Chase Scanlan Made His Syracuse Debut Wearing #22 And Put Up 7 Goals Like An Absolute Legend
The number 22 at Syracuse would be like wearing the number 99 with the Edmonton Oilers. Only better because only Wayne wore 99 in Edmonton, but the #22 at Syracuse has been passed down from legend to legend over the years. Gary Gait. Charlie Lockwood. Casey Powell. Ryan Powell. Mike Powell. Cody Jamieson for a year. That's 8 National Championships between those guys with all of them leading the way (even though Jamieson was still wearing #43 when he scored the game winner for the National Championship in 2009). Either way, the number is for legends only.
But 2009 was Syracuse's last National Championship. They've gone over a decade now without winning it. And not to take too much of a shot here at some guys, but the number 22 lost its weight with a couple of guys who have ended up wearing it since. Syracuse just hasn't been able to find that guy worthy of wearing the jersey. And for the past few seasons, they've just decided that nobody would wear it until they do.
Then Chase Scanlan transferred to Syracuse over the summer after spending his freshman year at Loyola and yup, Cuse has their swagger back.
#Re22pect. First game with the new team, first goal. Pretty decent start, eh? Try adding another 6 piece to that meal.
Freak! Freak! Freak!
I know that lacrosse fans love to see the sport grow. I know they love seeing new blood programs start to ascend their way to the top. But college lacrosse is always better and will always be better when teams like Syracuse are fucking nasty. Syracuse and Hopkins I think are the two Evil Empires of college lacrosse and if it weren't for the Empire being so dominant, they'd never be able to make 9 Star Wars movies. So you need the Empire to come out and snatch the souls out of their opponent's bodies. That's what Chase Scanlan and the rest of that Syracuse offense did to Colgate yesterday. They put up a 21-spot on them just 6 days after Colgate opened up their season against Chris Gray making his debut at UNC after transferring from Boston. What happened in that game?
Oh ya know, just Chris Gray putting up 4 goals in the 1st quarter as UNC cruised to a 19-6 win.
Holy christ, Colgate. What a massive shit sandwich they've had to start the season with. 4 goals in Chris Gray's UNC debut. 7 goals in Chase Scanlan's Syracuse debut. 40 combined goals against. The only people I almost feel worse for than Colgate would be the Patriot League after having to watch their two brightest stars move over to the ACC and put up numbers like this. Can't imagine that's going to be great for the PLN subscriptions this season.
But yeah. I know that Chase Scanlan wearing #22 is going to be a narrative that gets beat to death way sooner than later, but that's still an absurd first performance in the Carrier Dome for the kid and for the program. Combine that offense with recurring Crease Dive guest Drake Porter putting on a clinic between the pipes?
Syracuse has a squad that looks like they shouldn't be scheduling any vacations for Memorial Day Weekend.
P.S. - Still a full slate of college lax today. Get yourself ready for it with this week's episode of The Crease Dive.