Syracuse Alumni Classic Recap.

Everyone say “CHEESE!!!”

The 7th-annual Orange Alumni Classic was today and a great time was had by all. The day included a doubleheader of Orange games and lots of stories about old days. The first match-up was the "Legends Game" which featured old school BALLERS getting after it like the glory days of yore.

Syracuse.Com took a bunch of photos from the Legends Game which you can find here. The Legends Game ended in an 11-11 tie and a lot of iced-up knees.

The second match-up, the Alumni All-Stars game, featured a squad of recent alums versus the 2016-17 Syracuse squad. While the Legends Game was an important affair for bragging rights, the marquee event was the Alumni All-Stars game, as it was a chance to see this year’s squad go up against some of the very best in the MLL. This is especially important this year, as BOSS Desko announced that 19 new players are on the 2017 team.

Cuse.Com broke down the roster of the Alumni All-Star team and it reads like an MLL All-Star game.

The current varsity squad will once again have its hands full in the game, which features eight players who played in a Major League Lacrosse game this season, including a trio of players selected to the all-star game. In fact, if the Orange Alumni All-Stars roster was its own college, it'd have more representatives in the 2016 MLL All-Star game than every school besides Syracuse (6) and Maryland (6).

BOSS Desko talked about the importance of the Alumni games earlier this week. You can tell this is one of the highlights of the year for him and the squad.

Additionally, The Kid Chris did a Facebook Live pre-game broadcast from the booth before the Alumni All-Star game which you can find below.

He looks handsome as always.

I haven’t found any recaps of the second game yet, but I’ll update this post as soon as I do.

And that’s where The Kid comes in.

The current Cuse team lost to the All-Stars, 7-4, but only played three quarters. Guys such as Brad Voigt, Nate Solomon, and Gale Thorpe started at attack, while Sergio Salcido, Nick Mariano, and Matt Lane were the starting midfielders. Pat Carlin, Nick Weston, and Ryan Simmons were the second unit.

On defense, which was without Nick Mellen, the starters were Marcus Cunningham, Andrew Helmer, and former LSM Scott Firman. Austin Fusco was the first pole up, and was the long stick during the opening faceoff. Jonah Swigart got time behind Fusco as well. Paolo Ciferri and Joe Gillis remain as defensive middies. Evan Molloy and Dom Madonna played a quarter each.

Along with Mellen, Sam Romano, Devin Shewell, and Luke Schwasnick did not play due to injuries, while Brendan Bomberry is unable to participate in fall ball play.

After the third quarter of the alumni game, the current Orange squad played an inter-squad scrimmage for 25 minutes with a running clock. That was a mix of starters and key contributors along with rookies and bench players from last season at the same time.

The team started full squad practices about two weeks ago, and the Alumni Classic was very early this year. The Orange will have three more weeks of practice before participating in the HEADStrong University Classic at Penn Park on October 16. No official word on which two teams they will play yet, but Penn, Lehigh, St. Joe’s, Drexel, and Quinnipiac will also be there.