No. 5 Syracuse (11-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) brushed off Colgate (4-10, 2-6 Patriot), 18-3, in its final regular season game of the season — which sits between SU’s ACC championship win and the start of the NCAA tournament — on Sunday at the Carrier Dome.

The Orange jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead before Colgate could even score its first goal, which eventually came in the second quarter. Dylan Donahue, usually the passer in the offense, led the way with four goals. Five different SU players finished with two goals.

Here are three observations from the win.

Mixing it up

Syracuse head coach John Desko sent various different offensive combinations onto the field during the game against the Raiders, especially as the backups flooded the field later in the third quarter.

Even early in the game, though, Desko has backup attacks Nick Piroli and Nate Solomon on the field with Donahue, a starter. Nick Mariano ultimately scored on the possession.

In the second quarter, the head coach used a lineup of Piroli, Jordan Evans, Tim Barber, Donahue, Solomon and Brad McKinney. But McKinney was the only one of the crew who has consistently played midfield this season with Barber having moved to attack since Piroli was injured after the first game of the season.

The group drew a man-up attempt that Syracuse later scored on.

Getting chippy

The in-state opponents displayed a degree of animosity late in the first half of a contest that wasn’t close. Piroli was flattened three times during on a three-minute long possession that started with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter.

The last of the hits resulted in a shoving match between a few players that Donahue had to break up.

With less than two minutes left in the half, Colgate’s Strecker Backe took Mariano down by his neck resulting in a penalty. After play stopped, Backe fired the ball off of Orange midfielder Sergio Salcido.

Salcido tried to charge out Backe, but settled for waving his stick in Backe’s direction as the long stick midfielder was ushered off the field.

Offhand

Mariano, SU’s leading scorer and transfer from Massachusetts, has been known for his left-handed sniper shots this season. His second goal of the game, though, came from his rarely-used right hand in the opening minute of the second quarter.

Mariano drove from behind the right side of the net to the right elbow. He lowered his shoulder, but the Colgate defender was taking away the lefty shot. So Mariano rolled light back to the right side and took a righty shot that the goalie didn’t react to. It bounced once from the odd angle and into the bottom left corner of the net.

Published on May 7, 2016 at 3:07 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus