Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse Takes Care of Business on Senior Day

By Adam Unger

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse (8-6, 4-0 ACC) came out swinging on senior day. With about 10 minutes to go in the first quarter, David Lipka got things started for the Orange. Less than a minute later, senior attack Brendan Bomberry scored right on the doorstep in what could be his last game in the Carrier Dome.

That was the first of Brendan Bomberry’s four goals of the afternoon en route to a 17-5 win over Colgate (7-8, 3-5 Patriot League). The Orange also outshot Colgate 41 to 34. Head coach John Desko says that the game went according to his plan.

“We did some of the things that we wanted to do today. We wanted to get off to a good start, get some points up early, and be stingy at the defensive end of the field, and just kind of grind after that.”

Jamie Trimboli and Nate Solomon both had multiple goals before halftime. The Orange was firing on all cylinders and Colgate’s defense had no answers early on. Syracuse got a couple bounces to go their way, too.

Everything seemed to be going right for the Orange except one thing: The battle at the X. Sophomore Danny Varello struggled early on, which left room for senior Seth DeLisle to take some face-offs.

“You have to let your guy get into a rhythm and figure out what his opponent is doing,” Desko said. “Seth has been a nice one-two punch for Danny. He can do things a little differently and handles the ball in his stick a little bit better. So it’s just to try something different.”

Colgate did manage get on the board before the teams went into the locker room. Senior midfielder Joe Delaney scored unassisted for his 18^th goal of the season.

Varello lost another faceoff to start the second half. It led to a quick goal from Colgate’s Will Blumenberg just 21 seconds into the third quarter.

Then, the Orange picked it back up. Two of Syracuse’s three goals in the third quarter were man-up opportunities.

“I think we put a little more emphasis on it this week in practice,” Brendan Bomberry said. “I think we haven’t been exactly where we wanted all season long. We wanted to be patient with the ball and and move the ball and work for the best shot, and that’s what we did.

With the Orange up 11-4 at the end of the third quarter, three goals were scored in the first five minutes. Brendan Bomberry had a hand in both of them. The senior assisted an Austin Fusco goal and added another of his own just two minutes later.

At that point, the Orange started running its backups across the board. Dom Madonna left the game with six saves on the day, making way for Drake Porter to make his fourth appearance of the season; the backups added four more goals, three of which came from freshman Jacob Buttermore.

Despite its success in conference play, the win is only Syracuse’s fourth outside of the ACC. Their fate now lies in the hands of the NCAA Selection Committee. The NCAA Tournament field will be announced on Sunday, May 6^th at 9:00 p.m.

arunger@syr.edu | @AdamUnger28