Syracuse football remains undefeated, takes down Army 29-16

Syracuse football (4-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) is off to a roaring 4-0 start after a big 29-16 win over Army (2-2, Independents).

Quarterback Garrett Shrader and company came out of the gates slowly, having only four possessions in the first half and not scoring on three. The defense also got worn down early, allowing a near nine-and-a-half-minute scoring drive to open the game. The Orange were down 7-3 going into the locker room at halftime. But SU created sparks in the second half.

Coming out of the break, running back LeQuint Allen made his presence felt. The sophomore broke tackles and bruised his way into the end zone to knot the game at 10. It was the first time Allen has rushed for 100 yards in a contest since a 2022 win against Wagner, totaling 104 rushing yards and 23 receiving yards. Syracuse head coach Dino Babers was ecstatic about Allen’s potential going forward.

“LeQuint is good enough to get 100 yards on the ground and 100 yards in the air,” Babers emphasized in the postgame press conference. “He’s got the ability to be a 200-yard performer. He’s just that talented. He’s really, really good. I’m excited that he got 100 [yards]…but we need to get him more. He has the ability to get 200 total yards every game, but we want to get him more.”

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From that play on, the Orange offense took over. Wide receiver Umari Hatcher nabbed a red zone touchdown to give the ‘Cuse its first lead of the game. On the defensive side of the ball, defensive lineman Terry Lockett came up big. On a 4th down conversion attempt by Army, the sophomore tipped a pass at the line of scrimmage, causing it to fall incomplete. An area of focus for the defense in the second half was stopping the run. Syracuse linebacker Marlowe Wax feels that the team chemistry played a big factor.

“We just came together,” Wax confided after the game. “We knew what they were going to do…We came together and communicated more…[we] can’t get too complicated with a team like that. They’re going to do the same thing over and over. We just had to blow up and stop the run.

After that play, the Orange scored again on a Shrader rushing touchdown to effectively put the game out of reach for Army. The senior had 245 yards through the air with a completion percentage of more than 80%. Shrader wants the second half of the contest to be a normality going forward.

“The big emphasis was to make sure when we got the ball, we scored points and moved it,” the signal-caller remarked following the game. “But we did not do that and that’s why the score was so close…We were able to pull it out though so we have to make sure we come out a lot stronger a lot sooner.”

With the win, SU finished undefeated in non-conference play. The Orange’s first ACC test comes against Clemson (2-2, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Saturday at noon. WAER’s coverage begins with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Kickoff at 11:30 a.m.