Syracuse, NY -- Anyone who has watched this Syracuse University lacrosse team this season could see it coming. The failure at the faceoff X and the failure to connect on man-up opportunities were glaring warning signs.
Unranked Villanova, coming off losses to Princeton and Maryland by a combined score of 25-13, exploited those issues Sunday to erase a 7-5 halftime deficit and defeat the No. 9 Orange 11-10 before a Carrier Dome crowd of 3,811. It was the first Big East loss for SU (4-3, 2-1) since the conference began play in 2010.
“To beat a team like Syracuse at the Carrier Dome is about as big a win as we’ve ever had in our program,” Villanova coach Mike Corrado said. “After the way we lost our last two games, to come up here and do what we did, we’re extremely proud of our guys.”
Despite the lopsided losses of 21-6 and 20-6 the last two times the Wildcats (5-3, 1-0) visited the Dome there was an uneasy feeling as the game approached. Villanova had eight days to prepare while SU had two courtesy of a Wednesday game. Villanova returned its starting attack and midfield from a team that lost to SU 5-4 last season, while the Orange had seven new starters in the lineup. The visitors had six seniors in the lineup, while SU had two.
Still, this was Syracuse, a team that was 64-10 over the previous four-plus seasons.
“It’s an awesome feeling today,” said junior attackman Jack Rice, who scored three goals and assisted on a fourth. “To come up here and beat them on their own field is huge for our program. It’s really something we can build on.”
The Wildcats built their victory Sunday by holding SU’s struggling man-up unit without a goal in five chances and winning nine of 11 faceoffs in the second half after going only 5-for-14 in the first. Syracuse’s 0-for-4 effort on the man-up in the first half set the stage for the second.
“Most definitely,” Orange coach John Desko said. “Especially the first two when we didn’t even run the play (that was designed). We worked on it every day, and to not even run the play was really pretty frustrating.”
Equally frustrating was the insistence of SU’s shooters to fire high on Villanova goalie Dan Gutierrez, who made only one save while allowing four goals in the opening quarter but got into a groove from there and finished with 12.
“I never want to discredit the goalie,” Desko said. “I thought he stood tall and made some very good saves. I found it pretty amazing that we kept shooting high, not changing the plane on him. We work on that and we talk about it and we show it on film, and we still do it anyway. I don’t understand it.”
Nor could Desko understand how a team could falter so badly at the X in the second half even though the ball was often there for the taking. Junior close defender Brian Megill had a theory.
“Obviously, we came of the locker room with no energy (in the second half),” he said. “When you give a team confidence they’re going to do some amazing things. And hats off to Villanova. They wanted it more than us today.”
That noted, Syracuse refused to quit after the 7-5 halftime edge degenerated into an 11-9 deficit with the fourth quarter winding down and Villanova sitting on the ball. Junior midfielder Luke Cometti ripped a shot past Gutierrez with 5:05 remaining to make it 11-10, and SU had two chances in the final minute to send it into overtime.
Gutierrez saved JoJo Marasco’s quick high turnaround shot with 55 seconds left and then stopped true freshman long pole Brandon Mullins’ long low shot in semi-unsettled with about 20 seconds left.
“I couldn’t get the timeout quick enough,” Desko said. “I didn’t think he was going to shoot. As I went to call a timeout I saw him wind up and I couldn’t get the timeout quick enough.”
That was that, and a Desko-coached team had its third loss of the season for the first time since 2007. With Duke (Sunday in the Big City Classic), Princeton, Cornell and Notre Dame still ahead, things could get ugly.
“We have a big work week ahead of us,” Megill said. “We have to do some real soul-searching as a team.”