BALTIMORE – The pose was supposed to be symbolic.

Syracuse senior Steven Brooks turned toward the shady side of M&T Bank Stadium, gave an uppercut fist pump and raised both of his arms into the sky. He had just scored with 28 seconds left in the annual Face-Off Classic. Cameras flashed, and the Baltimore sun illuminated Brooks’ No. 44 like a spotlight.

It was poster-shot proof that Syracuse lacrosse was back.

But after the game, a 14-13 overtime Syracuse defeat, the typically gung-ho Brooks described the play with an emotionless Frankenstein drone, repeatedly knocking the table in front of him.

‘I just took it and found the corner and went in the back of the net,’ Brooks said.

He paused and sighed, ‘It’s kind of cool.’

The lack of emotion is because Syracuse’s offense broke down in overtime, making Brooks’ goal an afterthought. Multiple shots flew wide, Dan Hardy was pulled to the ground in a questionable no-call and at the 1:29 mark, Virginia’s Brian Carroll drilled home the game-winner. Minutes after Brooks was basking in the sun, Virginia stormed the Baltimore Ravens’ field in unison.

The momentum pendulum was done swinging. For more than 60 minutes, No. 7 Syracuse (2-1) and No. 3 Virginia (4-0) tugged at each other’s emotions. Two schools with 13 total national titles combined for 91 shots were tied on nine occasions Saturday. Syracuse actually held a two-goal lead three different times, but could never shake Virginia.

‘At times we felt like we had the upper-hand, rattling off a couple goals in a row,’ said junior Kenny Nims, who like Brooks, scored three goals. ‘Sometimes the ball didn’t go our way or one thing led to another.’

With less than 10 minutes left in the fourth, Brooks and Nims combined for three straight goals to make it 11-9. A Brooks shot from the point bounced inside of goalie Adam Ghitelman’s netting, back out and right to Nims, who tapped it in for one of the three. Luck was on the Orange’s side, and it was threatening again in the attack zone.

Then a switch was flicked, and Virginia scored four of the next five goals, punctuated by a coast-to-coast Will Barrow goal that whizzed past SU goalie John Galloway’s left ear with 2:58 remaining.

‘We had a couple flurries with the two-goal lead, and we thought that if we scored one or two more on one of those flurries, we might’ve been able to make something happen, but we didn’t.’ head coach John Desko said.

Throughout the roller coaster, bodies dropped with regularity. The atmosphere took on a life of its own. Eleven penalties were called. Many more were not.

Danny Brennan was flagged after shoving Brian McDermott in the back at full speed when the Virginia midfielder was vulnerably on his knees. Three and a half minutes later, Brennan lifted his left shoulder into Virginia attack Steve Giannone, and Pat Perritt simultaneously drew a slashing penalty.

One week after absorbing a stick to the jugular on a goal, Syracuse’s Mike Leveille made a bee-line at Virginia defender Mike Kelly and unloaded into him a split-second after Kelly cleared the ball. Physicality became contagious.

By overtime, the game became immune to such hostility, and the officials seemed to tuck their whistles away – to Desko’s dismay. Syracuse was 4-for-4 on the man advantage. He wanted five.

Midway through overtime, SU’s Dan Hardy crept from behind the net to the right doorstep of the Virginia net and – yank – his head was clotheslined backward by Virginia longstick Mike Timms. As Hardy corkscrewed into the turf, Desko threw his arms in the air and stormed down the sideline.

‘I thought Danny came around and went to the goal pretty hard, and I thought we were going to be man-up in that situation,’ Desko said. ‘It didn’t happen, and they ended up getting the last shot.’

Syracuse has been waiting for a stage to prove the program is back – a stage so big, everyone in the nation would be shown (not told) that last year’s 5-8 record was an aberration, not the end of a dynasty. They got that Saturday. In front of a national television audience, inside an NFL stadium smattered with fans of all ages sporting lacrosse paraphernalia, Syracuse came minutes away from justification. And failed.

But a déj vu, ‘Not again…’ vibe did not resonate in the postgame press conference.

‘If we play like we did today, and leave it all on the field,’ Nims said, ‘We’re only going to get better.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on March 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm