Syracuse Lacrosse: Orange Fall Short, Lose Nail-Biter to Army
By Josh Peelman
Syracuse Lacrosse came into the game against Army today undefeated (2-0) and ranked 6th nationally. Apparently, that didn’t frighten the Black Knights who gave the Orange their first loss of the year.
Usually, the Carrier Dome is home sweet home for the Syracuse Lacrosse team, but today it was anything but. Syracuse trailed for most of the contest and only got back into the game late in the fourth quarter.
Past History:
According to GoArmyWestPoint.com, Army came into the game 2-1 on the year, but as history has showed before, the Black Knights have had our number. In the all-time series between Syracuse Lacrosse and Army, the Black Knights have a 40-23 mark against us. In fact, Army has beaten Syracuse at home 14 times out of 30 contests.
Syracuse Lacrosse Head Coach John Desko had this to say via Cuse.com:
"“One thing we knew about them coming in is that they were going to be well coached and play for 60 minutes, which they did. They showed their patience at the end, so my hats off to them…. We made some adjustments and I thought we did a nice job to get us possessions and gain some goals to help us get back into it. But again, congrats to them. We tried our best to gut it out but we came up one short today.”"
Army is a tough out every year and this year proved no different. With rival Virginia coming up next game it’s possible the Orange were looking ahead.
The Orange who are 6th nationally, have to be ready for their next game as the Cavaliers are currently 2-1, according to VirginiaSports.com. In addition, they will be probably be 4-1 entering the Carrier Dome if they beat High Point Wednesday.
The Game:
Surprisingly, the Orange started the game well grabbing an early 2-0 lead. However, the Black Knights fought back to take a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Syracuse would score quickly to open up the second quarter, but the Black Knights would answer.
Using a 4-0 run and great defense, Army held off the Orange from scoring for almost ten minutes. Luckily, the Orange regrouped to score two goals before halftime to make it only an 8-6 deficit to Army.
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In the second half though the game was much closer. Army held the lead through most of the second half, but the Orange cut the deficit to one multiple times.
It wasn’t until 2:13 left in the fourth that Syracuse finally tied the game at 13 with a shot from Nick Mariano. Army though would score the one that mattered at the last possible moment.
Conclusion and Bright Spots:
The Black Knights would wind up with possession soon after the game tying goal. Army would hold it until the last second, much to the disapproval of the crowd. After finding no open seams in the tight Orange defense, Army’s David Symmes finally let loose. The shot bounced off the ground and past Syracuse goalie Evan Malloy sealing the deal for Army.
With only 0.5 second left on the clock, the following face-off didn’t even matter. The game was over when the shot went in and the crowd of 3,936 (according to Syracuse.com) knew it.
One bright spot for the Syracuse Lacrosse is that the Orange had four players who scored or assisted in four goals in the game. Brendan Bomberry and Nick Mariano led the way for the Orange with 3 goals apiece.
Next: Syracuse Basketball: Tyus Battle has no NBA Draft Stock?
Syracuse takes on Virginia at Noon next Saturday, March 5th in the Carrier Dome hoping to bounce back.