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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — American Legion Memorial Stadium is the venue where Syracuse proved it’s back among the giants of lacrosse. On March 9, the Orange upset then-No. 2 Johns Hopkins in the neutral-site stadium for their first top-five victory under Gary Gait.

Fifty-five days later, SU returned to the same field that kick-started its 11-4 regular season, one where it qualified for its first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament since 2019. This time, Syracuse was pitted in the ACC semifinals against Duke — another opponent the Orange beat to thrust them into national title contention.

But SU’s second battle versus the Blue Devils was night and day from the first.

Duke made a mockery of its previous 10-4 loss to SU and jumped out to a 9-2 first-quarter advantage. Andrew McAdorey, Brennan O’Neill and Dyson Williams carried the Blue Devils to a scorching start while Syracuse’s faceoff tandem of Mason Kohn and John Mullen faltered.

Defensive lapses persisted throughout the game and the Orange never recovered, with no signs of regaining the magic of their 18-goal outing against Virginia in their regular-season finale.

Here are some observations on No. 2 seed Syracuse’s (11-5, 3-1 ACC) 18-13 ACC Tournament semifinals loss to No. 3 seed Duke (12-4, 1-3 ACC):

Disastrous start

SU’s deficit snowballed quicker than it has all season.

Four minutes and 29 seconds into the contest, the Blue Devils already had more goals than in their March 20 defeat to SU, in which they scored four. The Orange trailed 5-0 early and 9-2 after the first quarter, their most goals given up in a single quarter this season.

The deficit sprouted from difficulties at the faceoff X and a defense that couldn’t contain Duke’s rapid ball movement. Kohn and Mullen lost their first six faceoff attempts combined. All while the Blue Devils’ usual starter at the X — Jake Naso — was out with an injury. Backup Cal Girard stepped up to dominate SU’s faceoff tandem.

Syracuse never possessed the ball until under 10 minutes left in the first and couldn’t contain Duke’s onslaught on the other end. The Blue Devils spread the ball around with efficiency and took advantage of their one-on-one matchups, while they shot with precision to make matters tough for Will Mark.

With much attention being drawn to O’Neill and Josh Zawada, the Blue Devils’ offense opened up with a scintillating performance by McAdorey. The midfielder finished with five goals and had a hat trick by the end of the opening quarter.

SU also had penalty issues early on. Two careless fouls, one an illegal push from Mullen and the other a tripping call on Christian Mulé, created a pair of man-up chances for the Blue Devils. They cashed in on both, easily working the ball to Zawada for the first goal and then to Williams for the second.

Shades of SU’s rough start became apparent in the second half as well. Duke went on a 5-0 scoring run to end the third quarter, which gave the Blue Devils a 16-7 lead and all but sealed their victory.

Not cool, man

Gait made an unprecedented move with his squad reeling late in the first quarter. He subbed out Mark — a Tewaaraton semifinalist — for backup Jimmy McCool 12:20 into the game. By that point, Mark had given up eight goals while facing nine shots on target. It was the worst first-quarter save percentage of his SU career (.111).

Mark was handed a tall task versus the Blue Devils. Syracuse’s faceoff struggles meant he was pelted with shot after shot. Duke rarely shot in traffic too. O’Neill, Zawada, Williams, McAdorey and Co. all took advantage of their single-defender matchups and gave themselves open shooting lanes at Mark.

He often seemed late to react to shots and lacked the same quick feet and quick stick control that’s helped him become one of the nation’s best goalies. Gait saw the deficiencies, pulling Mark for McCool with 2:40 remaining in the first quarter. Mark never saw the field again.

Though McCool wasn’t much better. The sophomore netminder finished with six saves and allowed 10 goals, but he also was a victim to SU’s lagging back end. McCool struggled to adjust to the Blue Devils’ frequent transition opportunities, and like Mark, had to face a spell of close-range opportunities that Duke consistently buried.

O’Neill’s revenge game

O’Neill is typically a surefire bet to put any opposing defenders in a blender. Though, that wasn’t the case last time out against Syracuse.

The Orange held O’Neill to one goal on an abysmal 1-of-11 shooting performance. Long poles Billy Dwan and Riley Figueiras locked him down. O’Neill only had three shots on target, an unthinkable drop off after accumulating 12 points in two games versus SU in 2023.

That changed Friday night in Charlotte.

O’Neill enacted stability within Duke’s offense, posting four goals and two assists to bounce back from his prior shortcomings versus SU. Dwan or Saam Olexo often man-marked him high up in the attacking zone, though O’Neill’s physicality and prowess as a distributor allowed him to pick apart Syracuse.

He assisted two of Duke’s first three goals, the first to Williams and the second to Josh Zawada. Both came from O’Neill filtering the ball from 10 yards to down near the crease. Then, at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter, O’Neill sidestepped around Dwan and fired a bouncing shot past Mark for his first goal, giving Duke a 7-2 lead.

Later in the first half, O’Neill corralled a bouncing ball in midair and made a run toward the net. He fought through contact from a litany of SU defenders, which included a hard shove from Jake Spallina, and still managed to regain his footing and fire a clean shot past McCool.

Joey Spallina opened the second half up with a man-up goal to cut into Duke’s deficit. Yet O’Neill quickly quelled any boost of momentum. He ripped a lefty attempt on a snap release, leaving McCool unable to track the ball in time. The goal gave the Blue Devils a five-point advantage at the time and was O’Neill’s 200th career score.

Mere seconds later, O’Neill slid past Dwan again and scored on another lefty shot to make it 13-7 Duke. Past O’Neill’s goals, Duke continued its run to gain a 17-7 lead at one point, Syracuse’s largest deficit of 2024.

Published on May 3, 2024 at 10:33 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews