The No.19/20 St. John’s lacrosse team participated in the first-ever Cobb County Lacrosse Classic in Georgia against instate rival No. 11/9 Syracuse as the Red Storm’s defense struggled to contain the Orangemen in 14-8 defeat on Saturday evening.
St. John’s came out and struggled in the first quarter falling behind Syracuse 8-3 after only one quarter of play. The struggles didn’t stop there; in the two middle quarters of play the Red Storm could only muster up one goal by senior attacker Colin Keegan at the 9:37 mark of the third quarter to put the score at a 12-4 Syracuse lead. The Johnnies tried to storm back into the game as they scored four goals in the last quarter but the clock didn’t allow enough time for St. John’s to come all the way back.
“We’re at the point where we’re having a hard time putting it all together. It seems like it’s a different thing that pops up every game and prevents us from playing our best,” St. John’s head coach Jason Miller said. “We were pretty good in the faceoff game today and pretty good in the goal, but I thought we were short defensively. We didn’t get the stops we needed to win the game. We’ll go back to work and try to get it right for next Saturday.”
The Red Storm’s (2-3) loss to the Orangemen (3-2) continues the program’s struggles against Syracuse as the Johnnies are now 0-8 all time versus the Orange.
Even with a tough loss St. John’s did come away from the Cobb Classic with some positives to look forward to. Junior midfielder Mario Carrera probably had his best performance this season as he went 15-for-23 on faceoff’s, forced one turnover and led the Red Storm with five groundballs. Senior attacker Kieran McArdle, the No. 5 overall pick in the MLL draft, continued to display his goal scoring prowess as he recorded a hat trick and had two assists.
In the first 10 minutes of the game it was a back and forth affair as St. John’s was only down 4-3. The last three minutes was when the Red Storm defense would begin its struggles and 4-3 would be the closest the Johnnies would get for the rest of the day as Syracuse scored four goals in the final three minutes.
Syracuse Junior attacker Kevin Rice scored a career high four goals to go along with four assists to capture his second eight-point game on the year.
St. John’s will have a chance to get back into the swing of things when they host Georgetown Saturday.
