BALTIMORE — In the play that shifted the momentum, SU goalkeeper Drake Porter leaned back, tried to scoop the ball, but just missed. It got through. Three quarters into the game, Syracuse led by as many as four goals. It needed just one clean quarter to see a second round for the first time since 2017, but the Orange fell apart in the final quarter.

Against one of the best offenses in the country, the Orange abandoned their usual game plan, improvised and still outplayed their opponent. But just as quickly as it led, Syracuse lost it and its season followed. Brendan Curry couldn’t explain it, Loyola attack Pat Spencer said there wasn’t even a singular moment, but Syracuse fell in a similar way it’s lost many of its games this season: with little opportunity to come back.

Syracuse (9-5, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) ended its season with a 15-13 loss against No. 8-seed Loyola (12-4, 7-1 Patriot). With the loss, Syracuse failed to win a postseason game for the second-straight year, the first time since 1981 and 1982 that the Orange fell in the first round of both the conference and NCAA tournaments. Just like the remainder of the Orange’s losses, the collapse came at a time that was seemingly inexplicable.

“That’s just the way a lot of games go,” Stephen Rehfuss said. “Obviously stinks towards the end there we just had a couple of turnovers, myself included. We couldn’t really gather ourselves.”

After a tumultuous start to the season peppered with mishaps — a season-opening blunder against unranked Colgate, a late collapse against Virginia and a failed comeback against Notre Dame — Syracuse worked its way back into NCAA tournament hosting territory only to fall in the first round of the ACC tournament to the worst-seeded team in the ACC, North Carolina. The Orange tumbled to an away matchup with the Greyhounds, who spent the second and third weeks of the season as the No. 1 team in Inside Lacrosse’s Division I college poll.

For parts of the game, Syracuse’s usual strategy — dodges from behind the net and quick passes to the inside — worked. The Greyhounds identified SU’s leading scorer Bradley Voigt’s ability to score in front of the net prior to the game, and flanked a short stick on him, pushing their long poles out to the midfield. Voigt didn’t score all game, but Loyola goalkeeper Jacob Stover said the Greyhounds were hesitant in the first half and often bit when Syracuse improvised. SU gained a 31-19 ground-ball advantage in the first half, and the shots kept coming.

Kaci Wasilewski | Senior Staff Writer

“We needed to rectify that if we wanted to continue to go forward,” Loyola head coach Charley Toomey said.

Curry tried to create separation with a dodge from the top in the second quarter. He has been reliable for SU all season, even as the Orange haven’t been. But his point-blank shot ricocheted off the goal. The Orange reverted to creating on the outside and Syracuse made three tight passes just past the extended reach of Loyola’s long poles. With a few outside shots from Syracuse in recent memory, Loyola jumped out and Jamie Trimboli saw a free Nate Solomon in front of the net.

Syracuse’s offense took advantage of the early indecisiveness, but LU is an offensive juggernaut. Spencer ranked third in the country in points with 94 prior to Saturday, and he’s excelled as both a scorer and a distributor. Behind Spencer, Kevin Lindley was the second-best goal scorer in the country before the game, and leads an offense that scores 14 goals per game. SU kept its pace early on in the matchup, and, after gaining a two-goal cushion, Syracuse was trying to stop the barrage from Loyola that equalized the score.

Spencer darted diagonally toward the crease, and the Orange tried to cut him off on the inside track to the goal, so Spencer flipped the ball behind his head. He pounded his chest and screamed at the goal that gave Loyola a 4-3 lead. But Brett Kennedy maneuvered through the Loyola defense off a ground ball pickup on the ensuing face-off and scored a quick goal to answer.

“It is what it is,” Rehfuss said. “We went on a run, they went on a run. They just had (it) last.”

The Greyhounds stuck to the original plan in the second half, packed the inside and cut off a series of SU inside feeds. Syracuse still scored from the outside, but Stover’s play and a tighter approach on the interior robbed the Orange of goals that typically jumpstart runs.

Trimboli broke in, and it looked like SU had figured it out. He caught and fired toward the goal. But Stover got there first. The crowd at Ridley Athletic Complex let out a collective sigh. Saves that led to ground ball pickups for Syracuse in the first three quarters of the game were controlled by Loyola. It scooped 25 ground balls to SU’s 13 to end the game. It won 10 of the final 13 faceoffs. In the final quarter, the Orange — having one of their best offensive performances of the year with 12 goals through three quarters — were held to one score.

“It started at the X for us,” Spencer said. “More possessions means more chances.”

 

Kaci Wasilewski | Senior Staff Writer

Between the Syracuse triumphs in 2019 lie the imperfections that couldn’t allow the Orange to stand out, instead to go silent and seem helpless as the opponent imposed its will. It was aimless in the first half against Notre Dame, blindsided in the fourth quarter against Virginia and outplayed in the final minutes of its ACC tournament loss to North Carolina. 

For the tail end of the year, it looked as if SU’s best cancelled out the worst, that the Orange — despite their shortcomings — could beat any team in the country as they proved with a comeback win over then-No. 2 Duke. But as Loyola mounted a 7-1 run to end the game, SU had no way of figuring out its issues.

“They had all the possessions when they needed them most,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “They were able to run the clock down and, you know, we had to watch.”

With 2.7 seconds left in the game, Solomon grabbed the ball one last time and fired a shot to end his Syracuse career. Stover saved it, and Solomon turned away from the action.

“These goodbyes, they’re definitely going to be the hardest,” Curry said and buried his head to shield tears that flowed down his face. On the field, Solomon buried his head for a brief moment too, and unbuckled his helmet.

 

Published on May 11, 2019 at 2:22 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary