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Syracuse’s ongoing six-game road trip didn’t get off to the best start. Losses to Harvard and Princeton brought SU tumbling from its spot as the nation’s best team to nearly out of the top 10 entirely. After going down 8-4 late in its subsequent matchup against then-No. 18 Penn, it seemed like a once-promising season was spiraling out of control for the Orange.

Questions abounded about Syracuse’s ability to win away from the JMA Wireless Dome, especially against high-level opponents. But with one shot, Michael Leo quelled those concerns entirely, capping off a thrilling overtime victory for the Orange and resurrecting their season.

SU’s road trip has treated it much more nicely as of late. The Orange secured a crucial rivalry win over then-No. 11 Johns Hopkins Saturday, and on Thursday, they braved the Colorado Springs elevation to outlast Air Force for their third straight win.

Here’s some observations from No. 8 Syracuse’s (6-2, Atlantic Coast) 17-11 triumph over Air Force (1-6, Atlantic Sun):

Surgical Spallina

The naysayers can say that Joey Spallina can’t dodge all they want. They can’t say he can’t pass, though, especially after watching Thursday’s matchup.

Spallina has been a proficient passer since he entered the collegiate game. He finished his freshman season with 32 assists, then upped it to 51 as a sophomore, then set another career-high with 55 as a junior.

This season, Spallina’s passing hasn’t been showcased as much. He’d scored 18 goals to just 14 assists in SU’s seven games entering Thursday. But his vision was on full display from the get-go against the Falcons.

The Orange’s star senior almost looked like a neurosurgeon at X on Thursday, dissecting the Air Force defense with the ease of a seventh grader carving through a frog in science class. His first slick pass set up Finn Thomson from close range, which gave the Orange an early 1-0 advantage.

Soon after, when the Falcons battled back to take a 2-1 lead, he was back at X and back at it again, finding Leo crashing toward goal with a similarly deft pass to equalize the game at 2-2. Not long after, he found Leo again with a similar setup, and the midfielder netted another tally to give the Orange a desperately-needed 3-2 advantage.

Syracuse scored four goals in the first quarter. All four of them came on Spallina assists from X. He finished the game with a season-high eight assists. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Defensive disasters

Not even five minutes into this contest, SU defensive coordinator John Odierna was yelling at the Orange during a timeout. What he said will forever remain lost to the sands of time. But the emotion he was expressing is no mystery. He was pissed.

He had every reason to be. Syracuse’s defense began the game flat-footed, and was promptly punished for it. The Falcons won the faceoff immediately after Thomson’s goal, and AJ Serna capitalized on that possession with a close-range equalizer.

Soon after, Ben Heidt got free and ripped a 15-yarder to make it 2-1 Falcons, and when Lee Krotee sprinted around Tyler McCarthy to score what appeared to be a third straight goal for Air Force, Odierna knew that something was wrong. As the referees reviewed it, he laid into his squad.

Fortunately for SU, that Krotee goal was disallowed, and Spallina answered the call by igniting its offense to reclaim the lead. But that didn’t mean things got any easier on the defensive end.

With roughly two minutes left in the first quarter, Billy Dwan III attempted to pass it up to Wyatt Hottle, but his pass flew just over the midfielder’s head. Jordan Beck couldn’t corral the ground ball, and Christian Schweiger made Dwan pay with an easy score to cut SU’s lead to 4-3.

Two more goals came from two different Falcon scorers in the second quarter, and while Syracuse had the offensive firepower it needed to match them, it entered the half up just 6-5. SU shouldn’t have let Air Force hang around in this contest, yet it did.

Find Finn

Thomson’s been on a hot streak lately, having scored multiple times in each of SU’s last four contests entering Thursday, and that didn’t change against the Falcons. When Spallina found Thomson crashing toward the goal early, the senior was unmarked and in perfect position to finish off the score.

Not even a minute in, and Syracuse was up 1-0 thanks to Thomson.

When the second quarter rolled around, he was back at it again, this time grabbing a pass from Luke Rhoa and finishing his second score on his second shot on goal. It extended SU’s lead to 5-3, and it extended Thomson’s multi-goal streak to five games.

Thomson went silent until the fourth quarter, but magically reappeared on a fastbreak assist from Leo to net his third goal. With that score, Thomson practically put the game away by pushing Syracuse’s lead to a game-high five, and he finished off his third hat trick of the season.

Matt’s doing the Deedy

While the Falcons played an impressive game overall, one Air Force player stood head and shoulders above the rest Thursday. His name is Matt Deedy.

Deedy hadn’t had a season to write home about entering Thursday. In Air Force’s first six games, he had just one game with a save percentage above 50%, against Denver in a 10-2 loss. He sported a 40.5% save rate on the year and saved just 32.3% of the shots he faced in the Falcons’ last contest, a 21-6 loss to Duke.

If your first time watching him was Thursday, no one would blame you if you found all of that mightily difficult to believe. Through the game’s first 30 minutes, he almost looked like former Maryland All-American Logan McNaney in net.

The Orange had 15 shots on goal in the first half, and he saved nine of them. He also picked up four ground balls somehow, a mark that led all Falcons through the game’s first two quarters.

He gave up quick goals to Payton Anderson and Matt McIntee to start the second half, and quickly fell back to Earth soon after. But if not for Deedy, the game could’ve gotten out of hand much sooner. He saved a season-high 12 shots against the Orange on Thursday.

Published on March 12, 2026 at 7:14 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO