* Scoreboard Central: Finals, box scores from Saturday’s action
From press release
KENNESAW, Ga. – No. 11 Syracuse (3-2) snapped its two-game losing skid and improved to 3-0 in non-conference games this season with a 14-8 triumph against St. John’s (2-3) at the inaugural Cobb County Lacrosse Classic at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
Junior Kevin Rice posted his second eight-point game of the season, scoring a career-high four goals and passing out four assists. Senior Derek Maltz returned to the starting lineup and contributed five points, including a season-best four goals. Redshirt sophomore Dylan Donohue continued his sizzling start to the season, adding three goals on four shots.
Senior goalie Dominic Lamolinara made 12 saves in three quarters of work, including 11 stops in the first half. Orange head coach John Desko said Lamolinara’s performance was essential to Syracuse building a commanding 11-3 halftime advantage.
“He was seeing the ball really well,” Desko said. “I thought he was a big reason why we had the lead going in at halftime. He made some very good saves for us, not only from the outside, but in tight on some of their great attackman.”
In addition to Lamolinara’s stellar play, the defenders in front of him were as active as they’ve been all season. Syracuse allowed just four goals in the first three quarters, and the Red Storm turned the ball over 17 times in the game. Orange defensemen directly forced 13 of those miscues, a season high.
Redshirt sophomore defender Brandon Mullins led the charge, setting career highs for both groundballs (six) and caused turnovers (four). Senior Matt Harris also recorded four caused turnovers to equal his personal best.
With the score tied 2-2 midway through the first quarter, the Orange used a 10-1 run to break the game open and secure a commanding 12-3 advantage early in the third quarter. Rice had three goals and three assists in the stretch and Donahue bagged all three of his goals in the surge.
The Red Storm’s Colin Keegan finally found the cage at the 9:37 mark of the third quarter, ending a 25:21 scoring drought for St. John’s to make the score 12-4.
In the fourth quarter, Kieran McArdle scored an extra-man goal one minute into the period to close the gap to 12-5 before consecutive goals by Maltz pushed the SU lead back to nine, 14-5, with 7:21 to play. Three straight Red Storm goals, mainly against the Orange reserves, closed the game’s scoring.
McArdle paced St. John’s with three goals and two assists. Keegan and Kevin Cernuto added two goals apiece. Red Storm goalie Joseph Danaher finished with seven saves in a losing effort.
The Orange held the advantage in shots (40-35) and ground balls (30-24). SU also successfully killed five of the Red Storm’s six man-up opportunities.
Syracuse returns to action Saturday, March 15 against Johns Hopkins. Faceoff is slated for noon at Homewood Field in Baltimore. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Game notes: Sophomore Ryan Palasek earned his first career start on close defense before Harris moved down low and played the majority of the game there. … Junior Nicky Galasso scored two goals in the first half. They were his first goals in an Orange uniform after transferring to Syracuse from North Carolina prior to the 2013 season … Freshman Nick Weston was credited with his first career assist in the fourth quarter. … With the victory, Syracuse improved to 8-0 all-time against St. John’s and 3-0 all-time in games played in the state of Georgia.
* Scoreboard Central: Finals, box scores from Saturday’s action
* College lacrosse coverage story archive
Have a recruiting commitment to report? Send an email to info@laxlessons.com, contact Joe Lombardi directly at joe@laxlessons.com or send a Tweet to @Joe_Lombardi or @LaxLessons.
Get in the Zone: The HS Zone
High School Zone: Hudson Valley
High School Zone: New York City
High School Zone: Upstate New York
High School Zone: Pennsylvania
High School Zone: Beyond the Northeast
More LAXLESSONS Links
LAXLESSONS Links
Top 25 tristate preseason team rankings
Top 100 tristate preseason player rankings
LaxLessons.com Video Specials
5 in 5: Tristate Top 25 preseason team rankings
5 in 5: Tristate Top 100 preseason player rankings stories
5 in 5: Top 2013 offseason tristate stories
Recruiting coverage
* Updated tristate recruiting commitment rundown for Class of 2014
* Updated tristate recruiting commitment rundown for Class of 2015
* Updated tristate recruiting commitment rundown for Class of 2016
* Updated tristate recruiting commitment rundown for Class of 2017
* Class of 2013 commitment rundown by high school/prep school
* Recruiting commitment story archive
* 2012 National Letter of Intent Fall Signing Week story/photo archive
Be a Lacrosse Insider
Lacrosse Insider: Tristate Division I senior (Class of 2014) commitments by college
Lacrosse Insider: Tristate Division I junior (Class of 2015) commitments by college
Lacrosse Insider: Tristate Division I sophomore (Class of 2016) commitments by college
Schedules Scanner
2014 men’s/women’s college, boys/girls high school schedule links
Apps for iPhone/iPad
* Download for free the new LaxLessons’ playbook Android app in Google play.
* Download for free the new LaxLessons’ playbook iPad/iPhone app in the iTunes store.
Connect with us
* Follow LaxLessons on Twitter by clicking here.
* Become a Fan of LaxLessons on Facebook now by clicking here.
Subscribe to our free newsletter
Be sure to sign up for our free online newsletter. Just enter your email address on the “Receive Our Newsletter” link on the homepage of LaxLessons.com.
Posted In: College lacrosse, Upstate New York Lacrosse
