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Johns Hopkins’ faceoff specialist Logan Callahan posted one of his best performances this season against Virginia, which included a crucial win in the fourth quarter that led to a two-goal advantage. The Blue Jays handed the Cavaliers their only loss of the season anchored by Callahan’s 62.5% win percentage at the X.

Callahan was poised to replicate that outing on March 7 versus SU. But Mason Kohn and John Mullen stood in the way.

Kohn swiftly secured the opening faceoff before scooping up a ground ball on the next. Mullen won the ensuing clamp and Kohn gave wing Saam Olexo an easy path to the ball following SU’s second goal. The Orange won seven straight to open the game, defeating the Blue Jays 14-13 for the best win in the Gary Gait era.

“This all started with our faceoff team,” Gait said postgame.

No. 6 Syracuse’s new faceoff tandem is the reason why it put away teams like Utah and Johns Hopkins, and how it stayed close in overtime losses to Maryland and Army. It’s why the Orange have the fifth-highest game control in the country, according to Lacrosse Reference, after finishing dead last in 2023.

Kohn’s current 63.8% faceoff win percentage is the fifth-best nationally and his expected goals added is second-best, according to Lacrosse Reference. The last time a Syracuse faceoff specialist set a higher mark through a full season was Ben Williams in 2015. Mullen’s taken 115 less attempts but his win rate is slightly higher at 65.8%.

Simply put, it’s why SU reached its highest ranking ever under Gait (No. 5 in Week 1) and has stayed in the national conversation.

Miranda Fournier | Design Editor

Gait was witness to faceoff excellency in his first season at the helm, one year removed from the NCAA’s changes to faceoffs. After splitting the 2021 season with Danny Varello, Jakob Phaup shattered Syracuse’s all-time record for consecutive faceoffs with 419, mastering the counter instead of adapting his clamping ability to the new rules.

Despite the heavy workload, Phaup’s consistency didn’t waver as he finished the year with the 11th-best win percentage nationally and the second-best in the ACC. There was no need for a secondary option.

Phaup’s legacy as one of Syracuse’s all-time faceoff specialists was tarnished by SU’s atrocious performance in the cage, which led to its first 10-loss season in program history. Gait and his staff weren’t worried about replacing him, they needed to find a goalie.

That decision immediately proved costly. The Orange used the transfer portal to bring in Canisius faceoff specialist Johnny Richiusa as well as LIU goalie Will Mark. Mark led the nation in saves in 2020 and 2021 while Richiusa had just 14 collegiate games under his belt and an unremarkable 52.1% win percentage.

The transfer portal isn’t like NFL free agency, where most teams can only afford to add one potential superstar to their roster. Syracuse could’ve fixed both its discrepancies, but it didn’t. By the midway point of the season, it became abundantly clear that Richiusa couldn’t be the primary option. Four games in, he won 23.3% of faceoffs against Maryland. Two games later, he won 31.8% versus Duke.

The Orange started to plug in Jack Fine, which led to some success like a career-best 20 wins in Syracuse’s victory over then-No. 15 Princeton, its first ranked win since March 2022. But inconsistency caught up to him too with sub-35% outings in the final two games of the season.

“In the fourth quarter, we didn’t really win many,” Gait said on April 1, chuckling, after 2-of-11 faceoff wins against then-No. 3 Notre Dame turned a one-goal lead into an eight-goal loss. “It’s hard to not give up that lead when you don’t have the ball.”

Gait’s staff learned from their mistake of gambling on a young transfer who could potentially make the jump to facing tougher competition. They valued experience by picking up Kohn, even if it was two rungs lower than Division I lacrosse. And they already had youth in Mullen, who was named a USA Lacrosse All-American three times at Norwell High School (Mass.).

“We have a six-man faceoff team and we’re hoping we can improve on those numbers dramatically,” Gait said, also mentioning Princeton transfers Jake Stevens and Sam English helping out on the wings.

Gait set a mark of a 50% win rate for his new duo, something they’ve met seven times this season. The issues, naturally, came in the Orange’s overtime losses to Maryland and Army.

The first turning point of the season at the X came against Utah, which was directly after the 13-12 loss to Maryland, where Kohn and Mullen won 44.4% of faceoffs. Kohn won nine straight faceoffs against the Utes and Syracuse ended the afternoon with a 72.4% win percentage, second only to its 82.6% mark versus Manhattan. The crucial part was that it erased the Orange’s 18 turnovers, allowing them to halt any run from the Utes.

“When you get the ball back on every faceoff it helps make up for those turnovers,” Gait said.

Army posed more problems with Will Coletti, who’s currently a spot higher than Kohn in the national ranking, but Syracuse got back on track versus High Point. In the span of 2:02 in the first quarter, the Orange won four straight faceoffs and scored four times.

Then came the Johns Hopkins game, an outright domination at the X. The pair didn’t just win the initial clamp every time. They got the wings involved as Stevens delivered the final dagger by securing a ground ball off the faceoff and scoring to give SU a 13-10 lead.

A week later versus then-No. 20 Delaware, the faceoff battle started close with both teams securing four wins in the first quarter. But Mullen won three straight and the wings got involved again. Kohn even displayed his skill to counter, leading to a 14-9 win at the X.

Kohn isn’t fully acclimated to D-I lacrosse yet and Mullen isn’t even 10 games into his freshman year, but it’s rare to have two faceoff specialists posting such similar numbers at this point in the season. It’s even rarer to have two options who are good at winning the initial clamp and countering, which Kohn and Mullen have both certified this season.

Now, the pair has undoubtedly their toughest test of the year. No. 4 Duke’s Jake Naso enters Wednesday’s contest against Syracuse with the highest faceoff efficiency nationally, according to Lacrosse Reference. Though he recorded his worst win percentage of the year against Richmond this past weekend.

Kohn and Mullen have the ability to pounce on Naso’s recent stumble. The question is if they will.

“They do what they do,” Gait said after SU’s win over Johns Hopkins.

Published on March 19, 2024 at 12:06 am

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu