2, in the second half. SU held Princeton’s leading scorers Mark Kovler (1g) and Davis (1g) to a combined two points, a far cry from last year when the pair combined for six goals in a 12-8 Princeton victory. Saturday’s win marked seventh time in nine outings this year the Orange allowed fewer than 10 goals in a game.
Rookie long-stick middie
Joel White (Cortland, N.Y.) locked up Davis for most of the game. He also registered three ground balls, including scooping up a key loose ball that led to an unsettled goal for Nims that gave the Orange an 8-4 third-quarter cushion.
McBride and Peter Streibel were the only Princeton players to record multiple points. McBride had a pair of goals and Streibel contributed two assists.
Syracuse won the ground ball battle, 40-20. Junior
Matt Abbott (Syracuse, N.Y.) led the way with a game-high eight. The Orange also controlled the face-off X as senior
Danny Brennan (Farmingdale, N.Y.) won 15 of his 21 attempts to lead SU to an overall 15-7 face-off advantage.
Senior
Mike Leveille (Delmar, N.Y.) assisted on Brooks’ first score to extend his scoring streak to 48 games. He is tied with former Orange All-American Ryan Powell for the sixth-longest streak in school history. Leveille, who has multiple points in every game this year, finished the day with two assists.
With the victory, the Orange extended its winning streak to six games and improved to 6-0 at home this season. It was SU’s fifth win in the last six meetings with the Tigers.
On hand to witness the victory were the members of SU’s 1988 NCAA Championship team which celebrated its 20
th anniversary at halftime. That squad posted a 15-0 record and featured four Hall of Famers in
Gary Gait, Paul Gait, Pat McCabe and Coach Roy Simmons Jr., all of whom were at the Dome to see the Orange knock off the Tigers.
Syracuse begins a two-game road swing on Tuesday, April 8. The Orange will take on Central New York rival Cornell at 7 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca. The game will televised live in Syracuse on Time Warner 26.
