Syracuse (6-3, 3-0) came into the Carrier Dome Tuesday night after two top-ten victories over #3 Duke (8-2, 1-1) and #6 Notre Dame (5-3, 1-1). Now, the Orange welcomed its 104-year cross-state rival, Hobart (4-6, 1-1) into the Loud House. With a runaway 11-4 victory, SU brought home the Kraus-Simmons trophy for the sixth consecutive year.
Though the final score went the ’Cuse’s way, the game started off in favor of Hobart. It took 1:52, but Bryan Hancock tickled the twine and it was 1-0 for the Statesmen.
The rest of the game, however, went Syracuse’s way. Nate Solomon responded with a goal about four minutes later to get the Orange’s offense running. The junior netted two goals in the win over Notre Dame; he would score two against the Statesmen as well with his second goal coming in the second quarter.
The offense blazed past Hobart in the first half from that point on. Goals from Jamie Trimboli, red-shirt junior Matt Lane, Stephen Rehfuss, among others brought the lead to a massive 7-1 margin at the half.
The Statesmen’s offense was completely halted in the first half as well. Reigning NCAA player of the week, Dom Madonna, put together another stellar performance in net, totaling nine saves and stymying the Hobart attack.
Coming out of the half, Stephen Rehfuss scored three minutes in and it became 8-1 Orange. That was the last time the ’Cuse scored for almost nineteen minutes.
In the interim, Hobart started to claw their way back. The Statesmen scored three unanswered to end the third quarter to bring it to 8-4 SU.
But the effort proved feeble as Stephen Rehfuss scored another two goals for a hat trick, and Jamie Trimboli netted his second of the night to finalize the cross-state affair, 11-4.
Syracuse has a week off until another in-state matchup; this one with Cornell. The contest faces off at 7:00pm next Tuesday from Ithaca.