Big Games By Palasek, Desko Not Enough In 12-10 Loss To Duke

Sunday, April 1

E. Rutherford, NJ

4 p.m.

Syracuse University

#8 Duke

Tim Desko recorded his second four-point game of the year Sunday against Duke.

Big Games By Palasek, Desko Not Enough In 12-10 Loss To Duke

4/1/2012 7:13:17 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Score By Period	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Duke	1	6	3	2	12
Syracuse	3	3	3	1	10
Box Score \| Photos \| Highlights \| Press Conference April 1, 2012 \| MetLife Stadium / E. Rutherford, N.J. \| Attendance: 25,934

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Attackmen Tommy Palasek and Tim Desko combined for nine points, but No. 14 Syracuse (4-4) couldn't overcome No. 8 Duke (9-3), losing to the Blue Devils, 12-10, in front of a record-crowd of 25,934 in the second game of the Konica Minolta Big City Classic Sunday, April 1 at MetLife Stadium.

Palasek tied his career high with four goals and also passed out one assist to finish with a season-best five points. The senior has 12 points in SU's last three games (4.0 ppg) and leads the Orange with 21 points (10g, 11a) on the season. Desko registered two goals and two assists versus the Blue Devils to record his second four-point outing of the year.

Sunday's game was tightly contested throughout. It featured six ties and neither side led by more than three the entire game.

Redshirt freshman Hakeem Lecky gave SU the lead 47 seconds into the contest, scoring on the game's first shot. After Duke briefly tied the score on an extra-man goal by David Lawson, junior Luke Cometti and Palasek found the cage to put SU ahead, 3-1, at the end of the first quarter.

The Blue Devils opened the second stanza with a pair of goals to tie the score again, including an empty-netter by Christian Walsh with Orange goalie Dominic Lamolinara out of the cage trying to track down a loose ball.

The back-and-forth scoring continued for the remainder of the second period. Duke had the final say, notching the last two goals of the quarter, including one by Robert Rotanz with 1:31 left that gave the Blue Devils a 7-6 halftime advantage.

Early in the third quarter, Duke extended its scoring run to 4-0 on unassisted goals by Justin Turri and Jordan Wolf. Wolf's tally at the 10:54 mark gave the Blue Devils their largest lead at 9-6. However, the Orange stormed back with three straight goals of its own, including a pair by Palasek, to tie the game, 9-9, with 2:46 left in the third.

After a Josh Dionne goal put the Blue Devils back in front by one, junior JoJo Marasco struck with 13:41 remaining in regulation to knot the game at 10-all. But Marasco's goal was the Orange's last of the game, and Duke received goals by Rotanz with 12:04 left and Jake Tripuka with a little over three minutes remaining to produce the final score.

Rotanz led Duke with four goals on his way to Konica Minolta Player of the Game honors. The Blue Devils also got five points (2g, 3a) from Wolf in the contest.

Lamolinara made his third straight start in goal for the Orange and recorded 10 saves. Dan Wigrizer totaled eight saves between the pipes for the Blue Devils, including four in the fourth quarter, to pick up the win.

Wigrizer made a pair of sensational stops from point-blank range late in the game to keep Syracuse at bay. He denied Collin Donahue on the doorstep with under seven minutes left, and stoned Palasek from in tight with about four minutes to go, to help Duke maintain its one-goal edge.

The Blue Devils held a 42-29 advantage in shots for the game and collected 25 ground balls to 20 for Syracuse.

After struggling recently at the faceoff X, the Orange won 14 of the game's 25 draws behind a career-high 10-for-18 (.556) performance by sophomore Ricky Buhr.

Syracuse returns home to the Carrier Dome Saturday, April 7 to face the Princeton Tigers. Faceoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Time Warner Cable Sports.

Game Notes: Sunday's attendance of 25,934 set the NCAA record for a regular-season, lacrosse-only event … The gathering broke the previous record of 25,710 established at the 2010 Big City Classic … Cometti tied his personal best with two goals against the Blue Devils … Donahue registered his first point of the year with an assist in the third quarter … Freshman Brandon Mullins made his first career start on close defense … The Orange is now 2-1 all-time in games at MetLife Stadium (formerly known as New Meadowlands Stadium) … Syracuse sported retro uniforms for the game … The team wore white nylon mesh jerseys and blue shorts similar to the uniform combination worn by the squad in the early 2000s … SU also donned white helmets with blue visors that featured the interlocking “SU” logo from the same time period … Sunday's Big City Classic tripleheader also featured Notre Dame versus St. John's and North Carolina versus Johns Hopkins.