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Year four of the Gary Gait era seemed a tad bleak through five games. Two straight mid-February defeats for Syracuse — one to Maryland and a shocking upset loss to Harvard — put the Orange’s NCAA Tournament chances on the brink early.

But they emphatically responded to commence March. After dropping outside Inside Lacrosse’s top-10 rankings, SU pummelled Utah 15-5 in Salt Lake City before surging late to down rival Johns Hopkins 13-10. The consecutive wins thrust the Orange back inside the top 10.

Syracuse has received plenty of strong individual play to help it get out to a 5-2 start. It has a player within the top-five nationally in points and the country’s leader in faceoff victories. Halfway through SU’s season, we’ve highlighted our selections for the Orange’s best performers thus far and picked who has more to prove going forward.

Here are our midseason awards for No. 9 Syracuse men’s lacrosse (5-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast):

Cooper Andrews: Sam English

While Joey Spallina deserves his flowers, Sam English is Syracuse’s unsung hero. His stats aren’t eye-popping: seven goals, four assists and four caused turnovers. Yet, there’s not a single player on SU who has more impact on the field than English. He’s a first-line midfielder. He’s a menace on the wings — totaling 16 ground-ball pickups. He’s tenacious on the man-down unit. And clears often run through him. Find me someone else who’s as involved as English. There’s a reason he’s now a Tewaaraton nominee.

Zak Wolf: Owen........

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