After Syracuse secured its biggest win of the year, goalkeepers Dominic Lamolinara and Bobby Wardwell were the first two in line to shake hands with the Notre Dame players.

And after moving through the line of dejected Fighting Irish players, the two walked toward the locker room arm in arm.

On Saturday, the No. 9 Orange (5-3, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) edged No. 7 Notre Dame (4-3, 2-1) 11-10, and the two goalkeepers turned in phenomenal performances. They split time and played nearly identically successful halves, giving up just five goals each and combining for 13 saves. Additionally, Notre Dame’s leading scorer Matt Kavanagh was held scoreless in the contest.

Syracuse head coach John Desko — who has stuck with the formula of starting Lamolinara before subbing in Wardwell for most of the season — said he was pleased with the way his goalkeepers handled Notre Dame’s pressure rides.

“We haven’t seen a ton of that this year, so we kind of had to adjust as the game went on,” Desko said. “Actually, this was a great game experience for us to get those kinds of rides and be able to deal with them.

“We gave up a couple too, but I thought we got better as the game went on.”

Lamolinara started for the Orange and yielded five goals on 21 shots.

Leading 7-5 at the half, Desko switched to Wardwell, who last Sunday against Duke allowed just eight goals on 22 shots after replacing Lamolinara in the second half.

And he turned in another solid relief performance against the Irish.

“Bob played great in the second half,” Desko said. “He made a bunch of saves one-on-one, a couple that he should and a couple that he shouldn’t have. He competed and we felt good about putting him in.”

Syracuse attack Kevin Rice mentioned a pivotal save by Wardwell after the game. Rice will be credited with the game-winning goal, but he recognized that the junior goalie set it up.

“Bob made a great save down at the other end,” Rice said.

When the final horn sounded and Syracuse’s players stormed the field, Lamolinara was the first player jumping in front of the Syracuse goal. He first hugged Sean Young and then found Wardwell, and the goalkeepers embraced before heading off the field together.

Since last season, Syracuse has split its time at the goalie position. On Saturday, both Lamolinara and Wardwell proved that Syracuse is doing the right thing by playing them both.

Published on March 29, 2014 at 6:28 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu