The way Army goalie Wyatt Schupler reacted to Jamie Trimboli’s shot was logical. Most goalies did the same: they figured he’d shoot high. Film showed Trimboli’s tendency. Analysis by announcers confirmed it.

Four minutes into the third quarter of Syracuse’s Feb. 23 game against the Black Knights, Trimboli circled behind the Army defense before cutting down the middle lane — catching a pass and beating Schupler one-on-one. When Trimboli’s stick rose, Schupler jumped. But instead, Trimboli deposited the ball into the bottom corner.

Once he arrived at Syracuse, Trimboli couldn’t get away with the same offensive approach he used at nationally-ranked Victor (New York) High School, one that consisted of a sidearm shot rifled to the top corner. It became too predictable.

“Everyone likes to see the upper corner shot where the net poofs out,” Joe, Trimboli’s father, said. 

Over the next three seasons, Trimboli worked to fix that. Goalies continued to anticipate the high shots, but he made it more challenging to distinguish between overhand and sidearm shots until the last minute. He established a scoring rate in 2020 that was on pace to surpass his Syracuse-highs in goals, points and shot percentage. It meshed with offensive coordinator Pat March’s new offense to help create what coaches called the country’s best midfield line with Brendan Curry and Tucker Dordevic, a trio that will remain intact next year after Trimboli announced he’ll use the NCAA’s eligibility relief.

“Putting the ball low, putting it away, putting it on the hips, putting it in the corners, just changing it up,” Trimboli said. “Not being so predictable … and I feel like now I can kinda spray it all over the cage.” 

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After Trimboli was thrust into a starting role midway through his freshman year at Syracuse, opposing goalies started cheating high. They had always done that, but what worried him and Joe was the number of shots saved. Despite ranking sixth on the Orange with 13 goals and becoming the first Syracuse University offensive freshman to start more than 10 games in a decade, Trimboli still stumbled to a 28.9 shooting percentage. 

Until that point, it hadn’t mattered where Trimboli placed his shot. Top corners worked, so that became a habit. When Joe bought Trimboli his first stick from Dick’s Sporting Goods before starting Anthony Bianchi’s Aquinas Youth Lacrosse program, it was a “little whippy stick” Trimboli used to imitate college lacrosse shooting videos. 

Where Trimboli was raised, there was no lacrosse program, youth or high school, Joe said. Bianchi had coached Trimboli with Greece Chargers Pop Warner football but started the Aquinas Youth Program to pave a lacrosse avenue for a city that didn’t have one.  

With a naturally powerful shot, Trimboli started on Bianchi’s team despite still learning the sport’s basics with Joe before games — how to scoop ground balls and catch passes. He learned how to dodge past defenders and capitalize on a goalie’s delayed reaction and ended up with 169 goals in three years at Victor — the town Trimboli’s family moved to when he was a sophomore in high school.

“It gave kids like Jamie a chance to get into lacrosse and start growing,” Bianchi said.

When Trimboli arrived at Syracuse, he stopped scoring at the same rate. Joe and his family would watch all the Orange’s games live, and then again at home, trying to observe for a second time why Trimboli wasn’t scoring. Ryan Powell, one of the analysts on those reruns, always pointed to the same flaw. 

“He’s a great player but he’s got to go high-low,” Joe recalled Powell saying. “He’s shooting upper corner all the time.”

The changed approach required tweaks in practice, beyond the actual shot. Cover defender Brett Kennedy whacked Trimboli’s stick when he left it out in the open during dodges. Goalie Drake Porter pointed out how deceptive Trimboli’s shot was when he went overhand and hid the ball. “You can’t just throw gumballs at the net and hope they go in,” Porter said.

“Time under tension” reps with Peter Dearth and David Lipka in the weight room complemented summers of Victor Crossfit with his older brother, Joey, and allowed Trimboli’s shooting percentage to increase nearly three points after his sophomore season. Under offensive coordinator March’s different tactics during the 2020 season, everything started to come together: the now-sporadically used sidearm shot, paired with the reemergence of the overhand one.

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Through five games of the shortened season, Trimboli was second on the Orange with 17 goals and converted 47.2% of his shots. His first goal of the season included a dodge past a defender and a shot that painted the lower-left corner, coming 20 minutes into the season-opener against Colgate. Two weeks later, he almost single-handedly led the Orange’s comeback against Army. 

Ever since Trimboli made the adjustments to his shot, the majority of Powell’s comments have turned positive: “Trimboli’s been re-calculating his shots.” They’d become less predictable.

Against Army, less than a minute after Trimboli had cut the deficit to one, a Stephen Rehfuss pass in transition reached Trimboli, the trailer, who skipped twice to gather momentum behind his shot. An Army defender’s check threw him off balance, though. From the Carrier Dome stands, Joe screamed for a flag as Trimboli regained his footing and cut past his defender into a shooting lane.

Schupler still kept his stick high. But for the second time, Trimboli bounced the ball past him into the bottom corner.

Published on April 29, 2020 at 11:18 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew