Steve Angeli threw five touchdown passes and ran for another as Syracuse trounced visiting Colgate 66-24 on Friday evening.
Following last week’s overtime win against UConn, Orange coach Fran Brown made his team run postgame sprints on the field as a sign of his displeasure with his players’ effort during the contest. Syracuse (2-1) put forth a much crisper effort in this one, scoring 38 first-half points and finishing with 620 yards of total offense.
Darrell Gill Jr. racked up six catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns for the Orange, while Will Nixon contributed 66 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. Angeli finished 24 of 32 for 417 yards for Syracuse.
Zach Osborne was 13 of 28 for 135 yards with two interceptions before Jake Stearney came on and went 14-for-20 for 148 yards and two scores. Reed Swanson was a popular target for the Raiders (0-3), totaling 110 yards and two touchdowns on seven receptions.
Syracuse scored on its first possession as Angeli found Justus Ross-Simmons for a 26-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Colgate responded with a field goal before the Orange found the end zone again on Gill’s leaping catch near the goal line — a 43-yard score that made it 14-3.
Early in the second quarter, Syracuse jumped ahead 21-3 on Nixon’s 2-yard TD plunge.
Angeli threw a pair of touchdowns later in the quarter. He hooked up with Gill for a 35-yard score and then found Jaylan Hornsby for a 25-yard TD to make it 38-3 with less than two minutes until intermission.
On Colgate’s first possession of the second half, Syracuse held firm on fourth down at the Raiders’ 41. Three plays later, Angeli and Darrell Williams connected on a 26-yard TD catch.
Stearney and Swanson hooked up for two touchdowns in the final five minutes of the third quarter to make the score more respectable. However, the hosts tacked on three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win going away.
