Takeaways from No. 5 Syracuse lacrosse’s 16-11 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame

Though Syracuse’s spot as a high seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was all but sealed, it still had something to play for on Saturday afternoon at Arlotta Stadium. A win would’ve cemented the Orange as the ACC regular-season champions.

But despite finishing the first half with a one-goal cushion, SU couldn’t maintain its lead out of the break, as the Fighting Irish scored nine of the next 12 goals down the stretch to steal the victory. Joey Spallina and Payton Anderson each recorded four points in the losing effort for SU, while goalie Jimmy McCool racked up 18 saves to go with a .529 save percentage. As for Notre Dame, Will Maheras torched SU with a goal and four assists, and four other ND players finished the outing with multiple goals.

Here are three main takeaways from SU’s final game of the regular season.

SU’s offense disappears in the 2nd half

Coming off a blowout win over unranked Colgate last week that effectively served as a last chance to prepare for Notre Dame, Syracuse was expected to come out firing on all cylinders. It did just that, but so did the Fighting Irish. Both sides traded strikes throughout the opening quarter, but a 4-0 Orange run in the second proved to be enough to give them an 8-7 cushion at the half.

Syracuse had Notre Dame right where it wanted it. All it had to do was stick to its game plan the rest of the way home. However, the Fighting Irish’s adjustments out of the break allowed their offense to break through, and the Orange’s back end simply failed to keep up.

Less than 30 seconds into the third, Notre Dame scored the first tally in what ultimately stretched out to a 5-0 run that gave it the lead back at 12-8. Anderson, Finn Thomson, and Wyatt Hottle answered for the Orange, but four more unanswered ND goals in the final stages of the game allowed it to cruise to a sound win.

In a matchup that required the Orange’s offense to be on point for the full 60 minutes, it failed to consistently find the back of the net.

Payton Anderson leaves his mark

Amid a disappointing outing for Syracuse in the goal-scoring category, Anderson provided a silver lining. Despite being hounded by one of the nation’s best defensive units from the opening faceoff, he made the most of his chances.

His tallies weren’t just skilled plays, but they were also timely. With the Orange trailing 3-2 in the first quarter, Anderson’s opening strike in front of the cage drew them even. He later leveled the score again with a shot from range that found the bottom right corner of the net. Anderson even gave SU momentum to close the first half with a turnaround strike to put it ahead 8-7.

After being silenced out of the break during Notre Dame’s game-flipping scoring run, Anderson fired home one last strike that turned out to be the spark SU needed to rattle off three straight goals.

But even with Anderson playing arguably the best game of his career, his efforts weren’t enough to push the Orange to victory. Still, Anderson’s first four-goal performance coming against a team like Notre Dame shows he has a bright future ahead of him.

Will Maheras runs wild

Although the Fighting Irish entered Saturday toward the bottom of the ACC in goals and points per game, there was still plenty of reason for Syracuse’s defense to be cautious Saturday. Maheras showed why.

A pillar of ND’s offense, Maheras saved his best performance of the season for last, as he burned the Orange to the tune of one goal and four assists.

Maheras started his outing with an assist less than five minutes in, then added on another late in the second quarter. Following Anderson’s strike to close out the first half, Maheras found the back of the net on his own to draw the Fighting Irish even at eight apiece. Then, with his team in need of insurance up by one with 8:11 left on the clock, he tacked on two more helpers to lock up Notre Dame’s five-goal win.

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