Delaware 2024

[10stone5]

Henpecked is really DeLuca

[Henpecked]

Delaware hasn’t really been tested this year with easy victories over Lafayette and St. John’s. But the season will start in earnest this Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field when they Hens face a talented Penn Quakers squad for the first time since 2000 when the Hens topped the Quakers 12-6 in Newark. While the Quakers have dominated this series which goes back to 1951, the Hens have won three of the last four meetings. The last eight meetings, going back to 1986, have been split with both teams going 4-4.

So what can we expect
The Hens scrimmaged Penn last February in a very physical match up in Philly that the Hens ended up ahead 8-5 when the starters of both teams were removed in the second half. Since that time the Hens have had to rebuild their defense while the Quakers brought back all of their very talented defensive starters. The only major loss for Penn this year was losing All-American midfielder Sam Handley (30g 25a), who was the proverbial straw that stirred the drink on offense.

As mentioned, this is a very talented returning defense that gave up just 10 goals a game last year. These guys are big athletic poles that are super aggressive, including Ethan Till (6’2” 195), Peter Blake (6’ 1’ 200lb), Brendan Levelle (6’ 210lbs) and freshman LSM Matthew Till (6’5” 210) out of the Bullis School. They also added Anthony McMullan (6’ 2” 210lb) who is an impact freshman SSDM out of The Hill School. He stood out in the Georgetown game with three caused turnovers. Backing up this solid unit is senior goalie Emmet Carroll who is coming off a 17 save performance against Albany. Carroll is a tall, rangy tender who is very strong on high shots. He has given up just 9.5 goals a game with a .596 save percentage. That is very good.

The Quakers are 1-1 after an opening 12-9 loss to Georgetown and an 11-7 win over Albany on Wednesday. This Saturday’s game against the Hens will be the third straight home game for Penn.

On offense the Quakers are led by senior attackman Ben Smith who had 27 goals and 7 assists last year. He is joined at attack by junior Tynan Walsh who has 5 goals and 2 assists this year and junior Luke DiNola (2G 2A) out of Summit NJ.

Coach Murphy runs two midfield units equally. He starts James Shipley (10g 18a last year), freshman Leo Hoffman (2G 2A) and off-ball shooter Gabe Furey, who had 10 goals last year on 49 shots (.204). Hoffman was a highly-recruited attackman out of The Brunswick school and is just getting used to the pace and competition at this level, but has a ton of talent.

The Quakers were expecting to be competitive at FOGO this year, but have not been very successful to date. Returning starter Chris Arceri who was just a touch under 50% last year apparently got hurt in the opener. As a team Penn is only winning 35% of faceoffs with Ethan Constanzo (.348) taking the majority of draws.

How the Hens can pull off this win
The Hens have to be competitive at the faceoff x. OJ Morris has been terrific so far this year covering for injured Logan Premtaj. He has a .694 winning percentage against middling competition. As mentioned earlier, Penn has apparently lost its top FOGO to injury, so I think they will go primarily with Costanzo who is at .394 so far this year. As a team they are only winning 35% so I would hope that the Hens can at least split faceoffs evenly on Saturday. It would be a bonus if they could get significantly above 50%.

The Hens offense will need to start at the midfield. I think that starting attack of PJ Ward, Mike Robinson and John McCurry will be more successful off ball rather than attempting to out-bully the Quakers bully defense. I would expect that the Hens will need Brendan Powers, Cam Acchione, Nick Jessen and Jason Kolar to win the one-on-one battles in order to free up Robinson and McCurry for off-ball opportunities. Expect to see both Powers and Jessen inverting when the matchups favor them. Penn has also been susceptible to penalties this year as a result of their aggressive defense. They have given up 3 man-down goals in 8 attempts. The Hens must make them pay for these penalties, which will definitely happen. Goals won’t come easily against this stout defense, but I believe the Hens can get to 13, which could be enough to win.

Hens will need goalie Kevin Ellington (.657 save percentage) to continue his hot start. He will have a lot of help from the Hens physical defense that has yielded just six goals a game (albeit against less-than-stellar competition). Should be a fun game. I am going to watch from home. Too cold at Franklin Field this time of year.

[xxxxxxx]

All the Ivys are playing with rosters that are significantly older than the rest of college lacrosse, that will end after this season. I give Penn credit for playing a legit tough schedule every year and they are well coached. I am also tired of all the Ivy love for the last few years and maybe its pure jealously but I hope the gritty Hens pound them by 10.

[10stone5]

Leo Hoffman looks like he is back from what looked like a pretty bad injury, if he is completely back, he's a true top 10 or so freshman talent.
Emmet Carroll can get hot, streaky high double digit in saves performances.
Personally, I think Robinson is going to light them up, I don't know that the Quakers have that stopper, go-to defenseman this year.

[MDlaxfan76]

All the Ivys are playing with rosters that are significantly older than the rest of college lacrosse, that will end after this season. I give Penn credit for playing a legit tough schedule every year and they are well coached. I am also tired of all the Ivy love for the last few years and maybe its pure jealously but I hope the gritty Hens pound them by 10.

How do you figure that the Ivies have older than average rosters?
Whole lot of Ivy players who had 5th years graduated and are doing grad years elsewhere if still playing.

If you follow Ivy threads you'd hear the exact opposite of your supposition that they have older rosters than the top competition. They all have among the youngest rosters this year.

And, if I'm not mistaken, Penn has no fifth year players this year...Delaware has 7...

But the rest of your hope for the gritty Delaware team is perfectly reasonable. I don't think anyone is projecting Penn at the top of the Ivies this year, but they should give Delaware a good contest nevertheless. Of course, it's February and few teams are really at their best just yet.

[xxxxxxx]

All the Ivys are playing with rosters that are significantly older than the rest of college lacrosse, that will end after this season. I give Penn credit for playing a legit tough schedule every year and they are well coached. I am also tired of all the Ivy love for the last few years and maybe its pure jealously but I hope the gritty Hens pound them by 10.

How do you figure that the Ivies have older than average rosters?
Whole lot of Ivy players who had 5th years graduated and are doing grad years elsewhere if still playing.

If you follow Ivy threads you'd hear the exact opposite of your supposition that they have older rosters than the top competition. They all have among the youngest rosters this year.

And, if I'm not mistaken, Penn has no fifth year players this year...Delaware has 7...

But the rest of your hope for the gritty Delaware team is perfectly reasonable. I don't think anyone is projecting Penn at the top of the Ivies this year, but they should give Delaware a good contest nevertheless. Of course, it's February and few teams are really at their best just yet.

I believe that this is the final year of eligibility for the guys that withdrew for two years, and honestly I have no problem with them. I would have done the same thing, shame on the Ivy admins who sat them out that second year. Many fourth year players at the Ivys graduated high school in 2018 so they are now 23 or 24 knowing many did a PG. These are old teams, not sure what the Ivy threads are saying.

[MDlaxfan76]

All the Ivys are playing with rosters that are significantly older than the rest of college lacrosse, that will end after this season. I give Penn credit for playing a legit tough schedule every year and they are well coached. I am also tired of all the Ivy love for the last few years and maybe its pure jealously but I hope the gritty Hens pound them by 10.

How do you figure that the Ivies have older than average rosters?
Whole lot of Ivy players who had 5th years graduated and are doing grad years elsewhere if still playing.

If you follow Ivy threads you'd hear the exact opposite of your supposition that they have older rosters than the top competition. They all have among the youngest rosters this year.

And, if I'm not mistaken, Penn has no fifth year players this year...Delaware has 7...

But the rest of your hope for the gritty Delaware team is perfectly reasonable. I don't think anyone is projecting Penn at the top of the Ivies this year, but they should give Delaware a good contest nevertheless. Of course, it's February and few teams are really at their best just yet.

I believe that this is the final year of eligibility for the guys that withdrew for two years, and honestly I have no problem with them. I would have done the same thing, shame on the Ivy admins who sat them out that second year. Many fourth year players at the Ivys graduated high school in 2018 so they are now 23 or 24 knowing many did a PG. These are old teams, not sure what the Ivy threads are saying.

Many? For instance?

Are there a bunch on Penn’s team?
I haven’t done that analysis yet, but I will if you haven’t.
You may be correct.

Your issue with Ivy decision to not play that year is another matter, IMO, separate argument than this one that something is unfair to, say, Delaware.

I did a cursory check of Penn's 14 'seniors' and found 2 who are older based on HS class. Makes sense as a typical Ivy class is 10-12, usually 9-11 recruits with slots, plus walk-ons.

