Men’s lacrosse runs away from Binghamton and scores 21 in home opener

Men's lacrosse wins home opener 21-4

The 2018 season opened with the Orange scoring 13 straight goals.
Published: February 10, 2018

Binghamton was expected to be a tough challenge for Syracuse in the Orange’s season-opener. Early on, it was clear that was not going to be the case.

The Orange just kept scoring and scoring as they head into the second quarter up 8-0. The Bearcats didn’t find the back of the net until three minutes left in the first half when Syracuse was already up 13-0. The Orange would go onto win the game 21-4.

“Well I think it was a terrific start to our 2018 season,” head coach John Desko said after the game. “The guys really came in focused offensively and defensively. I thought Danny did a great job on the faceoffs to get us all those possessions.”

Desko was referring to Danny Varello, who made his first career start today and could not have done better. The sophomore was 15-17 on faceoffs and was the main reason for the Orange’s electric start.

“I think our wings played really well. I don’t think I can’t recognize my wings today,” Varello said in the postgame press conference. “If you think about it, there really wasn’t that many clean faceoffs. I think there was a lot of loose balls and I think our wings did a really good job today.”

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Stephen Rehfuss (29) celebrates a Syracuse goal in the 21-4 win over Binghamton on Feb. 10.

After Binghamton scored two goals at the end of the first half, the Orange went into the locker room with a 13-2 lead. The Syracuse offense picked up where it left off in the second half with a goal by Brendan Bomberry less than a minute into the third quarter. That was just one of Bomberry’s five goals of the day.

“Obviously (this game) is a huge confidence booster at the start of the season, especially for our offense,” said Bomberry, who ended the game as the Orange’s leading scorer. “21 goals for our offense. That’s huge.”

Binghamton was outshot 53-19 by Syracuse and only won five faceoffs all game.

“We’re still trying to figure out who the 2018 Bearcats are going to be,” Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown said after the loss. “This is not who we are so we have a lot of work to do. As a coaching staff, we are going to go home, roll up our sleeves and figure out what we need to do to move forward from here.”

Syracuse will host Albany on Saturday in the Carrier Dome at 1 p.m.