CHESTER, Pa. — In Syracuse’s first 13 games, senior Dominic Lamolinara was SU’s starting goalkeeper — occasional poor performances aside. In all but three of those games, junior Bobby Wardwell replaced him at halftime.

It’s been a successful recipe. Even in the Orange’s closest games, head coach John Desko has stuck to this formula.

But on Sunday, Desko started Wardwell and No. 4 Syracuse (10-4, 2-3 ACC) lost the Atlantic Coast Conference championship to No. 9 Notre Dame (8-5, 2-3 ACC), 15-14, in front of 4,552 fans at PPL Park in Chester, Pa.

In his first start since March 16, 2013, Wardwell allowed 14 goals and made just four saves before Lamolinara replaced him at the start of the fourth quarter.

“Obviously I didn’t have the best day. I just couldn’t really get into a rhythm like I did on Friday night,” Wardwell said. “Sometimes it just happens.”

Wardwell earned Sunday’s start with an eight-save performance in the second half of Friday’s comeback victory over Duke.

But in the first half of the final, he couldn’t continue that success.

The Irish went on a 4-1 run to close the second quarter and had six different goal scorers in the first half.

“They got some good shots on Bobby, and I don’t think he really got in the flow of things the way that he wanted to,” Desko said. “It was just a changeup. They were scoring goals.”

With the Orange trailing 14-9 through three quarters and Wardwell having allowed seven goals in the third quarter alone, Desko went back to Lamolinara. In the final 15 minutes, the veteran was credited with two saves — both of which on point-blank shots that kept SU’s comeback chances alive — and allowed just one goal.

Lamolinara provided the Orange with a glimmer of hope in a late-game rally similar to the one it made in the semifinals against Duke.

With SU trailing 15-11, Lamolinara stuffed Notre Dame attack Connor Doyle in close. On the ensuing possession, SU attack Derek Maltz’s behind-the-head goal cut the deficit to 15-12 with seven minutes to play.

After Randy Staats and Scott Loy scored two unanswered goals, Irish attack Westy Hopkins had the ball on the doorstep with a chance to put the game away. But once again, Lamolinara caught a shot in between his stick and his chest.

With gutsy efforts from Lamolinara, faceoff specialist Chris Daddio and the Syracuse defense, the Orange outscored the Irish 5-1 in the fourth quarter.

“Sometimes we were really good and sometimes we weren’t,” UND head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “I would have liked to have about four of those layups in the second half back.”

But in a game where SU’s regular starter entered with 15 minutes to play, it was Notre Dame goalkeeper Conor Kelly who made a point-blank save to end the game.

Despite the goalkeeper switch, Notre Dame attack Matt Kavanagh said he thought Notre Dame was capable of scoring 15 goals against whoever Syracuse started.

“It was going to be a tough game anyway,” Kavanagh said. “(But) we knew we could score that many goals.”

Published on April 27, 2014 at 7:45 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu