I'd say so. Their attack unit is scary good this year, as we all knew it would be. Without the Bratton Brothers on Saturday against No.6 Stony Brook, attackman Steele Stanwick put the team on his back and willed the Cavaliers to victory in overtime 11-10. Last night, Stanwick and fellow attackman Chris Bocklett combined for nine goals and 14 points.
There are few attack units in the country who compare to what coach Dom Starsia can put on the field. Stanwick is your quintessential quarterback type attackman. The junior has great vision (12 assists on the year) and is tough enough and crafty enough to find his way to the cage (11 goals). Bocklett is the finisher of the group. With 15 goals on the year, its sort of "pick your poison" style of defense for opposing coaches. Do you put your number one defenseman on Stanwick or Bocklett?
Then you move to the midfiled. Do you put the long pole middie on one of the Bratton Brothers? Its a hard question for any coach. Luckily for the Syracuse Orange, they do have the weapons both on offense and defense to compare with the Cav's. Its not many times opposing coaches have to worry about an offense throwing so many different weapons at you at one time. Both Virginia and Syracuse have six or seven legitimate scorers on their team. There is only so much a defense can do.
I will be back with more and a complete preview for this game later today.
Also on the schedule, #6 Cornell takes on Binghamton, #20 Drexel plays Villanova, Lehigh vs Navy and it will be interesting to see how PENN responds after their big win over Duke as they take on Bucknell tonight.