Syracuse Dominant in Season Opening Win Over Louisville
In This Story:
A new offense and a playmaking defense sparked a dominant 31-7 season opening win for Syracuse over the Louisville Cardinals. The Cardinals had dominated the series of late, winning the last three and seven of the last eight. This was the Orange's day, however, from start to finish.
Syracuse opened the game strong, with a field goal on its first possession as the Orange unveiled its new offense under offensive coordinator Robert Anae. Syracuse mixed the run and pass well, and even targeted the tight end twice on the opening drive.
Syracuse would then utilize another focus of this offseason, getting Sean Tucker the ball in the passing game, on its second possession. Garrett Shrader would hit Tucker on a screen and he did the rest. Tucker would make one man miss and turn on the jets for a 55 yard score. That put the Orange up 10-0, and save a late first quarter score from Louisville, Syracuse would cruise the rest of the way.
The Syracuse defense shut down the Cardinals offense for most of the night, and picked off two Malik Cunningham passes in the process. The first by Garrett Williams was in the end zone to stop a potential scoring drive. The second was by linebacker Derek McDonald that was returned inside the Louisville 20 and set up a scoring pass from Shrader to Oronde Gadsden early in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
A fast, ball hawking Syracuse defense would add a third turnover when Steven Linton forced a fumble while sacking Malik Cunningham. Linton would then recover the fumble to set up a six yard touchdown run from Garrett Shrader.
Tucker would rush for 98 yards while picking up 85 as a receiver, leading the team in both categories, and scoring two total touchdowns. Shrader was dynamic all night, throwing for 237 yards on 18-25 passing and two scores while rushing for 95 with another touchdown. The Orange defense held Cunningham to just 34 rushing yards and 152 yards passing while forcing him into three turnovers. Syracuse sacked him three times as well.
Next up for Syracuse is at UConn on Saturday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m.
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