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Throughout his coaching career, Gary Gait has usually shown up on game days wearing a suit. He did it in 2021 when he led Syracuse’s women’s program to the national championship game, and then last year, when the Orange men’s program finished with double-digit losses for the first time ever.

But for Syracuse’s season opener against Vermont, Gait ditched the suit, and walked onto the field in a white zip-up. Why the change? Well, after two-straight disappointing seasons, a once-proud SU program is hoping to turn things around in 2023. And thus, a wardrobe change was in order.

“You know what? New year, new team, new start,” Gait explained. “We’re just trying to do something different here, and bring this program back, and I just thought, ‘let’s change it up with the suit.’”

For one game, at least, Gait’s change worked out. Despite a sloppy performance from both teams — with the 7-5 final score, and 39 combined turnovers, perhaps encapsulating that best — Syracuse opened the season Saturday with a win over Vermont. It was a 1-0 game after the first quarter, and 4-1 at halftime, but Syracuse’s strong second- and fourth-quarter performances helped it pick up something it hadn’t secured in 315 days: a win. SU’s two top attacks, Joey Spallina (one goal, 14 shots) and Owen Hiltz (one goal, five shots) were kept in check, but a strong defensive effort and clutch saves by goalie Will Mark helped secure the win.

“Overall, I think we’re happy with the performance,” Gait said. “It was a good test for us. And, obviously, we’re a young team, a new team, are different than what we were last year. And we got a lot of work ahead of us to improve.”

Both teams appeared rusty, with several careless turnovers, and a limited number of scoring looks. The five combined first-half goals were the fewest in an SU game since February 2018, when UAlbany led Syracuse 4-1 at halftime.

The Orange blew a three-goal lead in the third quarter, but tied things back up when Spallina, who had struggled all afternoon, finally notched his first career goal. Working at X, Spallina got a screen from Finn Thomson that allowed him to dodge right and send a bouncing shot toward Vermont goalie Matt Shaffer, who was expecting one up high.

Jackson Birtwhistle’s close-range shot put SU up moments later, and after Hiltz notched his first goal on a line-drive shot with 7:14 left in the fourth quarter, the Orange had a two-goal lead it held for the remainder of the game.

Vermont head coach Chris Feifs knew the challenges Spallina could present entering the game, and didn’t want him to freely hang above the cage. The Catamounts played Spallina closely at X, and trusted senior defender Danny Manning. Vermont, Feifs said, didn’t have to slide because of Manning’s strong defense, and the shots Spallina did get off (a game-high 15 in total) were ones it was willing to give up. Catamounts goalie Matt Shaffer credited UVM’s scout offense, which he said gave them a great look at Spallina’s tendencies through their work in practice.

“I was just really proud of our defense,” Shaffer said. “I thought our close guys did a really good job on him and the rest of the attack, and getting the shots that I wanted to see.”

The Orange were held scoreless in the first quarter, and only scored once in the third. He said Spallina played like a freshman “forcing it” — something he talked with the attack briefly about during the game.

Spallina was able to get into the middle of the field for several shots, but missed the cage on seven attempts. With Vermont not sliding, Spallina moved away from his usual pass-first role into a dodger and shooter, and while saying that he’ll probably kick himself while watching film of some players, he said he simply “could not shoot today.”

“When you stop focusing on trying to score — which he clearly was — the goals will come to you, and the opportunities will come because they won’t be forced,” Gait. “There’s a lot of pressure put on him to be a superstar from day one. And I think he’s just got to play his game.”

While Hiltz and Spallina were mostly contained, Thomson picked up his first career goal early in the second quarter when his shot from the left wing slammed into the top shelf, putting Syracuse up 3-1.

Vermont, despite being, like SU, an unranked team entering the season, wasn’t an easy season-opening foe. The Catamounts dominated against the America East last season, easily winning the postseason tournament. But like Syracuse, UVM also lost several key players from last year’s team, including its top three goal scorers, but still returned six all-America East 2021 selections.

Two of those players, David Closterman and Brock Haley, were Vermont’s primary scoring options Saturday. Closterman, who registered 29 goals in 19 games last season, got on the board early in the third quarter with a missile that flew past Mark, off the crossbar, and in. Jonas Hunter followed that minutes later by dodging from X to goal, making it a one-goal game, and then evened the game when Syracuse slid too late, leaving him wide-open in front of goal.

“I think they just jumped the gun right away,” defender Nick Caccamo said. “We definitely had to take a second. We all got together and just calm down, caught our breath and got on the same page again. And I think once we did that we were playing fine, but it’s definitely a learning point for next week.”

SU, though, shut down the Catamounts’ attack in the final quarter. Mark, a transfer from LIU, made 13 saves, and Vermont was held to three fourth-quarter shots on goal. Griffin Fenech had an open look at goal with 35 seconds left, but Mark extended his stick for an impressive save that kept it a two-goal game.

Mark showed promise in his first game, keeping Syracuse in it for lengthy stretches. Vermont dominated possession early, recording 10 of the game’s first 13 shots, while on the other end, SU had a few quality looks, but was unable to convert.

Feifs told his team in the locker room they were in a great spot, and just needed to stick to their game plan, calm down and display cleaner stick work. That worked in the third quarter, when UVM outscored Syracuse 4-1, but not in the fourth, which he attributed to SU’s strong adjustments.

That strong fourth-quarter play — even with a paltry scoring effort — helped Syracuse escape game one with a victory. Gait made clear SU needs to improve, but after a season in which wins were hard to come by, this one felt good. Even if he wasn’t wearing his usual suit.

Published on February 4, 2023 at 3:15 pm

Contact Connor: csmith49@syr.edu | @csmith17_