Men’s Lacrosse Falls to Albany at Home

By Jonah Karp

Syracuse, N.Y.— On Saturday, the Orange (1-1) got steamrolled by Albany (1-0) at home, losing 15-3. This was a tough pill to swallow for a Syracuse team that is just a week removed from its largest win in nine years.

SU got on the board first with Jamie Trimboli taking advantage of a man-up opportunity to net his third goal of the season. That lead was short-lived as Albany quickly found its groove.

Jakob Patterson stuck one in the upper left-hand corner to tie the game at one apiece, and that ignited the Great Danes’ offense. Just eight seconds later, TD Ierlan scored off the faceoff to give his team its first lead of the day.

“Defensively I think we do need to communicate better,” said star defender Nick Mellen. “We got a little broken in transition.”

Albany took a 4-1 lead into halftime, but the offensive momentum carried over after the break. Tehoka Nanticoke tallied a hat trick before Nate Solomon was able to stop the 7-0 scoring barrage with a tic-tac-toe goal.

But Syracuse wasn’t able to build anything off that as the Great Danes responded by scoring another six straight to put the game out of reach for the Orange.

Patterson finished with four goals, while Nanticoke ended the day with five in his debut for the Great Danes.

“[Nanticoke’s] ability with his stick is really good,” said Tyson Bomberry. “When you combine that with how big his body is, he’s really hard to control. You can’t really pick a side and force him because he’s so big.”

“I just took the opportunities I had,” said Nanticoke. “I feel like I can improve a lot and I’m glad to be [at Albany] the next four years.”

As for Syracuse, Trimboli, Solomon and Kevin Hutchings were the lone goal scorers in the loss. Dom Madonna tallied eleven saves in net for SU.

“I thought Dom was terrific for us,” said John Desko following the game. “You look at the scoreboard, you go, ‘oh fifteen goals, he had a bad day.’ Quite the opposite. I think when they found a crack in the defense he was there most of the time, and I thought he was a strength.”

This was just Syracuse’s second loss against the Great Danes, with the Orange still leading the all-time series 15-2. This is SU’s largest margin of loss at home since 1987, when the team fell to Cornell 19-6.

Syracuse is back at home on Saturday, February 24 when the Orange hosts No. 12 Army West Point. Faceoff is at 2 p.m.