Orange take down Holy Cross at home
DeVito, Orange rout Holy Cross
Saturday’s showing at the Dome, unfortunately, was not as electric as last week for the Western Michigan game. However, Syracuse fans still left satisfied as the Orange had a field day with the Holy Cross Crusaders en route to a 41-3 victory.
Tommy DeVito and the Orange offensive attack came out of the gate hot, picking up where they left off last week with a 63-yard drive in just 1 minute and 38 seconds. The drive ended with a 14-yard catch from Aaron Hackett.
The Crusaders had trouble throughout the entire game gaining any traction against the Syracuse defense, especially in the first quarter.
The Crusader offense had some promising plays but tended to lose steam immediately following big gains.
In the first quarter, they were suffocated by the Orange defense, leading to a barrage of 3-and-out series.
On the second drive for the Orange, Moe Neal carried the ball for four yards. Yet it wasn’t just a four-yard run. Neal surpassed 2,000 career yards for Syracuse with the scamper.
Neal now joins 22 other running backs in Syracuse football history to have touched this mark.
The drive ended with a punt, which was fumbled by the Crusaders and picked up by the Orange, leaving them on the enemy 17-yard line. DeVito immediately took advantage, throwing a strike to Trishton Jackson who similarly was picking up his momentum from his huge performance against the Western Michigan Broncos last week.
Towards the end of the quarter, Syracuse’s Sterling Hofrichter nailed a 52-yard field goal to increase those 14 points to 17, finishing the quarter with a shutout.
The only scoring for the Crusaders came at the beginning of the second period when their kicker Derek Ng hit a 48-yard field goal.
Other than that kick, the Holy Cross offense couldn’t muster up anything else, leading to their third loss on the year.
The Orange had a relatively quiet second quarter as well, where DeVito seemed to be looking heavily in Trishton Jackson’s direction early on.
Their fifth drive started with a 23-yard gain for Jackson, which lead to a series of rushing gains up the middle from Moe Neal and Abdul Adams. The drive was capped off with a 19-yard rushing score up the middle from Adams. The Orange held their lead at 24-3 for the rest of the half.
The third quarter mirrored the first half for the most part. The Orange increased their lead slightly with a 26-yard field goal during their 10th series on the day.
After another handful of unsuccessful drives from the Crusaders, the Orange once again struck with a 47-yard flash from Taj Harris, putting the orange up 34-3.
The Orange defense had some highlight moments where Brandon Berry and Alton Robinson deflected some passes and put some big hits on the Holy Cross quarterback, Connor Degenhardt.
The most exciting play of the game came on the first drive for the Orange in the final quarter. DeVito gunned one to freshman TE Luke Benson for 70 yards, making the score 41-3, delivering the final blow to the Crusaders.
The Crusaders and Orange both took their star players out, signaling that the game had been over before the clock even hit zeros.
The Orange move to 3-2 and go on to face NC State, which happened to be an absolute shootout last season. The Crusaders move to 1-3, looking to rebound against Bucknell.
is a contributor to The NewsHouse, Syracuse University junior focusing on film and digital media., plus avid sports fan.
is a photojournalism junior, environment and society minor and Army ROTC Cadet.
