SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After things looked rather dull for Syracuse in the first half Saturday, mustering just three points, the Orange scored twenty six unanswered to beat Army 29-16.
Army opened the game with the football and consumed over nine minutes of clock with their “slowly but surely” run game. Jakobi Buchanan’s touchdown run from the one-yard line capped off the 17-play drive. While drives of this nature don’t happen very often anymore, Coach Babers knew this was exactly how Army was going to come out offensively.
“We were excited about that,” said Coach Babers. “I’ve seen 12 and 14 minutes [off the clock], and we changed the way we practiced [last week].”
Buchanan is not the size of your typical running back either. The Missouri native lines up at six feet tall and 250 pounds. Bringing down Buchanan is easier said than done, but the Orange defense limited him to just 22 yards and the one touchdown on six carries.
“It gets frustrating, it’s a mental game,” said Marlowe Wax. “That’s what they try to do, but we all just had to come together and not let it get too personal.”
Even when the game got frustrating for Syracuse, the team stuck to its gameplan. The Orange were thrashed in the run game in the first half, where they conceded 129 yards on the ground, but the defense forced the Black Knights into negative run yardage in the second half. Experience paid off despite very little changes were made.
“We put one new thing in at halftime, and then we put it back on the young men,” said Babers.
While neither Babers nor the players wanted to reveal what that “one new thing” truly was, it became apparent that the Orange defense was much more physical in the second half.
LeQuint Allen tied game up with just under eight minutes left in the third quarter. The next possession for the Orange saw Umari Hatcher catch a 13-yard touchdown pass from Shrader. Even though this touchdown gave the Orange the lead, Coach Babers believed the turning point was a little more unconventional.
“One of them [turning points] is when we went for it on fourth down and didn’t get it,” said Babers. “Then they realized that I’ll go for it, too, on fourth down. We’ll play this game.”
After being very successful on the ground against Purdue, Shrader picked up another rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter from 21 yards out.
Despite not getting into the endzone, Damien Alford set career-highs in both receptions, with nine, and receiving yards with 136. Him and Allen both had over 100 yards in their respective positions. Alford was quick to look ahead to the future.
“It just means to keep building on that,” said Alford. “I had my career high, I’m happy about that, and I’m going to enjoy today, but I know this week in practice I have to prepare myself for the stretch we got.”
The Orange finish non-conference play undefeated and begin ACC play next week at the JMA Wireless Dome against Clemson for a 12 p.m. kickoff.