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After Gary Gait mentioned Syracuse’s sky-high Rating Power Index on Thursday, a response to a question about Duke’s relatively lackluster nonconference slate, he was asked how he felt that Saturday’s opponent — Duke — had played a relatively lackluster nonconference slate.

But what was he supposed to say? Yeah, I think my squad is going to smoke Duke like a Marlboro, because we’re way more battle-tested and prepared for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Would that have been better? Would’ve made for a much juicier soundbite for sure, but Gait isn’t shortsighted enough to feed the Blue Devils bulletin board material.

Some things are better unsaid. He knows the ACC is the best conference in the sport, and he developed an 11-game nonconference slate — featuring nine currently-ranked opponents — by taking that into consideration. Duke’s nonconference slate, on the other hand, featured two currently-ranked opponents. The only way to prepare for the best is to play the best, and Gait did that. It was out of his hands now. All he could do was watch.

“Well, we’ll see how it plays out,” Gait said Thursday, in response to the aforementioned question. “We’ll see how the two tactics play out here on Saturday.”

The answer? Pretty well for SU. The Orange traded goals and leads back and forth with the Blue Devils Saturday at the JMA Wireless Dome, never leading by more than two scores in the contest. But in the end, Syracuse (9-2, 1-0 ACC) walked away with a 16-15 victory over Duke (8-1, 0-1 ACC) in its ACC opener, handing the Blue Devils their first loss of the season. With six points, Joey Spallina moved within seven of breaking Mikey Powell’s all-time points record.

“I think it really was,” Gait said postgame, when asked if he felt his team’s nonconference preparation was reflected in the win. “We’ve had some other games where we haven’t been as dialed in in the fourth, but fortunately, we had bigger leads and we were able to hold on.”

Lacrosse is a game of runs, Gait says, and both squads were seemingly doing everything in their power to prevent either side from going on one in Saturday’s contest. When Tomas Delgado opened the scoring for Duke, Billy Dwan III answered with a pole goal — his 18th career score, tied with Joel White for the most by an SU long pole ever — to even it up.

“When Billy starts to sprint over the midfield line, something crazy is about to happen,” Spallina said postgame. “I don’t think Billy’s scored an ugly goal.”

On a reset soon after, Finn Thomson began pointing at Payton Anderson, waving his arm to motion him into position. The shot clock was winding low, and SU needed to go. When Anderson got the ball from Michael Leo, Thomson began lurking around the net, stealthily creeping away from Nikolas Menendez. As Anderson dodged toward goal, he fought through contact from Aidan Maguire and found just enough space for him to get his stick free.

It’s sure nice for SU that he did. Anderson used that space to nonchalantly fling an underhand, one-handed pass to Thomson, who was now parked adjacent to goal, wide open on the crease. As if it were a reflex, muscle memory, an automated response, he fired off the one-timer to give Syracuse the 2-1 lead.

“I saw Finn’s defender kind of hedge over to the opposite pipe, which wasn’t smart,” Anderson said. “I had my stick in one hand and (I was) short on time, so why not try it?”

The first quarter ended with the squads deadlocked at 5-5, and the second quarter was much of the same. When Spallina got involved, ripping an Anderson feed top left past Duke goalie Patrick Jameison, Duke midfielder Benn Johnston equalized the game at 6-6 four minutes later.

Subsequent goals from Anderson and Spallina put the Orange up 8-6 — the first of which prompted Blue Devils head coach John Danowski to pull Jameison in favor of Henry Blake.

“It wasn’t necessarily even the goal,” Danowski said of his decision to bench Jameison. “Even clearing. Our scheme was to clear the ball away from the box, what we call, ‘attacking the ladder.’ And he wasn’t attacking the ladder.”

One would think, at least, that the roar from the Dome crowd after SU’s eighth goal was a sign that it was on the verge of finding a modicum of control in this contest.

But it was never going to be that easy. Michael Ortlieb snuck past Jordan Beck, leapt into the air and dunked the ball past Jimmy McCool to cut Duke’s deficit to 8-7. Johnston and Max Sloat followed with goals, too, giving Duke the 9-8 lead. When Thomson finished a feed from Spallina to tie it at 9-9, Sloat somehow answered it with 19 seconds left in the first half.

Nineteen combined goals. Ten from Duke. All in one half of play.

“Every game has its own personality,” Danowski said. “That’s what makes our sport so fun.”

Syracuse opened the third quarter on a three-goal run, highlighted by a behind-the-back score from Thomson. But even then, when it finally appeared as if the Orange were in position to take control of the game, Ortlieb’s response cut the run short and kept it within a goal.

After Spallina dished another assist to Luke Rhoa — Spallina’s 300th career point — guess which Blue Devil jumped across McCool’s face on the transition feed from Aidan Maguire, again preventing Syracuse from extending its lead beyond two goals. Would it surprise you to hear that his surname begins with O, and ends with “lieb”?

“Michael Ortlieb scored three goals,” Danowski said postgame. “I have to imagine that’s going to be great for his confidence.”

But after the game went to 15-14, the well dried up. The fourth quarter became a barren wasteland, a setting akin to Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road,” with no goals to report for over ten minutes. There were feisty caused turnovers — particularly one from Beck on Kyle Colsey that prompted a roar from the crowd — and plenty of near-misses, but neither side broke through until Rhoa uncorked a vicious stepdown to extend SU’s lead to 16-14.

Then Sloat, as if he’d finally been given permission to reintroduce himself to the Dome, did so with a goal of his own, scoring Duke’s 15th with 33 seconds to play. Maguire, the way he always seems to do, wreaked havoc in the midfield by forcing a Tyler McCarthy turnover, giving Danowski’s Blue Devils one last chance at glory.

The whistle blew out of the Duke timeout. The call was an illegal screen. Syracuse, the way it always seems to do, held onto its lead to storm the Dome turf, the Orange mobbing McCool near the goal as they celebrated another ranked victory.

Battle-tested as ever.

Published on March 28, 2026 at 4:52 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO