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Following an underwhelming debut, Joey Spallina made a “weird” decision. He shot less.

Against Vermont, Spallina had plenty of open looks but only scored once on 15 shots. For the past week, Spallina said he took fewer shots in practice and after practice, getting himself “together” for the UAlbany game. 

The dividends were immediate. Spallina scored twice on his first two shots, taking control of the ball again with nine minutes left in the second quarter. He beat UAlbany’s Max Neeson down the left side, forcing his way toward the crease. 

Neeson checked him to the ground, but Spallina had already brought his stick up. He flipped the ball as his body fell the other way, turning and watching it land in the top right corner of the net. Spallina dug his elbows out of the turf and celebrated.  

“He’s good,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. 

Spallina finished with five goals on seven shots as Syracuse (2-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) breezed to a 20-7 win over UAlbany (0-1, 0-0 America East). The Orange had 10 different goal scorers. Spallina, Jackson Birtwistle and Owen Hiltz all finished with hat tricks. 

It was the most goals SU has scored since Feb. 12, 2022, when it notched 28 against Holy Cross. It took 20 minutes for Syracuse to match last week’s goal total of seven. 

“It was a nice turn from one week to the next,” head coach Gary Gait said. 

Last year’s contest against UAlbany was the opposite of Friday night’s. On April 7, 2022, the Orange reached a new low when they fell to their first unranked team of the year, losing 14-12. Gait said they played “sloppy” lacrosse, unable to finish the game when given chances to cut the Great Danes lead. 

Gait said Syracuse’s team this season did a better job of fixing mistakes, especially from the offensive embarrassment last week against the Catamounts. Marr said the Orange did a better job of moving the ball around compared to last year and the Vermont game.

SU’s first score came from its ball movement as Hiltz held the ball on the right side and waited for someone to cut. Birtwistle curled in from the opposite end of the field and once he was five yards away from the cage, Hiltz lofted the ball to him. Birtwistle took one hop, firing the ball into the top left corner. 

UAlbany responded a minute later after Saam Olexo broke his stick and was forced to leave Elijah Gash open, but Birtwistle wasn’t done. The Great Danes’ Alex Pfeiffer was right on Birtwistle, repeatedly pushing him back, but Birtwistle stayed on his course, charging down the right side of the field. He bent down a little bit, launching a sidearm shot into the back of the net. 

“Our main focus was finishing the ball,” Birtwistle said. “We didn’t do that very well last game.”

SU began the second quarter the same way as the first, scoring immediately after the faceoff. Johnny Richiusa won at the X, pushing the ball forward down the center of the field. He picked it up and flipped it to Alex Simmons, who was sprinting down the left side.

Simmons caught the ball and stopped, causing his defender to fall headfirst into the turf, before passing to Carter Rice. Rice converted wide open in front of the crease for his first goal of the year. 

“There were guys from all over the score sheet making plays,” Gait said. 

Following Spallina’s hat trick goal, the Great Danes committed a faceoff violation and Cole Kirst gained possession of the ball. Kirst located Luke Rhoa wide open from 15 yards out. Rhoa immediately whipped the ball into the top right corner to give SU an 8-3 lead.

UAlbany scored its fifth goal in the third quarter on a man-up opportunity, the ball bouncing right in front of Will Mark and over his stick, but the Orange erupted offensively throughout the rest of the period. They scored seven goals on 14 shots, coming from six different goal scorers. 

Gait joked postgame that it was a lot easier to score because faceoff specialist Richiusa was winning practically every battle, leading to even more opportunities to finish on offense. Kirst, another key addition to the offense from Lehigh, was first to strike in the period.

Kirst received the ball from Hiltz and ran down the left side, making one move to beat his defender before bringing his stick up to shoot. Kirst fired just before he was shoved to the ground from 10 yards out, slotting it into the top of the net. Two minutes later, Rice mimicked Kirst and took a large hit from Gash in front of the crease just as he placed the ball into the left side of the cage. 

Gash was called for unnecessary roughness, giving the Orange a man-up opportunity for the first time. They took advantage, working the ball around the attack for 20 seconds before Simmons positioned himself with the ball on the left side. 

Birtwistle ran to the middle from the right side with a defender behind him. He caught the ball from Simmons and with his back still turned to the cage, he flicked it with his right hand into the net to clinch a hat trick. 

Spallina made a similar play roughly three minutes earlier, motioning toward the crease from the X. Gait said the assistant coach Pat March harped on Spallina to run full speed whenever his hands were free from behind the cage. He did exactly that, getting the ball from Griffin Cook once he got past the left side cage. 

Instead of keeping his back turned to the goal like Birtwistle, Spallina slowly spun back to his left. He maintained control of the ball, scooping it into the top right corner for his fourth goal. 

Published on February 10, 2023 at 8:21 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu