Syracuse Lacrosse continued their season-opening winning streak with an 18-7 win over #16 ranked Towson in the JMA Wireless Dome.

Here are some key takeaways from the game.

Syracuse is at their best when they spread the love, something they did extraordinarily well tonight. While we expect dominance from the likes of Joey Spallina (2 goals, 4 assists), this team dominates when the entire offense is clicking.

Luke Rhoa led the way with 4 goals while Owen Hiltz had 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) to lead the team in points. Finn Thomson (3 goals) and Michael Leo (3 goals, 1 assist), added hat tricks of their own.

Toss in some solo score performances from Sam English, Jackson Birtwistle, and Tyler McCarthy, and you’ve got a darn good offensive attack on your hands.

“Once we find it we find it, and we can just ride the wave for the whole game," Hiltz said.

But what’s a good offense without an equal defense? The Orange have looked sharp defensively to start the season, allowing just 5 goals in each of the first two games. That continued tonight, allowing only 7 goals and holding Towson to 16 shots on goal.

“They just play great team offense and shoot the ball well," Towson head coach Shawn Nadeleen said. "They just got really good balance.”

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait agreed.

“I think it’s great, the fact that we’re scoring with two lines, three lines of middies," Gait said. It shows we’re getting depth on the offensive side of the field and I think we’re getting depth on the defensive side too. We held them to 7 and there won’t be many teams that do that this season.”

We all know that Syracuse has had struggles in the face-off game in the past, but those seem to be behind the Orange these days. SU dwarfed Towson in the face-off game 18-11 and never looked back after winning the opening face-off.

The ground game was another strength for the Orange, cleaning up 34 ground balls to the Tigers’ 21, and went 20/21 on clears for the game. Syracuse also limited their penalty numbers, totaling only 4 for the game.

“We made an adjustment and I thought it worked very well," Gait said. "They were struggling to find open players and we held them way below their clearing average.”

By that of course I mean the team awakened in the fourth quarter with a barrage of scoring.

Syracuse led 11-7 heading into the final period of play, but 2 goals from Luke Rhoa and one by Birtwistle, English, Spallina, McCarthy, and Leo helped Syracuse break away quite quickly.

The 7 goals in the fourth were the most SU scored in a period today, and it couldn’t have come at a more important time.

“Coach Marsh made an adjustment and we executed," Hiltz said. "Kinda not taking the first thing, it’s just gonna keep showing up better and better.”

Syracuse takes on #4 Maryland Saturday at 2:00 in College Park.

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