Syracuse took care of business at the Carrier Dome this afternoon, winning 51-21 and moving to 4-0 for the first time since 1991. The Orange certainly didn’t let their upcoming matchup with Clemson hinder their focus.
The Syracuse offense had the pedal to the metal, especially in the early going. Two Eric Dungey
rushing touchdowns on their first two possessions made it a 14-0 game. The second touchdown
was the 23rd of Dungey’s career, which tied the great Jim Brown. Then the offense continued to
carve up the Huskies defense, with Dungey finding Gabe Horan for a seven-yard touchdown pass to give the Orange a 21-0 lead. Even with a large lead, Dungey said the mentality never changed.
“Score is always 0-0,” Dungey said. “You always need a score and you always need a stop.”
Despite the large deficit, the Huskies refused to quit. UConn quarterback David Pindell, who has
tremendous speed and was coming off a six touchdown performance—bursted up the
middle of the Orange defense for a 75-yard run for six points.
After an Andre Smzyt field goal, Pindell and the Huskies struck again—hooking up with Zavier
Scott for the two-yard touchdown pass. Later on in the 2nd quarter, Dungey found the endzone
on a run after Sean Riley set up the offense with great field position on a punt return.
In the 3rd quarter of action with Syracuse up 31-14, Sean Riley finally broke one loose on the
UConn special teams unit. Riley was the sparkplug with his 69-yard punt return after Jarveon
Howard was stripped at the goaline on their prior drive. The Junior wasn’t finished after the punt
return, as Dungey connected with him on a 49-yard touchdown score down the sideline,
showcasing his breakaway speed yet again. Riley had a season high 6 catches for 120-yards
on the day.
On defense, Syracuse did enough to keep David Lindell contained. The freshman Andre Cisco
continued his phenomenal season so far with his 4th interception on the year. Alton Robinson
and Kendall Coleman kept the pressure on, totaling four sacks and five tackles for losses on the
afternoon. Coming into the game, Syracuse was averaging 2.3 sacks per game, good for 8th
best in the ACC. Today, they had six. Coleman emphasized the importance of limiting mistakes,
especially heading into next week’s matchup.
“Anybody on any day can come out and beat us if we beat ourselves,” Coleman said. “So we just need to be technically sound.”
The Orange will prepare for their matchup in Death Valley against Clemson next week. Coach
Babers thinks his team will be prepared for their biggest test of the season.
“It’s going to be a heck of a game, we’re going to go, and we’re going to show up,” Babers said.
Syracuse will play Clemson next Saturday in Clemson Memorial Stadium at noon, tune in to
WAER 88.3FM for full game coverage.