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Syracuse and Duke chose diverging paths in scheduling their season. Sure, they both have to play everyone in the strong but small Atlantic Coast Conference, but aside from those four games, the rest of their slate is their choice.

Syracuse opted for the second-best strength of schedule, according to Lacrosse Reference. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils opted for the third-worst among Power Four schools.

The two scheduling ideologies collided Saturday. There was no more hiding for Duke and another top-notch test for SU. What transpired was a goalfest, a breathless, prolific conference opener.

At the end of the slugfest, Syracuse stood upright. It happened on an illegal screen call when Duke had a chance to tie the game late. On the Orange’s side, Luke Rhoa, Finn Thomson and Payton Anderson all bagged hat tricks, while Joey Spallina’s six points pushed him above the 300 career points threshold and seven away from breaking Mikey Powell’s record of 307.

Here are some observations from No. 5 Syracuse’s (9-2, 1-0 ACC) 16-15 win over No. 6 Duke (8-1, 0-1 ACC) Saturday:

Scoring floodgates open

Courtesy of its cupcake schedule, Duke had the best scoring offense (17.12 goals per game) and second-best scoring defense (6.88 allowed goals per game) in Division I entering Saturday’s contest. Syracuse’s victory put a dent in both of those categories.

It started with a high-scoring first quarter. Six goals in the final five minutes of the opening quarter — four for Duke, two for SU. And it continued into the second. The Orange had their sixth goal of the contest by the 13:38 mark of the second quarter, when Spallina converted his first of the game on a curling, blistering effort.

Syracuse surpassed Duke’s average goals allowed when Anderson slotted his second shot into the bottom corner of the net, pushing SU ahead 7-6 midway through the second quarter.

The Blue Devil offense, on the other hand, was as advertised. Even against the Orange’s 10th-ranked defense, Duke had its way. Rippling shot after rippling shot fizzed past Jimmy McCool. By halftime, Syracuse had allowed its most goals in a half all season — 10. But SU had broken through nine times — one fewer than the total goals the Blue Devils had shipped in an entire game in 2026.

The goal fest continued into the third quarter, setting up a one-goal SU lead entering the final quarter. Still, the Orange hadn’t led by more than two at that point. Syracuse grabbed another two-goal cushion via Anderson, but Duke’s Max Sloat answered to trim the deficit to 15-14.

The tension turned up. McCool had a save with his cleat. Duke’s Benn Johnston’s bid clinked the post and fell out. Rhoa clattered the crossbar on the other end. Both teams went scoreless for over 10 minutes.

SU looked like it’d crossed the finish line when it went ahead 16-14 with 2:46 to go, and the clock dwindled below a minute with that score intact. But Duke wasn’t dead yet. The Blue Devils scored with 46 seconds left, then dispossessed the Orange. An illegal screen on the final Duke attack was SU’s nail in the coffin.

Pick up the ground ball!

Did anyone check if the ball was coated in a lubricant? In a lubricated ACC opener, both teams grappled to gain possession and create opportunities. Besides the gritty faceoff battle — which Syracuse won 18-16 — copious ground balls lingered on the ground, unclaimed. Both teams ended up grabbing 34 ground balls each.

The proverbial Velcro wasn’t sticking. The proverbial magnet wasn’t conducting. The physical lacrosse stick wasn’t cradling the ball.

In the waning minutes of the first half, Finn Thomson finally gathered a loose ground ball after a protracted, pugilistic fight. Syracuse’s offense could get rolling. Once SU hit its stride on that play, Thomson had the finishing touch — a delicate one at that — to redirect a Spallina X feed into the goal to level the score at 9-9.

The second half started with a prime example of what picking up a ground ball can do for your offense. Long-deputy Orange faceoff man Drew Angelo took the draw and drew first blood. It only took six seconds for Angelo to grab the ball, charge downfield and dispatch his bouncing finish into the Blue Devil net to tie the game at 10-10.

The final ground ball set Duke up with a chance to tie. It couldn’t capitalize.

Finn Thomson goals… gasp

When Finn Thomson scores, his bids are unforgettable. Amid the repeated tracer bullets and thwacking shots, Thomson opts for finesse, for a soft touch. No long wind-up in the buildup, but that doesn’t mean the goal isn’t long remembered.

In the first quarter, Anderson tossed an underhand pass to Thomson like a dad throwing a softball strike to a 7 year old. Only Anderson was threading a pass across the front of Duke’s goal in a high-level ACC lacrosse game. And Thomson didn’t swing his bat impetuously; he softly and carefully lined his lacrosse stick up to meet the cross-field pass. Then, he coolly directed the ball into the goal — 2-1 Syracuse.

Thomson was again quick in his release off the Spallina pass from X in the second quarter.

He made it look easy. It was not. So, he turned up the difficulty — and the style — in the third quarter. How about scoring without facing the goal? How about scoring with a behind-the-back amid the forest of Duke defenders? Thomson obliged. Spallina again saw him from X, and Thomson again delivered.

In one motion, Thomson received the pass and whipped his stick over his right shoulder to catch Blue Devil goalie Henry Blake off guard and hand the Orange an 11-10 lead. Those three goals will be playing over in my brain for some time after this one.

Dwan’s dawn

Syracuse defender Billy Dwan III has always been adventurous. He chose Syracuse over bitter rival Johns Hopkins, where his father, Bill, played and was a longtime coach. The youngest Dwan has never felt limited to his listed position: defender. You frequently see him maraud up the field and piledrive pole goals.

On Saturday, his flame-throwing met finesse when he opened the scoring for SU, leveling the game at 1-1. For a reason only he can explain, he was positioned near the Duke crease. Thomson wrapped around X, then dropped it off for Dwan.

The 6-foot-4 Orange’s defender tip-toed the line then snuck his shot past Patrick Jameison in net, picking out a needle-sized window in the top corner at an acute angle while staying out of the crease. Adroit. It was like balancing a balloon on a needle in a wind tunnel. What else would you expect from the audacious Dwan?

Published on March 28, 2026 at 4:46 pm
Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal