No. 5/6 'Cuse and Hobart Meet for 109th Time

Saturday, March 23

Geneva, N.Y.

3:30 p.m.

Syracuse University

Hobart

3/22/2024 12:00:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Watch TK99/105 Live Stats Game Notes

Kraus-Simmons Trophy Up for Grabs Saturday

No. 5/6 SYRACUSE (8-2) at Hobart (3-4)
Game Details	Saturday, March 23, 2024 \| Geneva, N.Y. \| 3:30 p.m.
Game Coverage	Live Coverage: Stats Stream: HWSAthletics.com Listen: Cuse.com \| TK99/105 \| Learfield IMG College \| Cuse App \| Varsity App \| TuneIn \| WAER Twitter: @CuseMLAX Instagram: @CuseMLAX Facebook: /CuseMLAX
Syracuse Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Game Notes
Hobart Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Game Notes

THE GAME
- Riding a three-game winning streak, the Orange play their first true road game of the 2024 season this weekend, making the quick trip to the Finger Lakes for a rivalry game at Hobart.
- Game time for the 109th meeting between Syracuse and Hobart is now set for a 3:30 p.m. start on the north end of Seneca Lake, moved up 90 minutes to play in a warmer part of the day.
- HWSAthletics.com will have a stream of the game on its platform while Francesco Simone (play-by-play) and Kyle Fetterly (analyst) take to the airwaves TK99/105, Cuse.com, The Varsity App, and TuneIn App, as well as Syracuse University student-radio station WAER. Jordan Leonard and Skyler Wilkes have the call for WAER with Max Gifford on the sideline.
- The Orange are the only Division I team that has yet to play a true road game this season. Syracuse has two neutral-site games under its belt.

THE HOBART SERIES
- Upstate Foes lineup for the 109th time Saturday afternoon as the Orange make the quick trek to Seneca Lake.
- Syracuse leads the Hobart series with an 80-26-2 mark, including wins across the last nine meetings.
- A trophy game, the Kraus-Simmons Trophy (more on that later in the notes), since 1986, the Orange have won the trophy 34 of the 37 times its been contested.
- Syracuse and Hobart first met in the inaugural season for the 'Cuse, way back in 1916. Hobart won the first three meetings before the Orange went 8-0-2 over the next eight meetings.
- The Orange won last season's tilt 18-7 at the Dome, while winning the last meeting in Geneva with a 17-5 final decision on April 2, 2019.
- Saturday's weather will be chilly, hence the game time change, with real-feel in the low 20s. Last time these teams met in the elements, temperatures were in the mid-40s near opening faceoff.

PUT THE WORD OUT
- Wednesday's win was important on multiple levels for the Orange, including ACC standings and postseason implications.
- Among this week's top-10 teams in the March 18 USILA Coaches Poll, Syracuse is tied with Maryland with a 4-2 record against top-20 teams this season.
- Army West Point and Penn State are the only two teams in this week's top 10 with 2-0 records against ranked opponents this season.
- Of the three teams with multiple losses to ranked opponents (Syracuse, Maryland, Duke (1-2)), the Orange are the only team without a multi-goal loss this year, and the only team whose losses are against top-five opponents.
- Syracuse is the only top-10 team this week with multiple wins over top-five opponents, pairing the 14-13 win over No. 4 Johns Hopkins and the 10-4 win over No. 3 Duke.

THE JUNKYARD DAWGS
- After directing some of the best defensive units in the country during his time at Manhattan, defensive coordinator John Odierna has the Orange backline clicking right now.
- A unique aspect of the nation's sixth-best scoring defense, which allows just 9.00 goals per game, is the man-down unit. Odierna swaps out the entire defensive corps with a specialized unit, known as the Junkyard Dawgs.
- Comprised of some combination of SSDMs Jake Titus and Michael Page, LSMs Tommy Drago and Dylan Sageder, and close defensemen Jordan Beck, Nick Fraterrigo, and Zack Puckhaber.
- After allowing opponents seven extra-man goals in the first four games, the Junkyard Dawgs have been in lockdown mode, allowing just one power-play goal in the last six contests. The defense as a whole has been playing within its self, taking just 12 penalties in those six games, five of which were in a gritty rivalry battle against Hopkins, the last team to score on the EMO against Syracuse, and doing so just once. Syracuse killed off a two-minute full serve penalty in that game in Charlotte.
- Syracuse's man-down unit is now ranked 12th (.733), a huge jump from 39th nationally (.632) a month ago.