Syracuse routed Manhattan, 18-2, on Tuesday evening for its third straight win. Here are three takeaways from the game.

Syracuse's defense was completely dominant, as Manhattan recorded more turnovers than shots. The strategy early was to pressure the Jaspers heavily in their own territory making it difficult for them to clear the ball.

Manhattan went 15-21 on clears while Syracuse was 23-23. The pressure paid off as Manhattan either failed to clear the ball or turned the ball over making desperate heaves to avoid violations numerous times.

“I'm proud of the guys for being patient on defense and really not making any mistakes,” Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said.

Syracuse failed to score in the first period but were never far off the lead as Manhattan had seven turnovers in the first period only leading 1-0 after 15 minutes.

Syracuse scooped up 49 ground balls with Manhattan only collecting 19. The Jaspers didn’t score for the final 36 minutes and 12 seconds of the game.

Sophomore Trey Deere made his second career start tonight after also starting against Johns Hopkins.

Coming into tonight’s contest Deere had a career high of two goals in a game, a feat accomplished three times.

Again Manhattan, in the second period alone, he had three goals and finished the game with four on eight shots. Deere was the standout player on offense with the most goals and second most points behind Spallina who had six.

Deere lived near the crease for most of the game showing good movement near the net to open up passing lanes. His first goal was a thing of beauty, a no-looker over his shoulder flying past the keeper.

“It was a nice ball and Joey found me,” Deere said. “I think it was important that we got that first goal then after that, they start falling."

Deere showed a great second-reaction on his second goal when after Michael Leo’s shot was saved Deere fielded the hot save from Connor Hapward and put away Syracuse’s third goal.

Deere was a top 20 recruit in the class of 2023 and played five times, starting once his freshman year with two goals. Deere has replaced the injured Finn Thomsom for the last two games and today had his busiest outing yet for the Orange.

“I think [Thomsom and Deere] both do a great job, you know, playing off ball,” Spallina said. “I think we got pretty good chemistry. I think it was a pretty easy transition from Finn to Trey.”

Manhattan came in with a 4-3 record but had probably overperformed according to their statistics.

Syracuse made sure to apply pressure early and often, destroying them in nearly every statistic and the game as a whole. Syracuse shot the ball 71 times to the Jaspers’ 18 and only lost two of 23 faceoffs.

Their domination on the stat sheet translated to the field as Syracuse led by seven at halftime and played reserves for most of the second half.

Every single available player found a way on the field today including 40 outfield players and three goalies.

“It's just nice when we can get those guys those types of opportunities,” Gait said. “[The reserves] continued to cause turnovers, continue to pick up ground balls, and we continued to score.”

Some of the standouts from the reserves included freshman Payton Anderson.

The former high school standout had a career-high two goals on three shots as he played his third consecutive game.

Fellow freshman Owen O'Farrell made his third appearance and first since the Vermont game. O’Farrell scored his second career goal in the fourth period unassisted.

Redshirt junior Kyle Rolley played in his second ever game for the Orange standing in goal for the final 8:46 recording two saves.

Additionally, senior Greg Elijah-Brown scored to start the second half. It was his first goal of the year and his second goal ever for the Orange, the other came against Manhattan last season.

It was the right day to unload the bench as Syracuse faces a six-game gauntlet to end the year facing six ranked teams. But for an evening, the Orange played up to the task against an inferior opponent.

“We kind of just got back to the basics,” Spallina said. “ I think we kind of just settled down, … just continue to play hard and play Syracuse lacrosse.”

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