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

Maybe Syracuse had to find its footing after the cross-country trip to Colorado Springs. Maybe it was the Rocky Mountain air and altitude. Maybe it was downright complacency SU possessed, thinking it could waltz to a win against an Air Force team that lost by 15 to Duke last time out.

SU head coach Gait couldn’t put his finger on it, but the Orange looked off-color Thursday.

“It’s a long trip, a lot of travel, a lot of this, a lot of that,” Gait said. “I think it was just a bit of a slow start, and we were a little sluggish. After we got through the first quarter there, we played a lot better defense. We just played a little bit better and hustled and got our legs under us, and we’re able to finish the game.”

In a game that had the makings of a blowout win, No. 8 Syracuse (6-2, Atlantic Coast) took a while to separate itself in its 17-11 triumph over Air Force (1-6, Atlantic Sun) Thursday. A 7-4 fourth-quarter Orange advantage allowed them to pull away after holding a mere one-goal halftime lead.

The main, consistent bright spot was faceoff man John Mullen, who won 16-of-23 draws (69.5%) after hovering around 50% in his last five games. Plus, Spallina recorded eight assists, while Michael Leo added five goals.

With the win in Syracuse’s pocket, you had to admit: SU had a slight malaise in Colorado Springs. It couldn’t pull away from the Falcons, losers of their previous five, until the final quarter. SU’s 12 turnovers piled up. Its defense afforded the Falcons openings and space.

The Orange’s offense, up against its first full zone defense matchup, couldn’t convert repeated open shots, Gait said. Postgame, the head coach estimated his team missed eight to 10 one-on-ones. Spallina should’ve had 12 assists instead of eight, Gait joked.

“To be honest, I don’t think guys are used to getting that wide-open shots right in front of the goal like that,” he said. “They didn’t take their time. They didn’t finish. And we turned the ball over quite a bit on one-on-ones with the goalie. So the goalie (Matt Deedy) played great. Credit to him. But in the end, we settled down and started shooting a lot better, and we finished our shots.”

The zonal Falcon defense led to 14 of the Orange’s 17 goals to be assisted, Gait said. His offense had to adjust to rely on passing the ball to unlatch the Falcon defense instead of dodging one-on-one, he added.

“It was pure ball movement,” Gait said. “So, we executed, I think, really well on the offense. Shooting got better as the game went on.”

However, the Orange found themselves in a shocking 2-1 deficit at the 11:21 mark of the first quarter. AF’s Ben Heidt got on his defender and made the Orange pay. SU averted disaster when what looked to be Air Force’s third goal was waved off because the attack stepped into the crease. Still, the Orange found themselves in trouble early.

How do you break out of that rut? Call arguably the best player in college lacrosse. Spallina operating at X was the Orange’s panacea. He set up three straight scores to build a 4-2 lead.

While SU had discovered an offensive answer, its defense was still uncharacteristically vulnerable. AF players were often quicker to react, while the Orange coughed the ball up too easily and failed to slide.

Syracuse’s scoring defense entered the game seventh in Division I, allowing just 8.14 scores per contest. AF’s scoring offense was 66th out of 75 teams nationally with 8.33 goals per game. Throw away the paper — the game’s not played on it.

What’s more, despite the Falcons sporting the third-worst scoring margin this season, they hung tight heading into the second quarter against a stentorian SU. Back-up Orange faceoff man Drew Angelo gave them some distance when he rifled a goal past goalie Deedy after a protracted 20-second battle to claim the ground ball to make it 6-4.

Even on man-up opportunities, Syracuse couldn’t capitalize. The Orange looked to have unpicked the Falcon defense, but Deedy denied a short-range Ted Rawson attempt. Then, he saved a Leo bid in tight. The result was a measly one-goal SU lead heading into halftime.

Payton Anderson only needed 55 seconds to pad the Orange’s lead out of the break to 7-5. A Matt McIntee blast soon made it 8-6. SU’s advantage surpassed two goals for the first time on the day when Bogue Hahn uncorked one halfway through the third frame to make it 9-6. Syracuse began to assert itself when Anderson broke double digits for the Orange just over 30 seconds later.

Less than a minute into the final stanza, Wyatt Hottle cranked a goal home to restore SU’s four-goal lead at 11-7. Five seconds later, Finn Thomson flamed one in. The goals had finally started flowing.

This is what the Orange are supposed to look like. This was the Orange Spallina was alluding to when they beat rival then-No. 11 Johns Hopkins convincingly Saturday.

But that idealized version of Syracuse only appeared in short doses Thursday.

Just as SU seemed to hold firm control of the game, it shipped two AF goals in the final minutes.

Yes, Syracuse responded in earnest when the game tightened and cranked into another gear in the second half. But if Syracuse is really Syracuse, it’d play ruthlessly from the first whistle, not when it’s staring down a wafer-thin halftime lead. And it’d put the game away early rather than late, like it did Thursday.

Nonetheless, all that Gait cared about was that his team won. SU still has half its regular season to sharpen itself. And it added a new — maybe incisive — tool to its toolbox in Colorado Springs. It overcame AF’s zone.

“(Air Force) came in, and they worked really hard and played hard and gave us a tough run,” Gait said postgame Thursday. “And I thought our guys ended up doing what they needed to do to get through it and then get out of here with the W. So happy for the win and ready to move on.”

Published on March 12, 2026 at 7:17 pm
Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal