BALTIMORE – John Galloway stomped his feet. He swung his stick, and kneeled on the rain-soaked turf of Diane Geppi-Aikens field, visibly frustrated.

Galloway, the Syracuse goalie, allowed six goals from Loyola in the third quarter and made only a single save. As a result, No. 2 Syracuse trailed the Greyhounds by four Saturday in the fourth quarter. After playing three games in eight days, the defense’s exhaustion showed.

Loyola was poised for an upset. And things looked gray for the Orange. The game appeared over.

Then, Syracuse revitalized itself. After picking apart Loyola’s zone defense – the Greyhounds switched to it an attempt to hold on to its lead – Syracuse went on a 6-2 run. The Orange had tried this late surge before against Virginia, and fell one goal short. But this time, Dan Hardy swung the game-winning goal with 1:17 to play, and Syracuse (7-1) emerged victorious, 14-13, over Loyola (5-4) in front of 2,620.

‘We kept our focus and never got down on each other,’ attack Stephen Keogh said. ‘It all just came together in the end. We’ve been behind, against Virginia. We just kept going.’

Syracuse played Saturday’s game shortly after receiving the tragic news of the death of 2006 SU lacrosse grad Brian Crockett. Crockett was killed in a car accident in New Jersey early Friday morning.

‘We got that news and it’s hard to find a silver lining in those things,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘Obviously it can swing your focus about losing a brother Orangeman

After sloppy play from virtually every player on the field through a rain-soaked three quarters, the rain stopped before the fourth quarter. So did the Orange’s mistakes.

Jovan Miller rushed up the field on a fast break with eight minutes remaining, with his team in dire need of a goal after not scoring for more than 17 minutes between the third and fourth quarter. Then, Miller found Keogh on top of the goal line, who found the back of the net. The comeback was on.

‘Once we had that first goal we knew it was all going to come,’ Keogh said. ‘Everyone stepped up big time.’

Keogh added another goal less than a minute later. The Loyola zone short-sticked him, but it was not a problem for Keogh, who scored five goals on the day.

Then, it was Dan Hardy’s turn. Syracuse head coach John Desko switched him from midfield to attack, and Hardy’s 6-foot-4 frame created a favorable matchup for the Orange. After being taunted by early Greyhound fans, Hardy responded and contributed three goals down the stretch.

‘We had to attack their zone quickly because the time was running,’ Desko said. ‘We couldn’t pass it around a few times, which is what zones normally make you do … I was surprised to see as much of the zone, but I think when they had the lead like they did that had to slow us down and it was a good move on their part.’

The faceoff woes that had plagued Syracuse early on stopped. Gavin Jenkinson, an unlikely hero for the Orange, stepped in and won six of his seven tries at the X, giving Syracuse the possession and time it need to make its run.

After a horrendous third quarter, Galloway helped Syracuse’s comeback the other end of the field.

Earlier, Galloway and defensemen John Lade consoled each other after Galloway let up the 12th goal of the game. Galloway patted Lade on the back and told him ‘this team doesn’t quit.’ Galloway made four saves in the final quarter and allowed just two Loyola goals, while the Syracuse attack registered six.

‘We’re always going to make runs,’ Galloway said. ‘We were a little frustrated with some goals at the end of the third. But my defense played great, there were a couple let ups, but that happens in a game.’

As time wound down, the game’s intensity picked up. The Loyola fans chanted ‘Oklahoma’, to mock Syracuse’s blowout loss in basketball Friday night. The Loyola bench erupted at the end of every play, yearning for the upset. When midfielder Matt Abbott drew a triple team late in the game, and each defender hacked at him with their sticks, a brawl nearly ensued.

But Syracuse stayed focused throughout, outlasting the Greyhounds and erasing the mistakes from earlier in the game. ‘We can score in bunches,’ Desko said. ‘Some people will look up at the clock and say it’s over. We don’t. We keep these guys playing until it hits double zeros.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

* Due to an editing error in its story Saturday, The Daily Orange misspelled the name of a Syracuse lacrosse alum who passed away Friday. His name is Brian Crockett. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on March 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm