Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Ahh, it’s good to be back Dome.

Syracuse’s six-game road trip revealed a lot about the Orange. At its inception, SU was on top of the lacrosse world, riding hot after an emphatic home victory over then-No. 1 Maryland. Two games in, and fans were ready to issue a referendum on the team’s ability to compete outside of the JMA Wireless Dome.

Now at its conclusion, Syracuse somehow falls somewhere in between. No one would mistake the Orange for the best team in the nation at this juncture, but they’ve defeated four teams — three ranked ones — in a row, and enter the Dome Sunday with a whole lot of momentum heading into the home stretch of their season.

The next step for SU? Continuing that hot streak Sunday against No. 13 Georgetown. It didn’t seem like it would be able to do so initially, quickly going down 3-1, but the Orange took full control in the second quarter and held onto their lead from that point on, securing a crucial top-15 victory over the Hoyas.

Here’s some observations from No. 8 Syracuse’s (8-2, Atlantic Coast) 18-12 win against No. 13 Georgetown (3-4, Big East):

Ya like it low?

Perhaps SU saw something on tape while watching Anderson Moore’s previous matches. Moore, the junior Hoyas shotstopper, entered Sunday with a strong 53.3% save rate, but maybe the Orange saw a weakness in his game they could exploit.

That’s about the only conceivable reason Syracuse was so insistent on firing off low shot after low shot on Moore Sunday.

Its first shot of the game came from Luke Rhoa, a low bullet from roughly 15 yards out Moore had little trouble dispatching. The next shot came from Billy Dwan III, screaming in from defense, and it was placed in a similar spot for Moore to save.

It took the Orange four shots to have one sneak through Moore’s grasp, and that one — a 10-yarder from Matt McIntee — was also in the lower half of the goal. It was a common trend throughout the day.

The next goal from Wyatt Hottle made it a 3-2 game. It was aimed directly at the lower half of the net as well. When Greg Elijah-Brown tied the contest by finishing a man-up opportunity, he did so by aiming his close-range try straight at the ground. SU’s first six goals were all aimed at the lower half of the net, and Syracuse continued to attack the area as its lead swelled later in the game.

Whatever the reason, it surely worked. Maybe the Orange know what they’re doing.

Rory Connor disappearing act

Death, taxes and Rory Connor hat tricks.

The Hoyas marauder has become one of the best goal scorers in collegiate lacrosse. Every week, Connor is doing Connor things, putting up obscene six-goal performances against ranked opponents. Whether it’s a Hoyas loss or a win, the one constant is No. 11 will always get his tallies, no matter who the opposition is.

Syracuse changed that. He might have scored four against No. 1 Notre Dame — featuring All-American defender Shawn Lyght — and he might have scored six against No. 2 Richmond, but it was the big, bad Orange defense that did the unthinkable: hold Connor without a hat trick.

A lot of it was due to Jimmy McCool, in all fairness. The Orange goalie saved 17 of the 29 shots on goal he faced, good for an impressive 58.6% save rate on the day. Some of it was due to pure luck, too, as Connor fired an easy finish off the post early in the game.

But it’s also impossible to ignore the work SU’s defense did to limit him. Riley Figueiras was on Connor for most of the game, and he made life miserable for the fifth-year senior whenever he had the ball. Figueiras finished the day with four ground balls, two caused turnovers and held Connor to a season-low two goals.

It’s simple. He makes attacks disappear. No surprise Connor couldn’t change that.

Anderson off the bench

Syracuse had settled into a nice groove with its starting lineups recently. Tyler McCarthy, after starting SU’s first five games, moved into a shortstick defensive midfield role off the bench to help shore up the unit. In his stead, Hottle and Payton Anderson joined Rhoa in the midfield.

It was that midfield unit that got the Orange going in their 13-12 win over then-No. 13 Denver, and Anderson scored two of those goals in that victory.

So, when Gary Gait released a pregame lineup that featured McCarthy in place of Anderson — who had started each of his seven appearances this season — it was a curious change. Anderson didn’t appear in the first quarter, but evidently, he was perfectly fine.

Because once he got in the second quarter, he looked utterly unstoppable. He started by dodging around James Carroll and firing an eight-yarder — also low, funnily enough — past Moore to extend SU’s lead to 5-3. His next goal was similar, as he sauntered around the wing and fired off a high try to put the Orange up 10-4.

Dome Mullen

Everyone knows Hoodie Melo, the mythical character introduced when Carmelo Anthony donned a hooded sweatshirt to his 2017 Media Day, representing his “locked-in” mentality heading into the season. Let’s introduce a new mythical character into the lexicon of the lacrosse world. His name is “Dome Mullen.”

It’s no secret John Mullen is a different player outside of the Dome than he is within it. For whatever reason, the climate-controlled comforts of Syracuse’s stadium make it much easier for him to dominate his opponent at will.

He struggled occasionally during SU’s road trip, especially in its losses to Harvard and Princeton, as well as its win over Penn. But once he returned to the Dome, he looked like the dominant Mullen of old.

Hence the name, “Dome Mullen.” Syracuse’s star faceoff man won 11 of the 17 faceoffs he took in the first half of Sunday’s matchup, and he finished the afternoon 16-of-28 on the day. Every time the Orange scored in that second frame, it seemed Mullen was winning a faceoff against Hayden Cody with impunity.

His performance allowed Syracuse to comfortably play make-it-take-it in that pivotal eight-goal second quarter. Though he tailed off slightly late, that’s all SU needed.

Published on March 22, 2026 at 3:26 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO