After falling into a first-half hole, Syracuse mounted a furious second-half comeback against Albany on Saturday afternoon inside the Carrier Dome. Nick Mariano played the hero with his goal off a feed from Nate Solomon with 1.6 seconds to go.

Here are three quick takeaways from  Syracuse’s (2-0) 10-9, victory over No. 12 Albany (0-1).

Nick Mariano plays the hero

A week after posting a career day against Siena, Nick Mariano delivered for Syracuse with 1.6 seconds to go to give Syracuse what amounts to a buzzer-beating win over the Great Danes on Saturday afternoon.

After spending the day mostly shut off by preseason All-American Stone Sims, he found space cutting from right to left in front of the goal and rifled it past the right side of Albany goalkeeper JD Colarusso. Mariano’s goal saved the Orange from its second-ever program loss to the Great Danes.

Alternative options

Albany locked down Syracuse’s best scoring threats and forced the Orange to look elsewhere for its production. The Great Danes put Sims on Mariano, junior AJ Kluck shadowed Jordan Evans and sophomore Erik Dluhy shut off Nate Solomon. The trio combined for one point.

But Syracuse found lesser-known options more than capable. On five of SU’s first seven goals, it was the first point of the season for the person scoring. Defender Tyson Bomberry broke the seal for the Orange and midfielder Pat Carlin brought Syracuse back to within 6-3 just before the end of the half. Midfielder Matt Lane, who tried repeatedly to bulldoze his defender, finally spotted up with 10:42 to go in the third quarter and rifled one by Colarusso.

Freshman attack Jamie Trimboli scored his first career goal in bringing the Orange to within one at 6-5, and longstick midfielder Austin Fusco scored his second to put the Orange ahead, 7-6. But in crunch-time, Syracuse leaned on the proven veterans who came through.

Faulty first frame

Syracuse struggled mightily in the first half against Albany as the Great Danes jumped out to a 6-3 lead. Despite winning eight of 11 faceoffs and remaining about level in every other statistical category, the Orange found themselves down at the buzzer.

The Great Danes took advantage of poor rotations and attacks caught on defense in transition to score each of their first three goals. Late slides by both Andrew Helmer and Austin Fusco, rotating at longstick midfielder, were exploited when out of position.

On the other half of the field, Syracuse couldn’t get its top scoring threats going. With star Albany goalkeeper Blaze Riordan gone due to graduation, Colarusso picked up where his predecessor left off. He stonewalled Syracuse for three goals on 19 shots. Attacks Nick Mariano and Jordan Evans were pointless on six total shots. Three of the Orange’s top six offensive players had at least one turnover. Attack Nate Solomon didn’t register a shot.

But that didn’t matter. Nick Mariano made sure it didn’t.

Published on February 18, 2017 at 5:23 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR