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Entering the game clearing nearly 90% of its shots, Syracuse hasn’t had trouble getting the ball across midfield this season. Opponents have gotten open too easily and ground balls have hardly ever found the Orange’s nets, but getting the ball to their young playmakers wasn’t a struggle. Then on Saturday, it turned in its worst clearing performance of the season.

It started early in the first quarter amidst a mistake-filled first half that ended with the Orange down by three goals. The Tar Heels led in goals, faceoffs and shots on goal, and the announcers on ESPNU struggled to understand how the stat sheet was so lopsided, yet the score so close. Then, after one of Will Mark’s 13 saves, he flung a long pass intended for Caden Kol on the left side. James Matan easily picked it out of the air, and with no one in front of him turned it around quickly for a goal.

Syracuse pulled off a second straight ranked win Saturday, snapping a streak of seven straight Atlantic Coast Conference losses with a 15-14 win over the Tar Heels. But the win didn’t come without a litany of mistakes, highlighting the inexperience Syracuse flaunts despite now adding two straight signature wins to its resume. From the 72% clear rate to the 31% faceoff win percentage, the Orange nearly let up another late lead to North Carolina.

“The message (at halftime) was to stick together,” Gait said. “There was a lot of mistakes in the first half, clearing and this and that.”

Opponents against North Carolina this season were converting 78.2% of clears, much lower than the top national teams, but not so low that Syracuse would need to change how it gets the ball up the field. SU struggled from the beginning getting the ball past midfield. But it tended to toss looping passes toward the middle of the defensive formation, allowing for North Carolina’s heavy pressing defense to pick off and disrupt passes frequently and force turnovers.

By the end of the game, Syracuse had 16 turnovers, 15 of which were caused by North Carolina. The Orange, who came into the game with an 89.3% clear rate, struggled to cleanly get the ball past the 50 yard line. North Carolina applied pressure from the second Will Mark ripped off a pass following a save.

Early in the second quarter, Syracuse once again failed to clear the ball, turning it over on the left side of the field following a loose ball picked up by Lance Tillman. He passed up to Dewey Egan who was alone in front of the net and dumped it in to give the Tar Heels a 4-3 lead.

Unlike in previous games that ended up being losses, the Orange were able to respond to mistakes and, for the most part, erase them with a goal to keep pace with North Carolina. After the loss to UNC in February, head coach Gary Gait said that the Orange were compounding their mistakes and not turning stops on defense into scoring chances on offense, leading to what was at the time the largest loss of the season. If Syracuse was going to succeed, it was going to need to limit mistakes and convert goals whenever it had possession.

“All we have to do is execute … how we run the offense, how we run the defense,” Gait said.

With just over four minutes in the third quarter and the game tied at nine goals apiece, Fine appeared to have a faceoff win and was crouched right over the ball. Then as he moved his stick down to pick up the ball and complete the win, Tyeryar picked it away and batted it toward himself. He was able to pick it up, completing the sequence by going all the way, slicing through Syracuse’s defense and giving the Tar Heels a 10-9 lead. It was nearly about to give up the win.

“The faceoff margin was a huge disparity, but we got stops when we needed to,” Gait said.

In the fourth quarter, shortly after a late goal from Joey Spallina that gave Syracuse a 12-11 lead, Mark tossed the ball up to begin the 20th clear of the Orange’s day. They had finally notched a key, game-changing goal at a crucial time late in the game.

For the second straight game, Syracuse had momentum and a lead in the fourth quarter looking to put away North Carolina. It got the ball up to midfield and into the stick of Jake Murphy, who tried to fire a high pass to the left side of the field. But Harry Wellford stood in between Murphy and his man, and picked the ball out of the air to force the turnover.

He bolted up the field in transition and quickly threw in a goal to give North Carolina a lead. Syracuse came back and did just enough to overcome North Carolina, but it didn’t leave Olney, Maryland, without clear indications of the holes in its game. The playoff hopes are still alive, for now, but the mistakes can’t persist if the Orange want to keep them that way.

“They found a way to win. For a young team like we are, we’ve been waiting for this to happen,” Gait said.

Published on April 15, 2023 at 9:53 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt