For 30 seconds, Syracuse’s second-line midfielders had hinted at a goal. They circled the ball around the Colgate zone during the Feb. 7 season opener, extending sticks to earn resets and beating the Raiders to open alleys. First, Lipka fired a lefty shot wide. Then, his pass into the middle bounced around in a scramble before another SU player scooped up the ground ball.

Each pass lacked a final touch, and when the ball reached Lucas Quinn, this time on SU’s third chance of the possession, the junior midfielder flicked a shot past Raiders goalie Sam Collins — extending Syracuse’s lead to two. Quinn sprinted toward the end zone, jumped in the air and pumped his right fist at his unit’s first goal of the year.

“Our depth is pretty incredible,” Quinn said afterward.

Syracuse scored 21 goals on Collins and added 17 a week later against Binghamton, solidifying one of the most potent offenses in the country. Pat March, hired in the offseason as the new offensive coordinator, integrated an approach that starts with alley dodges and relies on Syracuse’s midfield core to initiate. Through four games, 10 of Syracuse’s 42 midfield goals have come from the second line, giving No. 1 Syracuse (4-0) two lines capable of scoring in bunches entering Saturday’s matchup against Johns Hopkins.

“Obviously the first line is tremendous and everyone knows them — being All-Americans and just big-name guys like that, guys that can score whenever they want pretty much,” Quinn said. “So being able to put us on there and produce and be more of a threat I think is great and it gives those guys a little bit of a rest.”

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Through the opening games, most of the midfield attention has been directed toward Syracuse’s top line of Jamie Trimboli, Tucker Dordevic and Brendan Curry. Each has a 5-goal game under their belt, and after last Friday’s victory over then-No. 19 Hobart, Statesmen head coach Greg Raymond called the Orange’s group the best midfield in the country.

But what’s complemented that group is the line of Lipka, Quinn and Jacob Buttermore. Last year, they patrolled the secondary grouping along with now-attack Griffin Cook and now-graduated Pat Carlin. The group scored 42 goals despite Quinn dealing with finger and groin injuries and playing in just eight games. Buttermore led with 20 and Lipka chipped in 14. The young line carried promise and an ability to complement Syracuse’s top midfield trio in 2020.

“I think that we made a conscious effort to play younger players a couple years ago,” head coach John Desko said on Jan. 7’s media day.

This season, the continuity’s combined with different drills initiated by March to create   opportunities after dodges. In one drill, a midfielder and defender split away from a cone and race toward opposite lines. The midfielder must execute in time to spin around, catch a pass and shoot before the defender returns, and hand placement is key to the quick release time. In another workout, the middies honed primary and secondary dodges by starting at different angles with the cones too, ensuring a dodge for every angle in the offensive zone is covered.

“I would say a lot of the initiation comes from us, definitely,” Quinn said. “And I think all of us middies dodge hard and dodge well.”

After Chase Scanlan notched seven goals against Colgate, defenses adjusted. A lot of times, Quinn said, opponents would compensate, forced to decide which midfielder to leave open: in the inside or on the far alley. Quinn followed up his hat trick against the Raiders with a goal against Binghamton a week later, and Buttermore found twine along with Lipka, too.

As the third quarter clock wound down against the Bearcats, the second line again patrolled the field. Buttermore set a pick and faded off toward the middle, but Quinn swung the ball behind X to Cook. He face-dodged his Bearcat defender and sprinted toward the left side, paralleling Scanlan’s rotation up top. And because it was Scanlan, Binghamton’s Teddy McLoughlin left the middle and shadowed the No. 22 too.

“It’s a strong group of middies that you have to slide to,” Colgate head coach Matt Karweck said. “If you don’t, they’re going to hammer the ball to the back corner.”

That’s exactly what Buttermore did. He sprinted into the opening created by the Binghamton slide, caught a pass from Lipka and fired a shot into the cage. With the Orange’s lead now nine, there was no need for fist pumps. Just light glove taps celebrating something that’s become normal for that line.

Published on March 4, 2020 at 10:21 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew