Syracuse Battles No. 1 Florida State in 38-20 Loss

reshmen AJ Long and Steve Ishmaelconnected for a pair of second-half touchdown passes in Syracuse's 38-20 loss to No. 1 Florida State on Saturday at the Carrier Dome. Ishmael had the big day for SU's receiving corps, catching touchdown passes of 22 and 35 yards for his first career scores while finishing with career-bests in three receptions and 93 yards. Running back Prince-Tyson Gulley caught a career-best seven passes out of the backfield for 25 yards to go with 80 yards rushing on 16 carries.
 
Led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, the Seminoles rushed out to a 24-6 halftime lead, but the Orange, in its first game without injured quarterbackTerrel Hunt, used two different signal callers and battled the nation's top-ranked team tough in the second half, scoring a pair of touchdowns.
 
Orange starting quarterback Austin Wilson was 5-of-9 passing for 89 yards and one interception. He left the game in the second half with an upper body injury. Long was 16-of-27 passing for 167 yards, two scores and two interceptions.
 
Winston threw for 317 yards, going 30-of-36 with three touchdowns. Tight end Nick O'Leary was his top target with eight receptions for 97 yards and score, while Rashad Greene (TD) and Travis Rudolph caught six passes each. Dalvin Cook amassed 122 yards on 23 rushes and scored once.

The Seminoles opened up the game with an eight-play, 70-drive that resulted in a touchdown. Once FSU settled for a field goal on its next drive, Long came out for the Orange to lead the offense, just the ninth true freshman to see action under center in Syracuse history. He led SU to a Cole Murphy field goal from 21 yards out, bringing the score to 10-3.
 
On the ensuing possession, Winston found Rashad Green on a crossing route for 44 yards to the Syracuse 5-yard line. The two big gains set up another pass play complete to Pender on a crossing pattern for a four-yard score.
 
After Robert Welsh forced a Pender fumble that was recovered by John Raymon, Syracuse got a 32-yard field goal by Murphy, cutting the Seminole lead to 11 with a 17-6 score.
 
The following possession, Winston was perfect with his arm, connecting on all five pass attempts with his one incompletion erased by a pass interference call on the Orange. The drive was capped off with a Nick O'Leary reception down the seam for a 21-yard score to give FSU the 24-6 lead.
 
After a Winston to Jesus Wilson touchdown pass opened the scoring for FSU in the second half, the Syracuse offense quickly came back with a score of its own as Long found Ishmael on a 22-yard reception for SU's first touchdown of the game, making it 31-13. Long's touchdown pass made him the first Syracuse true freshman in program history to throw for a TD.
 
After a 92-yard scoring drive in which Winston completed all five of his attempts for 66 yards, Wilson was knocked out of the game on a hit by Demarcus Walker and Long returned to connect on four consecutive passes for 32 yards. The first three were to Prince-Tyson Gulley for 15 yards with the fourth finding the hands of Adrian Flemming for 17. After a nine-yard rush by Ameen-Moore, Long completed his second touchdown pass of the game as he found Ishmael on a crossing route for a 35-yard score, closing the scoring at 38-20.

Orange Close Fort Drum Week with Paintball

The final day at Fort Drum gave the Orange an opportunity to get away from some of the structure they've had this week and let loose on the paintball field.

Syracuse held its annual paintball tournament to conclude the week's festivities and ended it with a game of the coaches and military personnel against the seniors, with the student-athletes coming out on top.

"We just wanted to light the coaches up the best we could," said senior defensive lineman Robert Welsh. "To be honest, if we got hit we were going to stay in and keep shooting."

Senior linebacker Cameron Lynch took the opportunity to get some payback on the coaches.

"We saw the coaches come behind us and all got a good shot on coach Lea my linebackers coach," Lynch said. "We had fun out there man, it was a great way to go off for our seniors and a great way to end our time at Fort Drum."

One of the highlights of the day amongst the team was the play of defensive line coach Tim Daoust, who ran through a wooden barricade to collapse the hiding spot of a number of seniors, including Welsh, who subsequently eliminated Daoust.

"It felt good, I'm not going to lie," Welsh said. "We were jawing a bit before the game so when he ran over the barricade that I was under I knew it had to be him, so I got up and kept shooting. I think I emptied my paintball gun on coach Daoust so that was great."

For Welsh, the day was a great conclusion of his third trip to Fort Drum.

"We learned a lot that we can bring back to Syracuse and bring back to football," Welsh said. "It's a great learning experience to work as a team and it's great for leadership qualities as well. You learn how to be a leader. Guys who may not have been a leader learn how to become leaders so it's a great experience."

The Orange will now pack up and bring camp back to Syracuse for the final two weeks before the season opener.