Sunday’s game was going about as poorly as possible for the Syracuse Orange. Down 8-2 at half, they faced boos from their own home crowd. After trading goals with Harvard throughout the third quarter, they still found themselves trailing by several goals.
With 10:13 left in the fourth quarter, with the score 11-7 for the Crimson, Syracuse got a gift: a one-minute, non-releasable power play. Trey Deere scored right away to cut the lead to 11-8. Then long-stick midfielder Chuck Kuczynski scored off the ensuing faceoff. Then Johnny Mullen won the next faceoff, Syracuse called a timeout, and Deere scored again.
One one power play, the Orange had nearly erased the 4-goal deficit and were improbably back in the game.
Later that quarter, Michael Leo scored an incredible goal on yet another power play, giving the Orange 4 power-play goals in the fourth quarter. They won in Overtime to complete the comeback and keep their season alive.
Now up to seventh nationally in man-up percentage, the Orange have scored the third most goals with the man advantage in the country. They have been hot recently, with 4 goals against Harvard, 2 against Notre Dame, and one each against UNC and in their first meeting with Duke. The ACC championship against Duke was only the fourth game of the year without a power-play goal for the Orange.
Sometimes considered a niche part of the game, the power play saved the Orange. It’s been a weapon for them all season.
The Skill Guys
The Orange power play features two Canadians, two Indigenous players, Joey Spallina (who scored more in box last summer than any of the others) and Michael Leo. Every lacrosse team has a mix of grinders and skill guys. These are the skill guys.
Recently, the unit has gotten a boost from Greg Elijah-Brown, a Senior with just 1 goal in his career coming into this year. With 3 goals in the last four games, he is up to 5 goals on the year. He’s been a great story.
The right-handed Elijah-Brown pairs with the left-handed Trey Deere to play the crease and low-pipe spots on this power-play unit. While it rarely seems scripted, they have a great feel for when they are in each other’s way. Most importantly, they are both highly efficient finishers around the goal.
Up top, the unit has at least three elite level passers in Owen Hiltz, Finn Thomson, and Spallina. Leo is mostly a shooter on this unit, but he gives them great spacing on that lefty wing.
The result is great balance, both in skills and production. Deere leads the team with 6 goals on the power play, but Elijah-Brown and Hiltz have 5 each, Leo has 4, and Spallina 3.
X’s and O’s
So we know who’s out there, but what are they running to have this success?
Recently, the Orange haven’t been running much in the way of set plays. They have tried some flip passes and a few actions behind the net, but most of their success comes on generally unscripted plays. Essentially they have a righty triangle and a lefty one, but there doesn’t seem to be a ton of rhyme or reason behind what either of them does at a given time.
Usually they get some form of triangle rotation to get the motion started, then play from there. But they will take the easy looks when they get them, like in this clip.
From there, the unusual part of their set up is the shape. Most power plays operate out of a very specific formation, most commonly a “3-3.” This basically has a house shape with one point man and one man in the crease, along with two guys on the low corners and two on the high corners.
Syracuse often “tilts” that formation slightly, which puts defences in unusual spots. My favourite variation of this is when both Thomson and Hiltz are operating as point men, both off-set from the center of the field. With both being elite passers, this formation puts a ton of pressure on the defence.
There are also times when Syracuse will play briefly out of an open set. While not traditional spacing, these open sets have been successful. Notice both how close Thompson and Hiltz are, and how open the middle is.
When you run the clip, Syracuse runs the triangle motion to start, leading to a good look for Elijah-Brown. Then they inbound the ball and stay in the open set. I think Harvard is confused about what to do, and Hiltz makes an incredible skip pass.
This can also be effective when Deere makes a late cut. Many teams around the country will run some version of this play, where the lefty fills the crease as the ball moves to the righties, but sometimes bad timing hurts the offence.
On the crucial Leo goal, Deere lets Syracuse sit in the open set for a second. When he does cut, the Harvard defender goes with him, opening Michael Leo behind him. Elite stick work from Spallina and Hiltz gets the ball there quickly, and Leo does the rest.
Just like that, Syracuse was back from the dead, all thanks to some elite skill and a small shift from what everyone else runs.
The Leo goal also demonstrates the ability of the skill guys. Many of their goals are coming in the low angle, like this one. This isn’t a great shot for everyone, but the Syracuse guys are so skilled they score them at a high level.
One-Touch Passing
The other reason for their success is the speed at which they move the ball.
Here is another good example of the “tilt” I am talking about. Hiltz and Thompson here are playing significantly closer to each other than your average top players would be. They are essentially sharing the point role between the two of them. Leo is halfway between the traditional 3-3 spots for a lefty, and nobody is on the left pipe.
I drew in some lines to show what their shape is essentially a perfect 3-3, but just tilted.
This image also shows the pressure that the tilt puts on defences. The low defender, Shawn Lyght, has to rotate both to Elijah Brown on the crease and to Leo on the far wing. That’s a long way to cover.
When the ball moves from Thompson to Hiltz, the rotation begins, and Lyght has to fly to get to Leo. But Hiltz immediately one-touches the ball back to Spallina against the rotation, who quickly moves it to Elijah Brown, who essentially quick-sticks it into the goal. That’s three passes and a shot, with only one combined cradle.
Here is another good example of the one-touch passing, as they just beat the Irish rotation. They spend most of this set in a more traditional shape, but the goal happens when Elijah-Brown and Deere both travel to the crease, then Elijah-Brown vacates to open himself up. Again, this is almost assuredly unscripted, but very effective.
The unit saved the Orange over the weekend and will need to be sharp against a Princeton team that is one of the only teams with a better percentage on the power play (albeit on exactly half the opportunities the Orange have had).
If you give them opportunities, the skill guys will make you pay.