No. 2 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse welcomes a familiar foe to the Dome in Vermont

There is no better way to start the lacrosse season than with a dominating win at home. Last weekend, No. 2 Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse (1-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) practically needed just 15 minutes to lock up victory number 1 in 2024.

“They took the prep serious,” SU Head Coach Gary Gait said. “They went out today and they executed as a team.”

While the 24-5 win over Jacksonville (0-1, 0-0 Atlantic Sun) was impressive, SU’s focus has now shifted to its ensuing matchup, Vermont (0-0, 0-0 American East). The Orange and Catamounts face off for the 4th time in the past 5 seasons on Saturday.

“They want to prove that they are better than they were last year,” said Gait. “I know they are going to be gritty and we need to be dialed in and focused.

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While Vermont has never beaten the Orange, the Catamounts kept it just a 4 score game in 2021 and a 2 score contest in 2023.

“Iron sharpens iron,” said head Vermont Head Coach Chris Fiefs. “These are the games that we can see who can perform when the lights turn on, when the stakes are high. This is a game we are really excited about, a really good team but this is more for ourselves. To battle test ourselves”

Vermont has made the American East championship game in five of its last six seasons including a title win in 2021 and 2022. A large part of the success was due to goaltender George Egan. The goalie led the American East in total saves and boasted the league’s third highest save percentage.

However, Egan has graduated and projected starter sophomore Ryan Daly, who played in three games last year, may not be ready for the explosive SU offense.

You may think that an offense that scores 24 goals would be led by an incredible attacking line. Instead it was the midfield that really dominated.

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Junior Michael Leo had 4 goals on 6 shots, in just the first half. Junior Luke Rhoa also had a hat trick, redshirt-senior Jackson Birtwistle had a pair of scores, graduate student Sam English ripped a couple shots in the back of the net and Wyatt Hottle added his first goal of his college career.

But it wasn’t just the midfield that did the scoring because the former number one recruit in the nation also had a day. Junior Joey Spallina had a hat trick of his own while also leading the team in shots. Attackmen Owen Hiltz and Finn Thompson also added a pair of goals each.

That makes Friday primed for a matchup between an elite level Orange offense and a half broken Catamounts defense. To find out what happens, tune in to 88.3FM or at waer.org at 5:30 for McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Faceoff with the game beginning at 6.