Syracuse Cruises to Win Over Western Michigan

Two injuries now take center stage for the Orange moving forward.

Mike McAllister | Sep 9, 2023

Syracuse Cruises to Win Over Western Michigan /

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The first minute of the game was about as bad as it could get. Western Michigan running back Jaylen Buckley took the second play of the game 75 yards for a quick score. Two plays later, Oronde Gadsden grabbed at his ankle and limped off the field after a 10 yard reception. From there, however, Syracuse cruised to a dominant 48-7 victory to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The focus now turns to the health of Gadsden as well as starting right tackle David Wohlabaugh. Gadsden emerged from the locker room in a walking boot and using crutches. Wohlabaugh suffered an injury in the second quarter, needed assistance from the coaches to get off the field and used crutches to go the locker room.

That aside, Garrett Shrader was spectacular in Gadsden’s absence. He completed 19 of 30 passes for 286 yards with one touchdown and ran for another. LeQuint Allen ran for three more scores as the Orange jumped out to a 45-7 halftime lead. Neither played after intermission as Syracuse primarily used backups from that point.

The big highlight of the first half was when Shrader scrambled and threw a dart on the run to Donovan Brown, who turned on the jets from there for an 86 yard score. It was the first of Brown’s career. Isaiah Jones and Umari Hatcher each had five catches for more than 80 yards on the day as well.

Defensively, after giving up that 75 yard run early, the Orange stifled the Broncos rushing attack that eclipsed 330 yards in week one. In fact, WMU had -3 rushing yards the rest of the first half after that scoring scamper. Syracuse sacked the Western Michigan quarterbacks four times, had a pick six on the last play of the first half by safety Jason Simmons, and held the Broncos scoreless the remainder of the game.

Syracuse next hits the road for the first time this season to take on Big Ten foe Purdue. That game kicks off at 7:30 eastern and will be broadcast on NBC on Saturday, September 16th.

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Published Sep 9, 2023

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.