Duke surrounded Owen Seebold like a swarm of bees. Once he was freed from one double team, he ran into another.

Three minutes into the second quarter, Seebold raced around midfield, dodging from side-to side at Koskinen Stadium, desperately trying to escape the pressure.

Seebold kept his composure though, holding onto the ball and escaping any trap. He eventually found an open Brendan Curry on the left side of Duke goalie Danny Fowler. Curry received the pass, turned and ripped a goal to give Syracuse a 5-4 advantage.

“Duke doesn’t really let you hold the ball too much,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “They come out with pressure and they want to make you make a decision and either get a bad shot or get a turnover. Our guys played pretty poised at the offensive end.”

On March 18, In a 14-10 loss to Rutgers, a team that ranks 30th in caused turnovers per game, SU coughed up the ball a season-high 22 times. After losing the turnover battle in a loss to Johns Hopkins the week before, SU tried too hard to avoid turnovers. They played timidly against the Scarlet Knights and it backfired, sophomore midfielder Jamie Trimboli said.

This Saturday on the road against then-No. 3 Duke, a team that caused 9.3 turnovers per game, SU had eight. The Orange protected the ball, leading to longer and better possessions that allowed SU to shoot and score more as then-No. 15 Syracuse (4-3, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) took down then-No. 3 Duke (8-2, 0-1).

Still, Syracuse doesn’t assist on many of its goals. SU ranks 25th nationally with just 6.43 assists per game and it didn’t even meet that number against Duke. Syracuse assisted on six of its 14 goals in the contest, but instead of taking early shots, Syracuse waited for the right opportunities and matchups.

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SU sent players flying in front of the crease as potential outlets in front of the goal, but also to draw defenders and open one-on-one matchups. SU knew it could take advantage by playing faster than Duke could, Desko said. While the ball movement didn’t necessarily boost assists, it tired the Duke defense and opened up space in front of the crease.

Before Trimboli’s game-winning shot, he picked up the ground ball because he managed to ditch a defender. When Tucker Dordevic ran across the crease to receive a pass, the defense collapsed on him, allowing Trimboli to slip by untouched and score an easy, point-blank goal.

“We were just trying to play big and play fast the whole game and wear them down a little bit,” Trimboli said. “Eventually, things started to pop open.”

On the same play that Curry scored SU’s fifth goal after Seebold avoided a turnover, Curry drew a short-stick defender. It did not take much for the fastest player Nate Solomon has ever seen to blow by his defender and find the back of the net. Rather than taking early shots and trying to force scores, something SU has struggled with this season, Desko said Syracuse focused on finding weak links and exploiting matchups.

“We wanted to control possession and wear them down a little bit and wait for our best shot,” Brendan Bomberry said.

Syracuse, a team that ranked 34th in the country in shooting efficiency — which takes into account goals scored per possession, shots on goal that are saved and shots that miss the cage entirely — put 28-of-34 shots on goal against Duke. Entering the game, Duke ranked third in the country in opponent turnover percentage.

While facing a statistically superior opponent, SU protected its possessions and put together its most complete offensive game of the season against a ranked opponent.

“The last couple games we held the ball,” Desko said. “We were a little bit tentative. Guys today just went out and played.”

Published on March 26, 2018 at 11:11 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu