Syracuse fell behind early and never recovered, dropping its second straight game 11-7 against Duke, on a hot, summer-like April afternoon in front of a near sell-out crowd at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Here are three takeaways from the SU defeat which dropped the Orange record to 9-4, 2-1:
For the third consecutive game SU fell behind early, a troubling trend for the offense.
Two weeks ago the 'Cuse trailed Notre Dame 3-0 in the first quarter before rallying for its most impressive win of the season against recent nemesis the Fighting Irish.
Last week, SU trailed Cornell 2-0 before mounting a fourth quarter comeback that fell short.
Saturday afternoon the Orange trailed Duke 4-0, their biggest start of game deficit all season, and the offense was so inconsistent that SU ended up failing to score any goals in the first and third quarters.
Not only did SU fail to score in those quarters, but most of the game the Orange shots missed the goal entirely. SU had 37 shots, but only 20 were on goal.
The seven goals scored matched the season low, also an 11-7 defeat to Maryland in February.
Sloppy play and an opponent playing on a mission created an uphill climb.
Duke came out as the more aggressive team, not only scoring the first four goals and shutting SU out in the first quarter, but setting the trend for the rest of the afternoon as the Orange seemed to melt in the hot weather.
Sure, SU closed to within one goal of the Blue Devils in the second quarter, but then Duke went on a 4-0 run in the third quarter to proved to be the difference as it grabbed its first ACC win.
One sequence that stands out as the epitome of a tough afternoon for the Orange was attackman Joey Spallina being stripped of the ball in front of the net almost midway in the third quarter, and the Devils promptly came down the field and scored thirty seconds later to make it 9-4 and take any momentum away from an Orange comeback.
SU finished with too many unforced errors, 18 turnovers, nine of which was caused by a very aggressive Duke defense (stick checks) as evidenced by Spallina's frustration on the aforementioned sequence.
Don't look now, but the North Carolina regular season finale is a "must-win" game.
Not to put too much hype on SU's senior day game in the Dome Saturday afternoon against the Tar Heels (5:00 p.m. ET / ACCN), but at 2-1 in the tight ACC standings a half game behind 3-1 Notre Dame, Syracuse can grab the top seed in the ACC Tournament in Charlotte in two weeks by beating UNC, having the tiebreaker over the Irish based on the head-to-head victory.
That's what head coach Gary Gait said he emphasized to his team after Saturday's loss, confident that a good week of practice and playing one last time in the Dome this season will enhance the positive for his team.
"Staying positive, definitely," a sun-drenched Gait said after addressing his team. The opportunity is in front of us. We win the practices every day (next week), take care of business next weekend and move on, put this one behind us."
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