Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Colgate preview and game thread

The Orange and Raiders are set for an in-state, non-conference battle with big implications.

Having only played once in the last 12 days, an 18-2 victory over Manhattan, the Syracuse Orange are ready to turn the heat back up for the stretch run of their season.

It begins today as the Colgate Raiders come to the JMA Dome for the finale of a three-game homestand at 12 PM on the ACC Network.

• All-time series: 64th meeting; Syracuse leads, 50-12-1
• Last meeting: Syracuse W, 18-10, on February 5, 2024
• Syracuse this season: 6-2 overall, 0-0 ACC
• Colgate this season: 5-3 overall, 2-1 Patriot

The Raiders began their season with back-to-back losses to Penn State and Virginia, and then won five straight games to get themselves into the national rankings.

They actually beat Harvard the Tuesday before the Crimson came to the Dome and won. Interestingly, the Raiders themselves lost their last game before coming to town when they were upset by Bucknell last weekend.

Scouting Colgate

Playing this Colgate team means you’re going to get a fast-paced, physical game that is likely to end with a lot of marks being made in the score book. They score and give up a lot of goals, they commit and cause a lot of turnovers, they take a ton of shots and they commit a lot of penalties.

The Orange know all about that last one, as last year the team’s combined for a carnage-inducing 19 penalties in a single game against each other. It’s usually a physical matchup between the two programs, and with so much on the line in terms of resume for both, there should be more to come today.

Here’s where Colgate stacks up nationally in some key statistics:

• Scoring offense: 15.75 (3rd in country)
• Shots per game: 48.4 (4th)
• Caused turnovers per game: 12.12 (2nd)
• Ground balls per game: 38.5 (2nd)
• Scoring defense: 13.12 (60th)
• Turnovers per game: 18.38 (54th)

Colgate employs a 10-man ride and plays with a lot of intensity and pace, aspects of their team that are reflected in them being Top 5 nationally in caused turnovers, ground balls, scoring offense and shots per game. That same nature of play also leads to them being 60th and 54th, respectively, in scoring defense and turnovers per game.

In their last six games, Colgate and their opponents are averaging 30 goals per game between them. Combine that with a ‘Cuse team that’s seventh nationally in scoring offense, and we could have some fireworks on our hands in this one.

The Raiders’ high-powered offense is led by brothers Liam Connor (18G, 23A) and Rory Connor (24G, 15A), the two highest scorers on the team. Younger brother Liam is sixth in the country in assists per game (2.88) and 11th in points per game (5.12), while big bro Rory is 19th in the country in goals per game (3.00) and 14th in points per game (4.88).

Attacker Jack Turner (28G, 9A) is the team’s leading goal scorer and ranks tied for fifth nationally in goals per game (3.5) and 17th in points per game (4.62). The Raiders top three scorers are all ranked in the top-17 of the entire country.

Colgate does not have a good face-off unit, ranking 56th nationally (45.1 percent). They’re led by Kyle Rummel (80-of-174, 46 percent) and Johnny Hartzell (35-of-73, 47.9 percent). The fact that they’re second in the country in ground balls per game is all the more impressive given their face-off struggles.

Max Yates (35GB, 8CT) and John Carrabine (31GB, 17CT) lead the defense and rank in the Top 50 in ground balls per game, placing them among the nation’s best by non-FO players.

Goalie Matt LaCombe (91SV) is having a bit of an underwhelming season amidst all the scoring, compiling a 12.35 GAA with a 49.2 save percentage. He had a huge performance in last year’s ‘Cuse game, though, making 18 saves in the Raiders’ trip up to the Dome.