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Fresh off a win over historic rival Johns Hopkins Saturday in Baltimore, Syracuse travels to the final state of its marathon six-game road trip. The Orange will visit Colorado, with their first matchup coming against Air Force Thursday.

Air Force won the Atlantic Sun Tournament in 2025 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, where it lost to No. 2 seed Maryland. This season, though, the Falcons have lost five straight games, most recently getting destroyed 21-6 versus No. 6 Duke Saturday.

The Orange have only faced Air Force twice in program history. SU’s last clash with the Falcons was in 2002 — a 20-8 win — when star attack Michael Powell registered six points en route to winning the Tewaaraton Award and guiding Syracuse to the national championship that season.

Here’s how our beat writers think No. 8 Syracuse (5-2, Atlantic Coast) will fare at Air Force (1-5, ASUN) Thursday:

Zak Wolf (5-2)
Get in, get out
Syracuse 17, Air Force 6

There aren’t many gimmes on Syracuse’s schedule. This is one of them. Yes, the altitude could give Syracuse some problems, considering the game will be played at 7,258 feet. However, the talent disparity between these programs is hard to put into words. As long as the Orange don’t play with their food Thursday, it’ll be a get-in, get-out type of job ahead of a tricky matchup with No. 13 Denver next week.

The key for Syracuse will be to continue to push the pace. SU’s offense was a slog amidst its three-game Ivy League run. Indecisiveness, lethargic movements and flat-out bad lacrosse cost the Orange as they averaged 9.3 goals per game. So against Johns Hopkins, Gary Gait implored his team to push the pace, a moniker of SU’s program. Even though Syracuse’s set offense didn’t light the world on fire against Johns Hopkins, it was opportunistic in transition.

Billy Dwan III scored a couple key goals, and in the first quarter, SU could’ve been up plenty of it executed the right way. Against a team like Air Force, Syracuse will have no problem getting up and down the field. John Mullen will continue to build himself back up after a sloppy stretch and the offense will feast.

Syracuse should try to pour in as many early goals as possible, so when the fourth quarter comes around, it can rest players for the Denver game. After SU’s loss to Princeton, it looked flat after only a one-day turnaround. This time it’s two, but Gait won’t want the same story playing out.

Nicholas Alumkal (4-3)
Fait accompli
Syracuse 18, Air Force 3

Well, here’s a fait accompli. Why travel 1,712 miles? Why spend your spring break schlepping across the country to play a team that’s not in the same stratosphere as yourself? Why undergo the extended safety measures to enter a United States military base?

Sure, Colorado is picturesque, and I’m sure the Orange had fun at the Avalanche game Tuesday, which Joey Spallina said he was excited for Saturday. But this game against the Falcons won’t be close. Spallina also said SU looked like itself, beating the then-No. 11 Blue Jays. When Thursday’s matchup is over, Syracuse will look like the mascot of another National Hockey League team: a Mammoth, a Kraken, a Hurricane, maybe even an Avalanche — you name it. No matter what it is, it’ll be an unstoppable force.

Duke beat Air Force by 15 Saturday. That should tell you all you need to know. Syracuse will outclass the Falcons in every facet of the game. John Mullen should return to the fine form he had last season. SU’s attack should keep goalie Matt Deedy busy like a cashier on Black Friday, bulging the net with punctual proficiency. And the Orange’s defense, which has remained clamp-tight amid the team’s slight slump, will smother Air Force like a heavy wool blanket.

When Syracuse ventures out to the Rocky Mountains, it’ll be smooth skiing against the Falcons.

Mauricio Palmar (4-3)
Children, avert your eyes
Syracuse 20, Air Force 5

I’m back like I never left. Just three games ago, after Syracuse lost its first game of the season against Harvard, I essentially disavowed my nagging habit of predicting outrageously long margins of victory for SU. I told myself that I wouldn’t allow it to happen again, that I’d learned from my mistakes, and that I’d start giving the Orange’s opponents the respect they deserve.

Ah, well. What’s that old Mick Jagger song — “Old Habits Die Hard”? Something like that.

I do not care that this is a road game. To be quite honest, the fact that Syracuse is outside the friendly, climate-controlled confines of the JMA Wireless Dome is the only reason that I’m even giving Air Force the courtesy of five goals here. Because if this were in the Dome, the 15-goal thrashing I’m predicting would look awfully tame by comparison.

Six games ago, I contended that Saint Joseph’s might be the easiest opponent SU will face all season. I lied. Air Force — owning a 1-5 record and fresh off a 21-6 loss to Duke — makes the Hawks look like the Kavanagh-era Fighting Irish by comparison.

St. Joe’s is currently ranked No. 18 in Inside Lacrosse’s top 20, while Air Force is much closer to the nation’s bottom 20, if anything. And so, just as SU handled the Hawks 20-2 back in February, it will make similarly quick work of Air Force.

I’d advise you to avoid letting your children watch. This slaughtering will be rated “R.”

Published on March 11, 2026 at 3:30 pm