Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Grit is a necessity to play in the 104-year-old Syracuse-Johns Hopkins rivalry. Lacrosse’s two most historic and winningest programs were built on toughness, such as the sheer ferocity of legendary JHU defenseman John DeTommasso (1983-86) or the smack-talking intimidation factor of former SU great Ric Beardsley (1992-95).

Attackers may reign supreme nowadays, though it’s a bloodbath whenever the Orange and Blue Jays square off. The toughest team is typically the winning one. And it wasn’t hard to distinguish who that was Sunday in the JMA Wireless Dome.

Syracuse picked up 32 ground balls, compared to Johns Hopkins’s 20. In the third quarter alone, SU had 16 ground-ball scoops as opposed to JHU’s four; the Orange went on a 3-0 run late in the third to help them gain control of the game. Syracuse head coach Gary Gait was astonished by the disparity. Johns Hopkins head coach Peter Milliman was left disgusted.

“I think that was the biggest factor in that run,” Milliman said of JHU’s ground-ball struggles.

No. 11 Syracuse (5-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) crushed No. 7 Johns Hopkins (5-2, 0-0 Big Ten) in the fight for 50/50 balls Sunday, spurring SU’s 13-10 triumph over JHU. The third quarter, however, is where the Orange did most of their dirty work. With its 16-4 ground-ball difference over the Blue Jays, Syracuse matched its season-high for ground-ball pickups (16 vs. Jacksonville) in a quarter and recorded its highest ground-ball margin in a quarter — 12.

“You know, that’s an effort level,” Gait said before he read out his scoresheet, digesting the magnitude of SU’s ground-ball performance. “You see 16 to four ground balls, that’s just (players) flying all over the place.”

Junior attacker Joey Spallina said Syracuse sported a fighter’s mentality from the get-go against Johns Hopkins. Everyone was scratching and clawing for every inch. It wasn’t just the long poles and faceoff men grabbing ground balls. The attackers were, too.

Thirteen different Orange players picked up a ground ball. Spallina (three) and fellow attacker Trey Deere (five) combined for a whopping eight, as the two were aggressive on the ride throughout the afternoon. Faceoff specialist John Mullen racked up the most with 10, often corralling ground balls following scrums at the X against JHU’s Logan Callahan.

Gait felt the Orange dominated on ground balls because a horde of SU players converged for every contested ball. Even its top scoring threats were constantly in skirmishes for ground balls — Syracuse’s 1-4-1 offense naturally gave its attacking and midfield lines favorable position to wreak havoc on the ride.

Anytime the ball hit the turf, Gait’s message was to drop everything and pounce.

“(We were) working together as a team,” Gait said of SU’s ground-ball success. “It’s hard for one person to pick up ground balls. It takes, usually, two or three guys to battle and fight and come up with that ground ball.”

Deere led Syracuse’s ground-ball charge early. With the Orange up 2-0 near the 10-minute mark of the first quarter, Owen Hiltz floated a pass that ricocheted off Deere’s stick and bounced around the right flank. Johns Hopkins short-stick midfielder Eric McDonald immediately began to slap his stick on the ground, trying to clasp the ground ball while wrestling with Deere for position.

Another group of defenders, led by SU midfielder Tyler Cordes and JHU defenseman Colby Weishaar, collided with Deere and McDonald. The ball sputtered behind the goal line extended as more players converged, and the battle switched to Deere against long poles Quintan Kilrain and Scott V. Smith.

The ball was loose for over 20 seconds, with Deere and Co. relentlessly whacking at it. Finally, pressure behind the cage from Cordes and Spallina drew Johns Hopkins’s defenders away from Deere, who hauled in the ball at X.

Twenty-six seconds later, Hiltz slotted in a goal off a feed from Cordes — which never happens without Deere’s persistence.

Goalie Jimmy McCool even got in on the action late in the second quarter. In a 5-5 game at the time, Blue Jays midfielder Dylan Bauer mishandled a cross-field pass from attacker Hunter Chauvette. The ball sat loose right in front of McCool.

Rather than keep it unattended in prime real estate for a rebound opportunity, McCool sprinted upfield and scooped the ball, not stopping his run until a few yards prior to the midfield line. It was an untraditional play from the goalie, but it worked. McCool safely looped back around and kickstarted a successful clear.

Perfecting the minute details — in this case, ground balls — is why Syracuse had an edge on Johns Hopkins. When the little victories piled up, like in the third quarter with the Orange’s 12-ground ball margin over the Blue Jays, SU reaped the benefits.

Winning nearly every loose-ball clash throughout the third allowed Syracuse to consistently end JHU possessions after one shot. On the flipside, ground-ball pickups led to offense. Game-tying and go-ahead third-period goals by SU’s Michael Leo and Spallina were each preceded by a faceoff where Mullen and Callahan initiated a ground ball off the initial clamp, then Mullen took control of it.

Mullen was assisted on his ground ball endeavors by a stout supporting cast of wingers, a group usually led by Michael Grace. Though Grace left the game injured in the fourth quarter, which thrust Nick Caccamo into an elevated role.

Caccamo provided stable wing resistance for Mullen in the fourth quarter, where two straight Mullen ground ball pickups, and ensuing faceoff wins, led to SU establishing a 12-10 advantage over Johns Hopkins. Junior defenseman Riley Figueiras lauded the Orange’s defensive depth postgame. He had no doubts about what Caccamo, or anyone else, would bring to the table.

“We could throw anyone on the team on the field, and we’d be completely fine,” Figueiras said.

There are no faces on Syracuse’s defense — only players who fight tooth and nail to nestle a rubber sphere in their strings. Sunday proved something rather newfound for this SU bunch. The Orange don’t always have to win sexy. Now, they can win ugly.

Published on March 10, 2025 at 8:27 am

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