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hen the Drake Porter replacement plan went south in 2022, head coach Gary Gait and his coaching staff approached the transfer portal with a pointed urgency. They brought in Will Mark, who was 2020 and 2021’s national leader in saves per game, and immediately found consistency in goal.

With the faceoff unit, Gait took the same approach. They waited out a year, seeing if Johnny Richiusa and eventually Jack Fine could fill Jakob Phaup’s gap in 2023. They couldn’t.

“We’ve got some new faces in that area,” Gait said, mentioning transfer Mason Kohn and freshman Johnny Mullen joining the squad this year.

After last year’s 8-7 finish, I used a facetious analogy to describe Syracuse’s season, comparing it to a pantless three-piece suit. There was some validity to the statement — SU recorded the ninth-worst faceoff percentage nationally with no go-to faceoff specialist one year after Phaup set a program-record for the most consecutive faceoffs.

The unit was virtually nonexistent, giving the offense no time with the ball and leaving the fate of Syracuse’s season in the defense’s hands. Gait and his staff knew this too.

“We talked a lot last year about faceoffs,” Gait said at a preseason media opportunity on Jan. 24 when asked about what needed to change from last season. “We have a six-man faceoff team and we’re hoping we can improve on those numbers dramatically.”

Faceoffs were the missing piece to the puzzle.

“Our faceoff play will be better, so when teams score one to two goals they won’t be scoring a third and fourth right off the draw. We’ll be able to get the ball and calm things down,” said star sophomore Joey Spallina. “I think many games won’t be getting away from us this year.”

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Spallina’s right. With the additions to the faceoff unit, the trial runs for Gait as the leading man of his alma mater are over. He has depth at every position group, with a top 10 recruiting class that he found mostly on his own.

This year is the first step in bringing SU back to national prominence. Back to the “Orange standard” Gait set as a player.

“I don’t think that standard has been back for a bit,” Spallina said. “I don’t think there’s necessarily pressure on us, but we know what we have to do.”

So where did Syracuse go? The last time the Orange were in the national conversation was 2020. They started the season 5-0, earning the the No. 1 ranking nationally while Porter, Phaup, Stephen Rehfuss, Brendan Curry and Jamie Trimboli fired on all cylinders.

It was their best start since 2016, reminiscent of the national championship winning team from a quarter century earlier. But the start of the COVID-19 pandemic ended any possibility of that, simultaneously changing the collegiate athletic landscape forever.

The Orange couldn’t recover from the what-ifs of 2020. They plummeted to mediocrity in 2021, littered with controversy after Chase Scanlan’s arrest and indefinite suspension. John Desko retired and Gait’s opening season ended with Syracuse’s worst record ever. A No. 1 spot in the rankings was completely out of the question.

Then, Spallina arrived. He was the first No. 22 since Scanlan and the first No. 1 recruit to go to Syracuse since Jordan Evans in 2013. The Orange still missed the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season, which they hadn’t done since first making the tournament in 1979, but Spallina lived up to the expectations of being a generational talent as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Freshman of the Year.

Gait chuckled at the description of Spallina as a “sophomore veteran,” but he, along with Michael Leo, are some of the most experienced within Pat March’s offensive system.

“Michael Leo is a player who has really gained a lot of confidence getting through that freshman year and I’m expecting him to have a big year. And, of course, Joey Spallina expects that of himself, so I don’t need to put any more pressure on him,” Gait said. “I’m looking for other players to step up.”

Those others are mostly transfers, a benefit of SU’s lost 2020 season. Princeton midfielders Jake Stevens and Sammy English bring an offensive mindset, and Gait expects them to help with faceoffs as well at the wing position. After Cole Kirst’s key addition in 2023, the Orange brought in another Lehigh transfer in Christian Mulé, who actually scored more goals in 2022 than Kirst.

“We have a ton of talent on the offense and I’m waiting to see them play,” Gait said. “We’re in a position where we really haven’t been in the last couple years, where it’s tough picking the starting lineup.”

All three additions will spice up Syracuse’s already potent offensive recipe, which had the sixth-most assists in the country, an increase of almost two per game from 2022.

Chemistry is a buzzword which Gait has thrown around since he took over, wanting to bring SU back to prominence. But after relying too much on Spallina in close games last year (the Orange dropped four games by three or less goals), it matters.

“Last year, we were in almost every game except for maybe one in the fourth quarter and we couldn’t find ways to win against the tough teams,” Gait said. “Hopefully with the added experience our young group has mixed with the transfers that have come in we can find ways to win those games.”

Winning close games will be a tall task for the Orange this year. They set themselves up with the toughest schedule in the country, according to Lacrosse Reference, with seven of their opponents ahead of them in Inside Lacrosse’s preseason poll. Gait said the decision was purposeful.

“The good thing is we kind of laughed and said if we didn’t win an ACC game but won every other game we would make the tournament no problem,” Gait said. “It’s a perfect schedule for where we’re at right now and gives us the best opportunity to be back in the postseason.”

Now the Orange have to execute, Gait said. The hodgepodge of the last three seasons is behind them and the first three games — Vermont, Colgate and Manhattan — should provide enough of a tune-up before the rest of the year.

Most trilogies have a bad final entry, but the pieces are all there in Gait’s third year at the helm to make it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. They have the generational offensive talent, should have a consistent faceoff unit and bring back a goalie who’s one of the best in the nation.

Only time will tell if this will be “The Godfather Part III” or “Return of the Jedi.”

Anish Vasudevan is the Editor-in-Chief at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at asvasude@syr.edu or on X @anish_vasu.

Photograph Courtesy of Syracuse Athletics

Published on January 31, 2024 at 11:06 pm