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Joey Spallina hails former Syracuse attacker Alex Simmons as the “king” of the hidden-ball trick. As a freshman in 2023, the country’s No. 1 recruit would stare in awe at the graduate student Simmons’ ability to confuse an entire defense with a simple sleight of hand. Two years later, the king’s crown of deception was passed down to Spallina.
Late in the third quarter of SU’s bout against Johns Hopkins, with the score tied 8-8, Spallina meandered around the left flank, then crossed paths with midfielder Sam English at the 40-yard line and flipped the ball into the air — seemingly into the strings of English’s stick.
English bolted downhill, running right at Blue Jays goalie Luke Staudt. Yet, Staudt was the lone member of JHU’s defense reacting to English’s dodge. Spallina always had the ball. Staudt was oblivious. All he could do was place his hands on his helmet in shock after realizing Spallina had already looped around toward midfield and scored a go-ahead goal.
Upon netting his deceitful scorcher from over 30 yards away, Spallina turned his head to the sky and bellowed a scream of relief. He said the Orange try about 5-to-6 hidden-ball tricks per game because of Simmons’ influence. On Sunday, the persistence finally paid off.
“It’s a once-in-a-season kind of goal,” Spallina said. “I was pretty jacked up about it … You kind of have to get jacked up about that.”
HIDDEN BALL TRICK ALERT
Joey Spallina and Sam English just fooled EVERYONE at The Dome!!
(via ESPNU, @CuseMLAX pic.twitter.com/2a1y8PFmVT
— TLN
(@LacrosseNetwork) March 9, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Spallina’s tricky finish put the Orange up 9-8 over the Blue Jays, capping a three-goal run to end the third quarter. It was the turning point of the second half for No. 11 Syracuse (5-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) in its 13-10 triumph over No. 7 Johns Hopkins (5-2, 0-0 Big Ten) Sunday in the JMA Wireless Dome, where the Orange outscored the Blue Jays 8-4 across the final 30 minutes.
Owen Hiltz tallied a game-high four goals and Michael Leo added a hat trick to steady SU’s offense. On the flipside, the Orange put together a wire-to-wire defensive showing as they won the ground-ball battle 32-20 and goalie Jimmy McCool registered a .545 save percentage. The win was Syracuse’s first top-10 victory of 2025, and its second straight over rival JHU.
A noticeable swagger returned for the Orange when they vanquished the Blue Jays late. SU didn’t hesitate in crunch time, a quality head coach Gary Gait felt was missing before Sunday’s result. From mystifying goals to defeating an arch nemesis like Johns Hopkins, this was a quintessential get-back game for Syracuse.
The Orange needed this win, considering their gauntlet of a remaining schedule. Their NCAA Tournament resume is no longer in jeopardy. At least, for now.
“We worked really hard on just focusing on us and what we need to do,” Gait said after beating JHU. “I thought the execution was awesome, guys made plays and we came out on top. So, (it was) a lot of fun today.”
But for the Orange to end Sunday smiling, Gait needed to hold some not-so-fun conversations.
The fourth-year head coach was disappointed in Syracuse’s third-quarter play leading into its matchup with Johns Hopkins. One third-period goal in an eventual loss to current-No. 1 Maryland. Two against then-No. 15 Harvard en route to a stunning defeat. Even against Utah, which ended in a 15-5 blowout, the Orange didn’t score once in the third.
“We’re working as a staff, whether it’s tweaking the halftime and what we do at halftime, and then hopefully we’ll get some better third-quarter performances,” Gait said at his weekly press conference Friday.
Postgame Sunday, he revealed that SU’s players had a habit of stripping off their shoulder pads and taking a load off in the locker room during halftime breaks. Rest and relaxation came before figuring out second-half adjustments. And Gait wasn’t having that anymore.
After trailing 6-5 at halftime to Johns Hopkins, Gait didn’t allow his players to take their equipment off. Players had a small window to rest. Then, it was go-time. Syracuse’s offensive and defensive groups huddled together just like how they do pregame. They all then did a couple of ball drills on the turf before John Mullen took the third-quarter faceoff.
“They weren’t coming out dialed-in focused,” Gait said. “We thought, ‘Hey, maybe they’re getting a little too relaxed and comfortable and not getting dialed in to step back on the field.’”
Gait often implores his teams to play loose. Yet, he went with the drill sergeant route this time. It worked.
Michael Leo (No. 7) registered a hat trick against No. 7 Johns Hopkins, helping No. 11 Syracuse notch a 13-10 win Sunday. Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
Syracuse’s first half was marred by a lack of capitalizing on point-blank opportunities, inconsistent defense and Mullen’s inefficiency at the faceoff X against JHU’s Logan Callahan. That all changed after Gait laid down the law. The Orange played inspired in the third quarter Sunday; they outscored the Blue Jays 4-2, picked up 16 ground balls to the visitors’ four, forced five turnovers and won 6-of-7 faceoffs.
Still, it took a while for Syracuse’s offense to rev up against Johns Hopkins in the third quarter, trailing 8-6 late in the period. JHU defensemen Scott V. Smith and Quintan Kilrain were locking down the Orange’s attackmen. SU never struggled to move the ball but rarely found open pockets of space. It seemed to always be looking for the perfect shot, and couldn’t materialize it.
Beginning at the 1:48 mark of the third, however, a Syracuse avalanche commenced.
Midfielder Tyler Cordes dodged to the right on JHU short-stick midfielder Eric McDonald before ripping a close-range shot past Staudt, which made it 8-7. Mullen won the next faceoff and Leo slipped a low release by Johns Hopkins’s goalie for a game-tying tally. The play of the game, Spallina’s hidden-ball trick with English, closed out Syracuse’s run with flare.
Spallina lit up with glee recounting his viral goal, saying it couldn’t have happened without English’s Academy Award-worthy acting skills. The junior saw a highlight of the goal on his phone in the locker room postgame and found humor in how ESPN color analyst Paul Carcaterra thought English possessed the ball the entire time.
“We always try to do stuff like that every day, and coach Gait is obviously for that stuff,” Spallina said of his hidden-ball goal. “We’re able to score cool goals like that and get the crowd back into the game, which I think that goal did.”
A newfound rhythm was generated for SU in the fourth quarter, where it held the Blue Jays scoreless for the final 7:29 and unleashed three unanswered goals. Luke Rhoa scored off a feed from Hiltz. Then, Hiltz buried a back-door feed from Spallina at X. A rocket from Leo set up by English made it 13-10 in favor of the Orange at the 2:59 mark — when the celebration began.
Leo spread his arms wide as his teammates mobbed him. English high-stepped toward the block “S” at midfield, pumping his fists in delight. Gait gave assistant coach Nick Acquaviva a light high-five before sporting a grin. It was a sign of pure jubilation. And it was the sign Syracuse had earned a win it desperately needed.
In the second half against Johns Hopkins, the Orange played arguably their most complete brand of lacrosse of the year. Gait could only chuckle with the feeling of vindication when asked postgame if SU’s new-fangled halftime routine would continue through the rest of its campaign.
“I’m assuming it’ll be something like that for now,” Gait said.
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