FOXBOROUGH, Mass.– Cody Jamieson had just scored the game-winning goal in overtime of the NCAA championship, but he didn’t celebrate at that moment. He had to make his way across the field to find a close friend.

So he dashed across Gillette Stadium, darting through the hashes closer and closer to his pal, Sid Smith. When he finally met up with his fellow countryman from Six Nations, Ontario, the duo embraced: they had won a title for Syracuse – together.

‘Before the year started, I knew both of our dreams were to play at Syracuse and play with each other,’ Jamieson said. ‘We drive back and forth together, a lot of talks, a lot of moments together, just dreams about this day and talks about this day. So he’s the person I wanted to go celebrate with.’

In their last collegiate game together, the close friends played pivotal roles in Syracuse’s 10-9 overtime victory against Cornell Monday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. Smith picked the ball from Cornell’s Ryan Hurley, creating the possession for Syracuse (16-2) that led to Jamieson’s game-winning goal just 1:20 into overtime.

‘It was awesome,’ Smith said. ‘It couldn’t have worked out any better for me and him.’

For most of the season, it did not seem as if the duo would be able to play together. Smith, a senior, was a defensive stalwart on the field for the Orange, but Jamieson was not academically eligible to play for the Orange. While his friend shined, Jamieson was relegated to a spectator.

During those times, there were moments when Jamieson would stay awake at night, look at the ceiling and ponder what would transpire. He hoped to just make it onto the field, but didn’t know what would happen. But he had his family and friends there for him, and they helped him through the tough times – especially Smith.

‘He’s been just as good as a best friend could be,’ Jamieson said. ‘I just leaned on him and he kept me believing and kept me strong.’

Jamieson finally found the field against Massachusetts, playing alongside his friend. He played in the four games after UMass heading into the national championship game, the duo’s last game together.

Smith played stingy defense on one end of the field, while Jamieson scored a goal and added an assist in regulation. But it wasn’t until regulation ended that the duo shined through, just as they had done in so many games before they arrived to Syracuse from Canada and at Onondaga Community College.

Cornell won the faceoff to take possession of the ball in the first overtime, but Smith knocked the ball loose from Hurley and gave the Orange the only possession it would need to become national champions.

Once Syracuse had that possession, Jamieson did the rest. His man had to slide to guard Dan Hardy, who had the ball, and that left Jamieson all alone. He found the ball right in front of the crease, and blew it by goalie Jake Myers to the bottom left of the goal to bring home the 11th title for the Orange.

‘They’ve been doing it all year, they just needed a chance to prove it on a national stage like this,’ SU goalie John Galloway said. ‘Sid with the biggest check of the year and Cody Jamieson just finding the goal like he always does, and I bet if he had a couple more chances he would’ve scored more.’

While Smith captured his second national trophy, for Jamieson it was his first at Syracuse. After going through the season worrying whether or not he was going to be able to play, he found his way onto the field and provided eight goals in the NCAA tournament for the Orange.

SU head coach John Desko was glad to see it all pay off for Jamieson.

‘It was great for him to be able to play down the stretch,’ Desko said. ‘He, probably like ourselves, with a couple of games left in the season didn’t think he was going to get any games in and all of sudden we get a nice surprise with a couple weeks to go… All of a sudden we had a chance to insert him at the end, and he came up huge for us.’

After the postgame celebration, Jamieson was the media sweetheart, finding one microphone after another in his face. While in the middle of one interview, Smith brought over the national trophy to Jamieson, yelling ‘Kiss it Jammer!’ to his buddy. Jamieson took a brief respite to kiss the trophy, much to the excitement of his teammates.

He had dreamt about playing together at Syracuse with Smith, and the two had dreamed of playing on a stage like this. On that stage, the young kids from Six Nations won a title together as a result of their heroics no less than a minute apart.

Although they had talked for all those hours on trips back and forth from Six Nations, they had nothing to say to each other in their celebration after the game.

‘(We were) just so happy for each other and we didn’t really say nothing,’ Smith said. ‘We just kind of hugged and told each other good job pretty much. There wasn’t so much said.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on June 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm