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Virginia presented Syracuse a gift on a silver platter with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. It allowed the nation’s best man-up offense a chance to flex their strength, which Jackson Birtwistle took full advantage of.

Birtwistle’s score capped a 5-2 Syracuse run and cut the Cavaliers’ lead to five. For a moment, it seemed like the Orange could come back, as long as they had possession. But they lost three out of the next four faceoffs, and UVA mounted a 4-0 run to put the game away. The one time SU won at the faceoff X, Cole Kirst turned the ball over and Payton Cormier converted on the other end.

“Any time we got a run going we made a mistake,” head coach Gary Gait said postgame.

Here’s a look at No. 4 Virginia’s (9-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) final scoring run in its 19-12 win over No. 12 Syracuse (8-6, 1-4 ACC):

Mark leaves his mark

Connor Shellenberger is usually the quarterback of the Cavaliers offense, but Xander Dickson has facilitated from X as well. Similar to Syracuse, Virginia tries to confuse the opposing defense by using picks, cuts and other movements to get players open in front of the goal.

At the start of the game, the Orange’s defense struggled early in the shot clock, leaving someone open after a pick or cut. But they did a good job on this play of switching and sliding to the correct spots. So to apply more pressure, Will Mark left his position in the cage and charged at Dickson.

Mark wanted to trap Dickson with Caden Kol, something the duo had already pulled off this season. But Kol fell to the turf as Dickson cut back, leaving an easy trail to the right side of the cage. Mark made it back to his original position in time, but his stick only got a piece of Dickson’s shot before it went into the back of the net.

Faceoff’s finest

Following a faceoff violation on Jack Fine, Petey LaSalla ventured back to the box, ready to exit play. But he saw the left side of the field was completely open – that if he sprinted fast enough, he could reach the crease untouched.

Dickson functioned in the same way as the previous play, keeping Mark and Kol’s eyes glued to him and their bodies turned away from the rest of UVA’s offense. Right before LaSalla bolted in, Shellenberger curled to the right side to free up some space and the majority of SU’s defense turned toward him.

Only Fine, who was a few strides behind LaSalla, ran over to cover the faceoff specialist. Dickson faked as if he was passing to Shellenberger and dished the ball to LaSalla before he was five yards out. Syracuse never saw it coming.

3-on-3

Syracuse won just its second faceoff of the quarter following LaSalla’s score, but Kirst immediately coughed the ball up. The Cavaliers took off in the other direction, resetting their offense with 35 seconds left on the shot clock.

The possession turned into a three-on-three matchup on the right side between UVA’s Patrick McIntosh, Cormier and Griffin Schutz versus SU’s Carter Rice, Nick Caccamo and Brandon Aviles. Rice was pressed up on McIntosh, but Aviles slid over once McIntosh cut right, leaving Schutz open.

Rice didn’t pick up Aviles’ assignment. Instead, she waited for McIntosh to pass before getting back into position. Caccamo was pushed left of Schutz via a Cormier pick, granting Schutz enough space to walk into a lefty rip from around 15 yards out. UVA perfectly executed this play, forcing Syracuse to double team while setting up a screen in the process.

Quick ball movement

The Cavaliers’ attackers are like a well-oiled machine. Each player is never stagnant while someone else has the ball, always churning to get open. That’s why they lead the country with 12.00 assists per game, and why they scored on this possession.

Will Cory dodged hard down the left side at the start of this play, tossing the ball to Truitt Sunderland once he got near the crease. Kol had left his spot on the left side of Mark to chase after Cory, attempting to catch up with Sunderland as he curled around the back of the cage.

Joey Spallina mimicked Kol’s movement and focus, keeping his eyes peeled on Sunderland as he charged the right side of the goal. The whole time, Dickson tried to get an advantage on Saam Olexo, finally succeeding by going underneath. Spallina and Kol didn’t expect Sunderland to loft the ball past both of them, leading to an easy tap-in score for Dickson, his seventh of the afternoon.

Published on April 25, 2023 at 10:24 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu