Orange scores early, often in Opening Day win

Syracuse won 15-9 against the University of Denver and legendary coach Bill Tierney, who debuted with the team after 22 seasons and six national championships at Princeton.

The action began right after the opening whistle in Syracuse's first game of the season, as the Orange set the tone early.

Senior midfielder and faceoff specialist Gavin Jenkinson won the game’s opening draw back to junior midfielder Jovan Miller, who burned into the Denver zone and blew a shot past goalie Peter Lowell. After another clean faceoff win by Jenkinson, sophomore midfielder Kevin Drew went solo down the right side of the field and beat Lowell with a hard shot to the left side for a quick 2-0 Syracuse lead.

Photo: Jamie De Pould
Junior midfielder Jovan Miller charges through Denver's defense to score 40 seconds into the first quarter. Sophomore midfielder Kevin Drew added a tally to put the Orange up 2-0 in the first two minutes of the game.

“We like to run and gun,” senior attackman Cody Jamieson said. “Once we get the lead, it forces a team not to slow it down, because they’ve got to get some goals too.”

Syracuse never looked back after that, putting eight goals behind Lowell before he was pulled in favor of Zander Buteux less than 12 minutes into the game. Jamieson tallied a career-high four goals, and was one of 11 players to score for the Orange. 

The Orange continued their faceoff domination throughout the game, as Jenkinson, Jeremy Thompson, and Tim Harder combined to win 19 of 27 draws on the night. Their success in the faceoff circle directly led to several scoring chances.

With about three and a half minutes left in the first quarter, Thompson won a draw directly to himself and buried Syracuse’s eighth goal in the top left corner.

“Jeremy’s always had that draw down where he pinches and pops it forward and goes in on a fast break,” Jamieson said. “If a guy can do that, that creates the whole transition game for us. Either a guy will slide to cover him and we’ll work the fast break and get a lay-up, or he stings the corner like he did tonight.”

Freshmen played a big role for Syracuse on both sides of the ball. Highly touted freshman JoJo Marasco scored the first goal of his career for the Orange in the first quarter. Freshman defender Brian Megill played a physical game and looked like a veteran, despite not having any regular game experience at the NCAA level prior to Friday.

“You can’t guess he’s a freshman when he’s out there,” junior goalie John Galloway said. “He’s playing tough, he’s throwing hits, he’s throwing his body around. We’re excited to have him here. I’ve been telling people he’s going to be one of the best defenders to come through this place.”

Megill was just one of a solid crew of defensemen who prevented Denver’s smaller midfielders and attackers from getting quality scoring chances. Since Denver was unable to penetrate Syracuse’s defense, they settled on taking low percentage shots from the outside, which Galloway was able to handle easily.

Galloway notched 11 saves and allowed five goals in just over three quarters of action.

Senior captain Chris Daniello fights off Denver defenders during the second quarter Friday night. Copyright 2010 Jamie De Pould/TheNewsHouse.com

 

Senior captain Chris Daniello fights off Denver defenders in the second quarter Friday night.   (PHOTO: Jamie De Pould)

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