BY ANDREW HALE, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
On Tuesday, for the first time in school history, the St. Bonaventure men’s lacrosse team traveled to Syracuse to face the Orange in the JMA Wireless Dome.
In their first-ever meeting, Syracuse got off to a quick start as the Orange found the back of the net 37 seconds into the game.
After finding themselves down early, the Bonnies applied pressure on the Orange defense. The Brown and White recorded three shot attempts before freshman Patrick Carpenter got Bonaventure on the board with 9:50 remaining in the first.
Syracuse responded with three consecutive goals. With 12 seconds remaining in the first quarter, senior Joey Paterno cut the Syracuse lead in half, scoring the Bonnies’ second goal of the game.
Up 4-2 entering the second quarter, Syracuse wasted no time as senior Griffin Cook added to the Orange’s lead, forcing a Bonaventure timeout.
While the beginning of the game did not go the Bonnies’ way, the team still looked to keep their spirits high.
“It’s really easy to just give up when you’re 1-7 and hang your head,” junior Tage Hoeg said. “Being able to fight through those emotions and continue to have fun is something I think the whole team has done well at recently, especially considering our last couple of losses.”
Coming out of the timeout, a failed clear attempt and a turnover by Bonaventure led to a sixth Syracuse goal with 10 minutes remaining before halftime. The Orange kept their foot on the gas, scoring two more goals in seven minutes, going up 8-2.
With 1:48 remaining in the second quarter, senior Mark Belles notched his fifth goal of the season, giving the Bonnies their third and final goal of the half.
The Bonnies were able to keep the Orange at bay to begin the third quarter, forcing two turnovers. This, however, did not last long as Syracuse scored two goals in a matter of a minute. The Orange did not stop there as they found the back of the net seven more times before the end of the third quarter.
The Bonaventure offense could not get going and found itself down 17-3 entering the final quarter.
Syracuse picked up where it left off as the Orange scored two more goals in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
Following a ground ball pickup, sophomore Kyle Pepper snuck past the Syracuse defense a scored the Bonnies’ fourth goal of the game. Pepper’s fourth-quarter goal pushes his total to six on the season.
Syracuse sophomore Jack Fine responded with a goal of his own, pushing the Orange lead to 20-4.
With 9:31 left in the game, Carpenter scored his second goal of the game for the Bonnies. Carpenter is now up to five goals in his freshman campaign.
After back-to-back goals from the Orange, Hoeg recorded his first goal of the season in highlight reel form. Coming from behind the net, Hoeg raced past the Orange defender and dove forward, scoring whilst horizontal in midair.
“I saw the defender who was going to slide to me go to Mark Belles who set a pick, so I knew that the right side of the field was open,” Hoeg said. “I just ran as fast as I could and dove around the crease to get a better angle and snuck it into the bottom right corner. It was a great pick by Mark to open up the field for me and to get a good finish which is something that I have struggled with all season. It was nice to finally see one go in.”
Hoeg’s goal was the last of the game as Syracuse defeated Bonaventure 22-6.
“I think that if you look passed the 22-6 score there were a lot of positives to take away from the Syracuse game – we cleared the ball better, our offense had some great flow and generated chances the whole game,” Hoeg said.
The Bonnies look to end their four-game skid as the team travels to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to face the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday.
“We will take the small victories and use that to boost our confidence going into Marquette for sure,” Hoeg said. “Marquette is a team with a lot of great players, and they have some pretty high-profile wins so it’s not going to be easy. If we are able to show up and play four complete quarters, we have a great shot to come out on top.”
halea22@bonaventure.edu