Delaware has 13 seniors and 7 graduate students, including transfers.
So, I don't think Delaware is at an 'age' disadvantage at this point.

[xxxxxxx]

I can’t make this any clearer many Ivy seniors graduated high school in 2018 it is 2024, they withdrew from school for two years and I have no problem with it. This however make the Ivys old teams, it’s simple math. No I am not going to count them but it is plenty. I’ll give you an example Matt Brandau at Yale graduated high school in 2018 assuming he was 18 he is now 24. It’s ok with me they got screwed by their administrations, but these teams are old.

[Mr3Putt]

Syracuse- UD . Will there be a television feed? Game is being played in Virginia at a HS ( I think) . I’m looking at the SU schedule and only see a radio feed. Should be a good atmosphere- up close. I played in the Day Of Champions at Manhasset Hs vs Syracuse. Good experience.

[MDlaxfan76]

I can’t make this any clearer many Ivy seniors graduated high school in 2018 it is 2024, they withdrew from school for two years and I have no problem with it. This however make the Ivys old teams, it’s simple math. No I am not going to count them but it is plenty. I’ll give you an example Matt Brandau at Yale graduated high school in 2018 assuming he was 18 he is now 24. It’s ok with me they got screwed by their administrations, but these teams are old.

I counted 2 such at Penn, looking at each senior’s high school class. Many, indeed most, of those classes graduated and if they continued playing they did so or are currently doing so elsewhere. A minority play their last year of eligibility at the Ivy, but you are correct that a few do. But not many took a full two years off from school, so eventually graduated before using all eligibility.

My point is simply that Delawares raft of grad students and senior class is a larger set of older players than Penn. I would not call that a material advantage. That said I think Delaware is likely to beat Penn this year…could be a good game.

[Henpecked]

Tomorrow the Delaware Blue Hens meet up with the Michigan Wolverines for the 7th time. UD and the Big Blue have split the first six matchups with the cumulative score adding up to 66-69 in favor of Michigan. In last year’s game the Hens had all the momentum early and looked upstoppable with a 9-4 lead with just over two minutes left in the first half. The stadium was going crazy. Unfortunately, Michigan’s Nick Rowlett won a faceoff and went straight to the goal to make it 9-5. The Hens then lost the ball in their offensive zone with 10 seconds left in the half, and after a timeout, Peter Thompson took the ball coast-to-coast and scored with less than a second left on the clock. Momentum gone.

Last year was a wasted opportunity for the Hens losing 16-12 after edging out the Wolverines in nearly every stat (shots 44-38, turnovers 13-14, clears 16-17 vs 16-18, ground balls 30-26) but were slightly beaten on faceoffs 16-13 and most importantly saves 12 to just 7 (admittedly a tough game for Matt Kilkeary). Important to note, the Hens played without an injured Mike Robinson in last year’s matchup.

This year the Hens will be facing a very different Wolverine squad that returns a lot of familiar faces like Michael Boehm (45g 28a last year) on attack, Bo Lockwood, Ryan Cohen (on midfield this year vs attack when he had 27g 30a), middie Aiden Mulholland, defensemen Kees Van Wees, Jack Whitney and both Hunter Taylor and Shane Carr in goal. Additionally, the Wolverines have bolstered the defending Big10 Championship squad with some impactful grad transfers from Princeton, Lehigh and Bucknell. The three Princeton transfers are all-IVY SSDM, Beau Pederson, Christian Ronda (middie) who had 21 goals 11 assists last year and ball-hawking LSM Cathal Roberts. The Lehigh transfer is 6’2” off-ball attackman Justin Tiernan who scored 46 goals last year and has 22 goals in just five games this year. The Bucknell transfer is close defenseman Andrew Stanzel who had 27 caused turnovers last year along with 35GBs. This team is LOADED with talent.

What the Hens will need to do to win
First, the Hens will need to contain the Wolverines prolific attack unit especially since they will most likely, get killed on faceoffs with Justin Wietfeldt (.634 winning percentage) taking the majority of draws. Boehm is the guy who really makes the offense flow though. He can beat a defender one-on-one from x and is equally talented at finding teammates open on the crease. This year, that open guy has been Tiernan who is deadly from inside 10 yards. I am sure that Tate Wasson will have his hands full with Boehm. Bo Lockwood is also very talented from behind the net. He is more dangerous as a feeder than a shooter but is very quick and shifty. It would not surprise me to see DeLuca handle Lockwood with a short stick (Aiden Fritz) and ensure that middies Cohen and Ronda are always covered with a pole.

Last week the Hens were a little sloppy with slides and coverage inside. If that happens this week, the game could get ugly in a hurry.

Also, the Hens will need to watch Cohen coming out of the box at midfield. He terrorized Jacksonville earlier this week with this tactic. Cohen is super quick and the Hens should pick him up immediately when he subs on. They need to put a body on him before he gets inside of 15 yards. Guy is deadly from the wing.

Offensively, Delaware will need to do what they always do so well. The Hens have a ton of speed and quickness at midfield. They need to beat the Michigan defenders up top and get the defense spinning. They need to look for fast break opportunities and avoid too many extended one-on-ones. The Wolverines have a senior-laden defense that hunts balls. Grad transfers Roberts (10CTs) and Stanzel, in particular, put a ton of pressure on offenses. Hens should share the ball and look for the best matchups, like they did last week (got a little unlucky with Penn’s insanely hot goalie). Michigan has an over-zealous defense that has only faced one team with a great offense this year (Virginia) and got lit up for 19 goals. I am clearly not comparing the Hens to Virginia, but if UD moves the ball quickly and limits turnovers, there is no reason they can’t get to 13-14 goals. The defense will need to play nearly perfect to win this game, but it should be fun.

Another thing to note, it is going to be raining tomorrow. The Hens have been awesome in the rain over the last couple of years. Hopefully, this trend continues. I will be there in head-to-toe Gore-tex. Can’t wait.

[GaitsRightHand]

Tomorrow the Delaware Blue Hens meet up with the Michigan Wolverines for the 7th time. UD and the Big Blue have split the first six matchups with the cumulative score adding up to 66-69 in favor of Michigan. In last year’s game the Hens had all the momentum early and looked upstoppable with a 9-4 lead with just over two minutes left in the first half. The stadium was going crazy. Unfortunately, Michigan’s Nick Rowlett won a faceoff and went straight to the goal to make it 9-5. The Hens then lost the ball in their offensive zone with 10 seconds left in the half, and after a timeout, Peter Thompson took the ball coast-to-coast and scored with less than a second left on the clock. Momentum gone.

Last year was a wasted opportunity for the Hens losing 16-12 after edging out the Wolverines in nearly every stat (shots 44-38, turnovers 13-14, clears 16-17 vs 16-18, ground balls 30-26) but were slightly beaten on faceoffs 16-13 and most importantly saves 12 to just 7 (admittedly a tough game for Matt Kilkeary). Important to note, the Hens played without an injured Mike Robinson in last year’s matchup.

This year the Hens will be facing a very different Wolverine squad that returns a lot of familiar faces like Michael Boehm (45g 28a last year) on attack, Bo Lockwood, Ryan Cohen (on midfield this year vs attack when he had 27g 30a), middie Aiden Mulholland, defensemen Kees Van Wees, Jack Whitney and both Hunter Tayler and Shane Carr in goal. Additionally, the Wolverines have bolstered the defending Big10 Championship squad with some impactful grad transfers from Princeton, Lehigh and Bucknell. The three Princeton transfers are all-IVY SSDM, Beau Pederson, Christian Ronda (middie) who had 21 goals 11 assists last year and ball-hawking LSM Cathal Roberts. The Lehigh transfer is 6’2” off-ball attackman Justin Tiernan who scored 46 goals last year and has 22 goals in just five games this year. The Bucknell transfer is close defenseman Andrew Stanzel who had 27 caused turnovers last year along with 35GBs. This team is LOADED with talent.

What the Hens will need to do to win
First, the Hens will need to contain the Wolverines prolific attack unit especially since they will most likely, get killed on faceoffs with Justin Wietfeldt (.634 winning percentage) taking the majority of draws. Boehm is the guy who really makes the offense flow though. He can beat a defender one-on-one from x and is equally talented at finding teammates open on the crease. This year, that open guy has been Tiernan who is deadly from inside 10 yards. I am sure that Tate Wasson will have his hands full with Boehm. Bo Lockwood is also very talented from behind the net. He is more dangerous as a feeder than a shooter but is very quick and shifty. It would not surprise me to see DeLuca handle Lockwood with a short stick (Aiden Fritz) and ensure that middies Cohen and Ronda are always covered with a pole.

Last week the Hens were a little sloppy with slides and coverage inside. If that happens this week, the game could get ugly in a hurry.

Also, the Hens will need to watch Cohen coming out of the box at midfield. He terrorized Jacksonville earlier this week with this tactic. Cohen is super quick and the Hens should pick him up immediately when he subs on. They need to put a body on him before he gets inside of 15 yards. Guy is deadly from the wing.

Offensively, Delaware will need to do what they always do so well. The Hens have a ton of speed and quickness at midfield. They need to beat the Michigan defenders up top and get the defense spinning. They need to look for fast break opportunities and avoid too many extended one-on-ones. The Wolverines have a senior-laden defense that hunts balls. Grad transfers Roberts (10CTs) and Stanzel, in particular, put a ton of pressure on offenses. Hens should share the ball and look for the best matchups, like they did last week (got a little unlucky with Penn’s insanely hot goalie). Michigan has an over-zealous defense that has only faced one team with a great offense this year (Virginia) and got lit up for 19 goals. I am clearly not comparing the Hens to Virginia, but if UD moves the ball quickly and limits turnovers, there is no reason they can’t get to 13-14 goals. The defense will need to play nearly perfect to win this game, but it should be fun.

Another thing to note, it is going to be raining tomorrow. The Hens have been awesome in the rain over the last couple of years. Hopefully, this trend continues. I will be there in head-to-toe Gore-tex. Can’t wait.

IL need's to hire you. GREAT write-up. Gonna be a good game.

[Henpecked]

This Saturday Delaware heads up the Jersey Shore to play Monmouth University (3-2) for the seventh time. The Hens are 6-0 versus the Hawks all-time with the UD outscoring Monmouth 46-14 in the last three outings.

Monmouth brings a 3-2 record to Saturday’s match-up with wins over 0-6 Mt. St. Mary’s, 0-5 Wagner and LIU. The Hawks two losses were against NJ brethren Princeton and NJIT by scores 15-5 and 14-13 respectively. Monmouth is led by freshman attackman Brendan Dundas who has 11 goals and 4 assists as the quarterback of this offense. However, as a QB he does not pose much of a one-on-one threat from X. In the three games I have seen, he has been manhandled by the much more physical defenders and turned the ball over a bunch (14 TOs). The other two attackman, grad student Connor Macrae and sophomore transfer from Marquette, Connor Gorman, both have 10 goals and 5 assists. Gorman is a big lanky lefty who will try to get to the center of the field to get off a shot at all costs. He tends to force things a little bit and is also prone to a lot of turnovers for an off-ball player.

The Hawks midfield is led by Luke Cole (6g 3a), Sean Ketchen (4g 4a) and Jake Schneider (3g 4a). I am not sure if he is injured but Monmouth is missing sophomore sharpshooter Ty Cafferelli (6 goals) the last two games. He led Monmouth in scoring last year with 31 goals as a freshman. If he is back he will make a difference at midfield.

The Hawks defense gives up just 11.4 goals a game and is led by some really athletic poles. Sophomore Miles Edminston (5’ 10” 155lbs) will probably match up with Mike Robinson on the lefty wing and beefy Denver transfer Gabe Bowen-Slott (6’2” 225lbs) will try to contain JP Ward. I think the Hens will have a pretty good advantage in these matchups. If they try to double team either attackman Delaware should have a field day shooting inside. The Hawks defense was terrible on slides against Princeton and most recently Mt. St. Mary’s. The shots will be there, they just need to make them when they are open. The Hens are playing without two top midfielders (Cam Acchione and Drew Lenkaitis), and are relying on young players to step in. In the past couple of weeks I have seen great progress from these guys, but at times they have rushed shots or swatted at GBs on the crease rather than making the play. Delaware’s shooting % aside from Robinson (.375) and Ward (.357) has been abysmal. The remaining four starters are shooting .211, .167, .176 and .107. They will need to improve their shooting if the Hens want to win the CAA. The good news is that none of these guys are forcing shots. They are just missing them. Lots of rushed shots in my opinion. These guys need to slow the game down a little bit in order to be successful inside. And inside is where Monmouth is most vulnerable.

Monmouth has a really nice lefty goalie in Tommy Heller, a grad transfer from Albany, whose save percentage is .517. Heller looked terrific in games against Princeton and LIU when he had 18 and 16 saves respectively. Lefties can be tricky sometimes, but the Hens should be able to get off 32-40 shots on Saturday. Make half of them and it’s a great day. Should be fun and rainy.

[westlax]

Curious how you think Delaware did against Monmouth. It was a closer game in the first half than I expected. Robinson took some wild shots and JP Ward seemed frustrated.

[Henpecked]

Curious how you think Delaware did against Monmouth. It was a closer game in the first half than I expected. Robinson took some wild shots and JP Ward seemed frustrated.

Aside from the Hens turning the ball over on each of its first 5 possessions, the game went exactly like I thought it would.
Monmouth sent double teams at Ward And Robinson before they even beat their man. That left the field wide open for middies to shoot in open space. It also left John McCurry covered by a short stick. It was not an accident that he scored 5 goals on 10 shots. I thought the Hens would easily get off 35-40 shots. As it turned out the got off 45, 24 on goal.

The only real surprise was that Logan Premtaj and Jason Kolar were not dressed for the game. Well, that and Oj Morris going 15-15 on faceoffs in the first half. The Vegas line for this game was Delaware -9.5 goals. So the final score was no real surprise either. 16-7.

Gonna have to play a LOT better to be competitive with Syracuse Saturday. Hopefully, Kolar is back. The freshman are improving every week. Keep an eye on Louie Atkinson at Close defense and Tyler Owings on the second midfield. They’re going to be incredible by the end of the year.

[westlax]

Delaware won at least 97% of the face offs. That an enormous advantage. It is unlikely that they will have that advantage again. The Monmouth defense was good, especially given that they literally had no rest. JP Ward was nearly erased. Delaware kept their starting attack in the game despite a near 10 goal lead in the game trying to get their boys stats.

[Henpecked]

Delaware won at least 97% of the face offs. That an enormous advantage. It is unlikely that they will have that advantage again. The Monmouth defense was good, especially given that they literally had no rest. JP Ward was nearly erased. Delaware kept their starting attack in the game despite a near 10 goal lead in the game trying to get their boys stats.

I agree with everything you said. Monmouth is awesome. With a little more rest they should win the CAA this year.

[Henpecked]

History
This Saturday afternoon Hen’s sophomore Brendan Powers will head down to Chantilly Virginia to avenge the back-to-back losses that his dad Randy suffered at the hands of his hometown Syracuse Orangemen in 1985 and 1986. Syracuse’s Tim Nelson, Brad Kotz, Todd Curry and Co. beat the Hens in back-to-back years by scores of 12-6 and 14-8 during all-American Randy Powers (West Genessee HS) last two years at Delaware. The 1985 version of the Hens was no joke either. They were coming off an NCAA quarterfinal loss to Hopkins in 1984 and lost the opener to Syracuse before beating Duke and running off four straight wins against Maryland, Bucknell, Princeton and Drexel to end the season just outside the NCAA tourney. The 1986 team was loaded too, and ended the season winning 10 of its last 12 games over UMBC, Hofstra, Duke, Lehigh, Lafayette, Penn, Towson State, Bucknell, Princeton and Drexel. And most of those games were blowouts. Yet the Hens were left out of the tourney, again. Still stings to this day.

What to look for if you haven’t seen Syracuse this year (I imagine that is a small population)
The 2024 Hens will have their hands full trying to contain the 2024 version of Syracuse. The 6-2 Orange squad is LOADED with talent on both sides of the field. It all starts with super-soph Joey Spallina at attack. He often gets criticized for his flashy style of play, but there is no denying his immense talent, scoring 23 goals and dishing out 29 assists (6.4 points a game – 2nd in NCAA) on 37% shooting. Spallina is joined at attack by lefty sniper Owen Hiltz (15g, 12a – 33% shooting) and Lehigh transfer Christian Mule (16g 9a - 41% shooting). The Orange also have crazy talent at midfield where coach Gait can confidently trot out two lines that include Michael Leo (14g 3a – 33%), Luke Rhoa (10 goals – 28%), Finn Thompson (8g 8a), Jackson Birtwistle (8 goals) and Princeton transfers Jake Stevens (8g 3a) and Sam English (9g 1a). LOADED.

So the offense is virtually unstoppable scoring 16.25 goals a game. What could possibly make this tougher on the Hens? Well, Cuse has two FOGOs that win a boatload of faceoffs. Tufts transfer Mason Kohn wins 65% of the draws but also presents a quick-strike offensive threat with 4 goals and 5 assists through eight games. His backup is beastly freshman John Mullen who has won 43-66 draws (.652).

Finally, Syracuse has a very strong defense that is anchored by a mostly-hot transfer goalie Will Mark who has a 52% save percentage. While those stats don’t look crazy good, he seems to make the big saves during the big moments in a game. He has had two sub-par games this year against Maryland (41% in OT loss) and Army (44% in OT loss). Syracuse defense gives up just 10 goals a game and is helped by ball-hunting defenders like Saam Olexo (6 CTs), Carter Rice (7 CTs), Billy Dwan (5 CTs) and Riley Figueras (8 CTs).

What the Hens need to do to stay competitive
I would imagine that Coach DeLuca will want to be very deliberate on offense with the possession disadvantage that they will most likely be facing. I am not sure that this is a good idea. In the last couple of weeks the Hens were better when they played fast and loose on offense. When they played conservatively with a lead against Michigan, Penn and Monmouth they drained the shot clock and almost never got the shot that they were looking for before dumping the ball into the corner. That is the conundrum that they will face against Syracuse. Do you play fast and hope to outscore this prolific offense, or do you try to control the clock and hope that you can win 40%+ of faceoffs and have your goalie makes 18-20 saves? Kevin Ellington has been terrific in goal (.566 save % and just 8.76 goals a game), but to ask him to stand on his head against such a great passing and shooting offense is asking a bit too much. If the Hens hold Syracuse to 13 goals they have a chance. Anything more than that, they are dead in the water.

So how do the Hens get to 14 goals
While the Syracuse defense is super-athletic, they are not always the most patient nor disciplined defense. If Delaware can keep the ball moving quickly and avoid turnovers they will find open players from over-zealous slides and double teams. Some of the Cuse defenders are not super-fast either. Against Maryland, the Terps Braden Erksa and Jack Koras used their elite speed to win the one-on-one battles at GLE and up top that caused some indecision on the part of Cuse D on whether to slide or not. Delaware has some nice speed dodgers that could invert and cause similar mayhem. Not saying it is going to happen, but that is probably the only way that Delaware can get into double digits on the scoreboard.

The game will be broadcast on FloSports at 2PM. I am hoping for a competitive game, but the Hens will need to play an almost perfect game for that to happen. Win +40% of the faceoffs, be nearly perfect on clears, limit turnovers to 14 (Hens avg), get off at least 40 shots, shoot over 35% as a team and make 15-20 saves. That is asking a lot, but you can always hope. Should be fun. AVENGE THE 80’s LOSSES!

[10stone5]

HP,

Syracuse Orangemen in 1985 and 1986. Syracuse’s Tim Nelson, Brad Kotz, Todd Curry and Co. beat the Hens in back-to-back years by scores of 12-6 and 14-8 during all-American Randy Powers (West Genessee) …

Great teams,
Tom Korrie, the late great John Zulberti from West Genny also,
Kotz is hard to forget - played with a no-pocket STX plastic head, wooden shaft.

Will Mark, I've mentioned before - was a bench player on this team (although his Syracuse bio says he'd already moved on to Proctor Academy, the better story line is, he sat at Monte Vista that season),
https://www.maxpreps.com/ca/danville/mo ... 16/roster/

Easily, one of the best players to come out of NorCal.

[OldOrange]

History
This Saturday afternoon Hen’s sophomore Brendan Powers will head down to Chantilly Virginia to avenge the back-to-back losses that his dad Randy suffered at the hands of his hometown Syracuse Orangemen in 1985 and 1986. Syracuse’s Tim Nelson, Brad Kotz, Todd Curry and Co. beat the Hens in back-to-back years by scores of 12-6 and 14-8 during all-American Randy Powers (West Genessee HS) last two years at Delaware. The 1985 version of the Hens was no joke either. They were coming off an NCAA quarterfinal loss to Hopkins in 1984 and lost the opener to Syracuse before beating Duke and running off four straight wins against Maryland, Bucknell, Princeton and Drexel to end the season just outside the NCAA tourney. The 1986 team was loaded too, and ended the season winning 10 of its last 12 games over UMBC, Hofstra, Duke, Lehigh, Lafayette, Penn, Towson State, Bucknell, Princeton and Drexel. And most of those games were blowouts. Yet the Hens were left out of the tourney, again. Still stings to this day.

