SYRACUSE, N.Y. — No. 20 Colgate dropped its first game of the season Monday evening, falling 18-10 to No. 9 Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome.
"I thought we had a great fight tonight to the end. Our physicality showed out there. If anybody saw this game, they saw our ability to fight till the end, scrap for ground balls, and put people in really tough situations," said head coach
Matt Karweck.
"Give Syracuse credit, they executed on a bunch of plays. We've got to be better in some areas, there's no doubt about it, but I will say I'll take my guys and the way that they played and fought over any team in the country. We've got another game coming up in just a few days, and we're on to the next one."
Rory Connor led Colgate with five points, tallying three goals and two assists.
Jack Turner also logged three points with two goals and a helper.
The Raiders trailed by three at halftime, but a big third quarter from the Orange helped them pull away, outscoring Colgate 8-2. The Raiders' goals came from
Rory Connor at the 6:45 mark and Turner just over two minutes later.
Colgate held Syracuse to one goal in the fourth and got goal contributions from
Jacob Sposita and
Ben Trumble.
In the second,
Griffin Walker notched his first career goal with just over five minutes left, followed by a man-up goal from
Rory Connor 38 seconds later, making the score 8-6. Syracuse got one back to take a 9-6 advantage into the half.
Earlier, the Raiders carried a 3-0 run into the second to cut the Orange deficit to three at 7-4. It started with a tally from
Liam Connor, with 49 seconds left in the opening stanza. Colgate then came out with two straight to start the second after Turner and
Rory Connor found the back of the net in the opening three minutes.
The Orange began the game on a 5-0 run in the first four minutes of the game before Colgate put a halt to it with a goal from
Hunter Drouin at the 5:08 mark.
Sophomore
Sam Erickson recorded three caused turnovers and picked up three ground balls.
Matt LaCombe made 18 saves in goal.
UP NEXT
The Raiders stay in New York for another road game, heading to Hobart on Sunday for a 12 p.m. contest.
