Army Improves to 4-0 as Eicher's OT Winner Sinks Syracuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Mason Kohn did his job. He won the faceoff against the nation’s second-best specialist coming into Wednesday night, Will Coletti (71 percent), and got the first possession of overtime for Syracuse. This was the Orange’s shot at redemption.

Out of a timeout, an errant shot put the ball in Joey Spallina’s stick. The sophomore had been held scoreless through regulation for the first time since April 22, 2023. Still, he attacked from X against Army’s top defender, AJ Pilate. Passing goal line extended, Spallina tried to back down Pilate to get an angle but was pushed to the side. His behind-the-back heave sailed over the goal and gave Army the ball for a huge turn of possession.

On the ensuing possession, the Black Knights’ leading scorer, Jackson Eicher, drew a short stick and went to work. After two rollbacks, he set his feet in the middle of the field and fired a sidearm shot into the bottom right corner past a lunging Will Mark. As Orange jerseys fell to the turf, black ones stormed the JMA Wireless Dome field for the second time in 11 days.

“Just fortunate that the ball kind of popped in my stick there off the endline,” Eicher said. “I got the shorty, so I was just trying to take it topside, rolled back, saw the double coming, so rolled again and I was just fortunate to put a shot on net.”

No. 5 Army took down No. 9 Syracuse 14-13 in overtime to move to 4-0, marking Syracuse’s second overtime loss to a ranked opponent in the last two weeks. This time around, the Black Knights held Spallina scoreless on five shots, as both teams concentrated the wealth offensively. Army had four players score exactly three goals, with Eicher (four points) and Evan Plunkett (five points) leading the way.

Pilate was the X-factor, holding Spallina scoreless with a season-high four turnovers, two of which he caused. He dominated a physical matchup against one of the nation’s best attackmen.

“I thought that AJ Pilate, he doesn’t get the notoriety that everyone else does necessarily, but you saw a really good defensive player [today],” Army head coach Joe Alberici said.

Spallina was held in check with minimal slides, so the Orange had to outsource their offensive production to the midfield, forcing them to play outside their strength in a physical matchup. Nevertheless, Syracuse head coach Gary Gait stood firmly behind his star player.

“It was a tough game [for him],” Gait said. “I think he’d like to have a do-over on it. There’s just so much pressure on him right now. It makes it so difficult when a young player like that has that incredible pressure. So, we have to help him figure out the keys to success. … He’s going to figure it out in these tough games. I believe in him.”

Offensively, Army excelled at creating and capitalizing on short-stick matchups. Eicher, Plunkett, Reese Burek and Jacob Morin had hat tricks and feasted on dodges.

“I thought when we were really at our best was isolating the short stick through the motion of our offense,” Alberici said. “When we got singular and pulled a guy out, that allowed them to set the defense. But when we were playing through the flow of our offense and the dodge was happening going through X, maybe back inside X to the other side, a short stick was just ending up on people organically.”

Each of Army’s final three goals were unassisted, and Alberici said they “weren’t surprised” that Gait decided to put two poles at midfield to combat their offensive acumen from that spot.

One of the midfield’s most impressive goals came from Morin in the first frame. His fake step-down from the right wing broke Billy Dwan’s ankles, and Morin went toward the cage to finish the runner with Dwan sprawled on the ground behind him. In the fourth, Morin gave the Black Knights a 13-12 lead on an X dodge on which he beat Mark, and short stick Nathan LeVine, with his dominant left hand.

The last two goals of the game, from Morin and Eicher, took advantage of that exact concept. Ball movement and positioning set up shooting lanes against shorties, and the Black Knights didn’t miss.

Yet, in spite of all that, Syracuse was handed a “get out of jail free” card, and they fumbled it. Before the game-winner, Christian Mulé caused a turnover before the clear, with an open net in front of him. His lob bounced once and then trickled to the side as a groan from the Orange supporters filled the Dome. The game was over a minute later.

“It’s been a bit of a custom for the Army-Syracuse to be a back-and-forth game,” Alberici said. “When you look at our scoring, four guys getting hat tricks makes us a pretty difficult team to cover.”