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Christian Mulé had a top-five win in his stick Wednesday evening. In overtime versus Army, Mulé faced an empty net following a Syracuse forced turnover and it appeared Gary Gait would earn his first ranked home victory in his last nine tries.

But the Lehigh transfer’s long heave sailed wide left of the cage, leading the Black Knights’ Jackson Eicher to take advantage of SU’s short-stick midfielders and rip home the game-winner. The Orange fell 14-13, extending Gait’s home losing streak against top 20 opponents to nine.

Each of SU’s two losses have come in overtime at the hands of top-five opponents. Its schedule still contains a few low-level foes to build confidence against, beginning with High Point Saturday evening. It will be the first-ever matchup between the Orange and the Panthers.

Here’s how our beat writers think No. 7 Syracuse (4-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) will fare at home against High Point (4-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10 Conference):

Zak Wolf (4-2)
No need to panic
Syracuse 19, High Point 7

Syracuse has lost two games this season. In each game, one play could’ve completely changed the complexion of its season. First, it was Michael Leo landing in the goal mouth against Maryland. Then, it was Mulé missing an open goal in overtime against Army. The Orange are two plays away from being in the conversation for the best team in the country.

My point is, there’s no need to panic. Syracuse is a very good lacrosse team, it’s just looking for one signature win. Although High Point isn’t a team to boost their resume, the Orange will take care of business. Against inferior opponents, Syracuse has dominated and Saturday won’t be any different.

SU’s attack will be too much for an inferior High Point team. The Orange had seven different goal scorers against Army and their versatility will help them against the Panthers. Joey Spallina will control the pace from X and Mulé will stay hot after a hat trick against Army. In the end, High Point will put up little resistance to Syracuse.

Cooper Andrews (5-1)
Sawing logs
Syracuse 20, High Point 5

When I used to sleep in really late as a kid growing up in Naperville, Illinois, my father used to say I was “sawing logs.” I didn’t understand what the term meant until I matured, and realized it means to heavily snore — a reaction that will prove to be appropriate midway through Syracuse’s bludgeoning of High Point.

The Orange haven’t kept matters close versus lowly, unranked opponents. I predict a similar result to unfold Saturday, but to an even more extreme degree. I wrongly said Spallina would finish with at least six points against Army, yet I think he will feast versus an inefficient Panthers’ defense (56th in the nation, per LacrosseReference). High Point allowed 21 points to Duke and gave up an eight-point performance to Brennan O’Neill, which leads me to believe that Spallina should reap the benefits of facing another low-level team.

Though in the grand scheme of things, Saturday’s matchup doesn’t really matter. Syracuse’s — and Spallina’s — season has been defined by an inability to finish against upper-echelon competition, and a win over High Point would not move me one bit on either front.

Anish Vasudevan (5-1)
No need for OT
Syracuse 17, High Point 7

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Cooper and I — the mighty — had an excellent start to the year, understanding that the Orange were not far enough into their two-year rebuild to best Maryland. But we were wrong to think that they’d have a shot versus Army, who is rightfully in that upper echelon alongside the Terrapins.

Before this season, Gait reflected on the number of close games against top teams that got out of SU’s hand in 2023. This year seems to be writing the same story, but High Point isn’t one of those major teams.

Gait compared the Panthers to Utah since they like to play faster than most collegiate lacrosse teams. This means that the Orange will have to rely on Will Mark, who set a season-high 14 saves against the Utes. Saturday will be another tune-up game before Johns Hopkins next week.

Published on March 1, 2024 at 5:15 pm