What to look for if you haven’t seen Syracuse this year (I imagine that is a small population)
The 2024 Hens will have their hands full trying to contain the 2024 version of Syracuse. The 6-2 Orange squad is LOADED with talent on both sides of the field. It all starts with super-soph Joey Spallina at attack. He often gets criticized for his flashy style of play, but there is no denying his immense talent, scoring 23 goals and dishing out 29 assists (6.4 points a game – 2nd in NCAA) on 37% shooting. Spallina is joined at attack by lefty sniper Owen Hiltz (15g, 12a – 33% shooting) and Lehigh transfer Christian Mule (16g 9a - 41% shooting). The Orange also have crazy talent at midfield where coach Gait can confidently trot out two lines that include Michael Leo (14g 3a – 33%), Luke Rhoa (10 goals – 28%), Finn Thompson (8g 8a), Jackson Birtwistle (8 goals) and Princeton transfers Jake Stevens (8g 3a) and Sam English (9g 1a). LOADED.

So the offense is virtually unstoppable scoring 16.25 goals a game. What could possibly make this tougher on the Hens? Well, Cuse has two FOGOs that win a boatload of faceoffs. Tufts transfer Mason Kohn wins 65% of the draws but also presents a quick-strike offensive threat with 4 goals and 5 assists through eight games. His backup is beastly freshman John Mullen who has won 43-66 draws (.652).

Finally, Syracuse has a very strong defense that is anchored by a mostly-hot transfer goalie Will Mark who has a 52% save percentage. While those stats don’t look crazy good, he seems to make the big saves during the big moments in a game. He has had two sub-par games this year against Maryland (41% in OT loss) and Army (44% in OT loss). Syracuse defense gives up just 10 goals a game and is helped by ball-hunting defenders like Saam Olexo (6 CTs), Carter Rice (7 CTs), Billy Dwan (5 CTs) and Riley Figueras (8 CTs).

What the Hens need to do to stay competitive
I would imagine that Coach DeLuca will want to be very deliberate on offense with the possession disadvantage that they will most likely be facing. I am not sure that this is a good idea. In the last couple of weeks the Hens were better when they played fast and loose on offense. When they played conservatively with a lead against Michigan, Penn and Monmouth they drained the shot clock and almost never got the shot that they were looking for before dumping the ball into the corner. That is the conundrum that they will face against Syracuse. Do you play fast and hope to outscore this prolific offense, or do you try to control the clock and hope that you can win 40%+ of faceoffs and have your goalie makes 18-20 saves? Kevin Ellington has been terrific in goal (.566 save % and just 8.76 goals a game), but to ask him to stand on his head against such a great passing and shooting offense is asking a bit too much. If the Hens hold Syracuse to 13 goals they have a chance. Anything more than that, they are dead in the water.

So how do the Hens get to 14 goals
While the Syracuse defense is super-athletic, they are not always the most patient nor disciplined defense. If Delaware can keep the ball moving quickly and avoid turnovers they will find open players from over-zealous slides and double teams. Some of the Cuse defenders are not super-fast either. Against Maryland, the Terps Braden Erksa and Jack Koras used their elite speed to win the one-on-one battles at GLE and up top that caused some indecision on the part of Cuse D on whether to slide or not. Delaware has some nice speed dodgers that could invert and cause similar mayhem. Not saying it is going to happen, but that is probably the only way that Delaware can get into double digits on the scoreboard.

The game will be broadcast on FloSports at 2PM. I am hoping for a competitive game, but the Hens will need to play an almost perfect game for that to happen. Win +40% of the faceoffs, be nearly perfect on clears, limit turnovers to 14 (Hens avg), get off at least 40 shots, shoot over 35% as a team and make 15-20 saves. That is asking a lot, but you can always hope. Should be fun. AVENGE THE 80’s LOSSES!

Henpecked, great write up! Syracuse's defense is a work in progress, they are playing better but it's the first year with a new DC and it shows. They start a redshirt freshman in Figueras, a sophomore in Dwan, and the third spot has been split between 2 players. LSM is a strength with Olexo and Wright. Also, Coach Deluca has experience coaching against the Orange as HC of Cornell and as an assistant with Duke. Hoping for a great game.