BALTIMORE — Trailing by a goal, Syracuse senior Steven Brooks passively jogged 15 yards in front of the Virginia cage. The clock ticked to 30 seconds and for once, Virginia’s aggressive defense backed off. Green light. Brooks hammered in the equalizer, sending the game to overtime. He turned to the shady side of M&T Bank Stadium, gave an uppercut fist pump, and raised both of his arms into the sky, letting the sun illuminate his back. But in overtime, there was another pose frozen in time. On an offensive rush by the No. 7 Orange midway through the sudden-death session, SU midfielder Dan Hardy crept to the right doorstep of the Virginia net and his head was clotheslined backward by a Virginia stick. He corkscrewed into the turf and head coach John Desko’s arms, like Brooks’ earlier, rose into the air. Only these limbs were horizontal, not vertical. And disbelief replaced euphoria. ‘I thought Danny came around and went to the goal pretty hard and I thought we were going to be man-up in that situation,’ said Desko. ‘It didn’t happen and they ended up getting the last shot.’ Two possessions after the no-call, Virginia’s Brian Carroll drilled home the game-winner and No. 3 Virginia players stormed the Baltimore Ravens’ home field to celebrate a 14-13 Face-Off Classic win in front of 19,165 fans.

The overtime collision was the culmination of five quarters full of checks, trips, slashes and airborne bodies. Eleven penalties were called in all – seven on the Orange, four on Virginia – three of which were unnecessary roughness calls. ‘With a physical game like that, it’s just people going hard after the ball,’ Desko said. ‘We had opportunities to be physical and when it’s like that, you do (play physical). They were 2-for-5 on their man-up. … We were 4-for-4 so that’s why I kind of was looking for a penalty after that.’ Superior goalie play reigned in the first half, as SU’s John Galloway and Virginia’s Adam Ghitelman combined for 22 saves in a 4-4 deadlock. Offensive firepower ruled in the second half when the two teams combined for 19 goals, six ties and seven lead changes. But the physical play never faded. Bodies dropped with regularity. Early in the second quarter, Danny Brennan was flagged after shoving Brian McDermott in the back at full-speed when the Virginia midfielder was vulnerably on his knees. Three and a half minutes later, Brennan lifted his left shoulder into Virginia attackman Steve Giannone, as Pat Perritt simultaneously drew a slashing penalty. Even SU’s top-scorer last season Mike Leveille, joined the party. One week after receiving a stick to his neck on one of his four goals, Leveille made a bee-line at Virginia defender Mike Kelly and unloaded into him just after Kelly cleared the ball. There was no room to wind-up for passes – let alone shots – so players from both teams relied on stop-on-a-dime spin moves. Syracuse and Virginia stared at each other in a mirror Saturday. Both are fastbreak teams that tend to fire away on the first available shot – Syracuse had 47 shots and Virginia had 44. Both featured rookie goalies that starred in the first half and struggled in the second half. And both Brooks and Virginia’s Danny Glading each led their teams with three goals and two assists. Virginia trailed 11-9 with less than 10 minutes left, but scored four of the next five goals. Its run was punctuated by a coast-to-coast, Will Barrow goal that whizzed past SU goalie John Galloway’s head with 2:58 remaining. Failing to build upon that two-goal lead stung almost as much as the no-call corkscrew on Hardy. ‘We had a couple flurries with the two-goal lead and we thought that if we scored on one of those flurries, we might’ve been able to make something happen, but we didn’t.’ Desko said. Syracuse has been waiting for a stage to prove the program is back – a stage so big, everyone in the nation would be shown (not told) that last year’s 5-8 record was an aberration, not the beginning of the end of a nine-time champion dynasty. It got that Saturday. In an NFL stadium smattered with fans sporting lacrosse paraphernalia from all over the country, Syracuse came minutes away from justification. But a déj vu vibe did not resonate in the post game press conference. ‘If we play like we did today, and leave it all on the field,’ Nims said, ‘we’re only going to get better.’

thdunne@syr.edu