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One-Goal Wonders
Countless times prior to the season the question was posed to the Orange seniors. “Do you ever think about the possibility of being the first class in more than 30 years not to make a Final Four?” That’s how high the bar is at Syracuse, and after a season-opening loss to Albany, the possibility of not reaching championship weekend became more real. However, at the end of the year the 2013 seniors weren’t the answer to a lacrosse trivia question. Behind the stellar play of captains JoJo Marasco and Brian Megill, Syracuse tied the school wins record (16), won its fourth straight BIG EAST title, and made it back to the Final Four for the first time since 2009.
The Orange topped Denver in the NCAA semifinals, and twice had five-goal leads against Duke in the first half of the national championship game, before faltering in its bid for a historic 12th NCAA championship.
The road to the title game certainly wasn’t easy. There are bumps along the way during any season and few teams had a more edge-of-your-seat ride than Syracuse. The Orange played in 10 one-goal games, the most in the nation. Remarkably, it came out on top in seven of them, a testament to the team’s resiliency which was on display repeatedly throughout the year beginning with the opener against Albany.
Marasco answered his own critics in the process, authoring one of the most productive seasons ever for a Syracuse midfielder. He became the first player at his position since 1994 to lead the Orange in scoring (66 points) and he broke Paul Gait’s school single-season midfield assists record with 42 helpers.
At the defensive end of the field, Megill anchored a unit that held 12 of its 20 opponents to single-digit goals. Only Duke in the NCAA title game scored more than nine goals against the Orange during the postseason.
Marasco earned numerous individual honors. He was named a first-team All-American and the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year. In addition, he was one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award as national player of the year. Megill (second team) and midfielders Luke Cometti (honorable mention) and Henry Schoonmaker (honorable mention) joined Marasco on the 2013 USILA All-America list.
Cometti, who led Syracuse with 34 goals, was one of several players to have breakout campaigns. Other notable breakthrough seasons were scripted by Kevin Rice, Dylan Donahue and Dominic Lamolinara. Rice put up 55 points (23 goals, 32 assists) to finish second on the team in scoring in his first year as a starter. Donahue totaled 27 goals as a rookie, including eight during the Orange’s NCAA Tournament run. Lamolinara took over as the team’s starting goalie in March and posted an overall record of 13-3 with an 8.65 goals-against average.
THE REGULAR SEASON
For the second year in a row, the Orange started the season against Albany and its talented trio of Thompsons – brothers Lyle, Miles and cousin Ty. The Thompsons didn’t disappoint, combining for 19 points and 10 goals to lead the Great Danes to a 16-15 victory in double overtime. The loss was SU’s first in a season opener since 1996 and foreshadowed many themes that would play out as the season went along.
First, SU proved it was never out of a game. The Orange trailed by five (8-3) in the second quarter and four (14-10) early in the fourth before rallying to force OT. Second, Marasco showed the college lacrosse world that he would be a force to be reckoned with in his senior season. He recorded a career-high eight points (three goals, five assists) to lead the offense against the Great Danes.
Still, being 0-1 was an unfamiliar position and SU sank to No. 18 in the polls following the loss.
The Orange looked to right itself, especially on defense, when it welcomed Army to the Carrier Dome on Feb. 24 and that’s exactly what happened. The Orange allowed a season-low two goals, including shutting out the Black Knights in the second half, on its way to a 6-2 victory. Megill was the defensive catalyst, holding All-American attackman Garret Thul scoreless to snap Thul’s streak of 42 consecutive games with a goal. Bobby Wardwell made 11 saves in the cage and set an SU record for the fewest goals allowed by an individual goalie in a 60-minute game.
The win ignited a five-game winning streak as Syracuse topped Virginia, St. John’s, Johns Hopkins and Providence in succession after beating Army. Among the highlights during the stretch was Rice’s golden goal with one minute to play in overtime against Virginia on March 1 at the Dome. The tally gave the Orange its first one-goal win of the season, 9-8, over the Cavaliers.
Another key development was head coach John Desko’s decision to turn to Lamolinara, who at the time was backing up Wardwell, for a spark at halftime of the Johns Hopkins game on March 16. Lamolinara responded by allowing two goals and making five second-half saves to lead the Orange past the Blue Jays, 13-8. Lamolinara made his first start in the next game at Providence and keyed an 18-9 thrashing of the Friars to cement his status as the first-string goaltender.
Villanova ended the Syracuse winning streak on March 23, beating the Orange, 11-10, at Villanova Stadium. SU led the Wildcats nearly the entire game before giving up two goals in seven seconds late in the fourth quarter. Faceoffs, the Orange’s Achilles heel, reared its ugly head in the contest as the Wildcats won 23-of-24 draws.
Syracuse bounced back six days later with an emphatic 17-5 home victory against Canisius to close the month of March with a 6-2 record.
April proved to be one of the more unique months of lacrosse in recent memory. Five of SU’s six April games were decided by one goal, including five in a row. The Orange opened the stretch with consecutive 13-12 wins versus top-10 opponents. SU beat No. 8 Princeton on April 6 and No. 2 Cornell on April 10. The Cornell victory made believers out of many who gave SU little chance to make a national-championship run after the Albany loss.
Syracuse notched its third consecutive one-goal triumph with a 12-11 home victory on April 13 against Rutgers. Cometti turned in a career performance, scoring six goals to help lead the Orange back from a 10-5 deficit in the final period. Derek Maltz also came up big. He scored the game-tying goal with 2:11 to play, and the winner with 10 seconds left after Marasco forced a turnover.
Following the Rutgers victory, Syracuse returned to the Dome turf three days later for its annual mid-week tilt with Hobart. The Orange and Statesmen have played for the Kraus-Simmons Trophy every year since 1986, and prior to 2013, Hobart had won the trophy just twice. However, the Statesmen had the answer for the Orange’s one-goal magic – Alex Love. Love scored six times to lead Hobart to a 13-12 upset win, snapping SU’s six-game home winning streak.
At 9-3 overall and 3-1 in the BIG EAST, the conference regular-season title was still within SU’s grasp. The Orange moved one step closer to it by holding on for a 9-8 road victory at Georgetown on April 20.
The Georgetown win set up a highly-anticipated showdown with No. 2 Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium in the 2013 Konica Minolta Big City Classic. After a scoreless first period, the Irish netted three of the game’s first four goals to a take a 3-1 halftime lead.
The second half was a different story.
SU’s offense got untracked with nine goals, and the defense allowed just one in the last 30 minutes, as the Orange cruised to a 10-4 victory.
With the win, SU clinched a share of the BIG EAST regular-season title for the third time in four years. Villanova also finished 5-1 in the league, and by virtue of its head-to-head win against the Orange, earned the top seed in the BIG EAST Championship.
THE POSTSEASON
Less than a week after beating the Irish by six, the second-seeded Orange faced Notre Dame again in the semifinals of the conference tournament. The rematch was a carbon copy of the regular-season meeting. SU turned in another stellar defensive effort and topped the Irish by six again, 9-3, to advance to the BIG EAST title game versus tournament host Villanova.
Against the Wildcats, all eyes were on the Orange faceoff specialists and their matchup with Thomas Croonquist. Croonquist owned the X in the regular-season meeting, but Chris Daddio won 11-of-24 draws in the rematch to neutralize Villanova’s biggest weapon.
Daddio’s performance helped limit the number of extra possessions for the Wildcats and the Orange offense took advantage. Syracuse shot better than 35 percent (13-37) for the game and used three third-quarter goals to go up 11-6 before putting the Wildcats away, 13-9. Scott Loy led the way with three goals, while Rice and Maltz both added two to help the Orange win its fourth BIG EAST title in the four-year history of the conference.
Rice finished with seven points (three goals, four assists) in the two games to win Most Outstanding Player honors. He was joined by Maltz, Marasco, Lamolinara and David Hamlin on the all-tournament team.
As champions of the BIG EAST, and with a 13-3 overall record, Syracuse earned the top seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years. The selection committee paired the Orange with Northeast Conference champion Bryant on May 12 in the opening round.
The Bulldogs and their faceoff ace Kevin Massa made things interesting for the Orange early. Massa won 22 of the game’s 23 draws, and Bryant owned a 4-0 lead less than seven minutes into the contest. But the Orange’s suffocating defense proved to be too much for the visitors. SU forced 18 Bryant turnovers and allowed just three goals after the first quarter to power its way to a 12-7 victory.
Donahue started his first NCAA Tournament with a bang, scoring three goals versus the Bulldogs to pace the offense, but that was only the beginning. A week later in the NCAA quarterfinals against Yale, Donahue played the role of hero, scoring with 13 seconds left to lift the Orange to a 7-6 victory and send the team to the Final Four.
Donahue’s goal capped a furious Orange rally. The Yale defense held Syracuse scoreless for more than 43 minutes. The Bulldogs notched six straight goals in that time to take a 6-4 lead late into the fourth quarter. Rice finally snapped SU’s drought with an unassisted goal with 3:04 left in regulation. Less than a minute later, Cometti finished a Marasco feed to tie it, 6-6.
After Lamolinara stuffed Yale’s Conrad Oberbeck in tight with approximately 90 seconds left, Desko called timeout. On the restart, Desko put the ball in Marasco’s stick, and after probing the defense, Marasco dished to Donahue for the winner. Just like that Syracuse was on its way to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the national semifinals and a date with Bill Tierney’s Denver Pioneers.
The showdown with Denver was equally high on drama. The Pioneers held a 5-2 halftime lead thanks to 13 saves by starting goalie Ryan LaPlante.
The Pioneers still led 7-4 after three quarters before the Syracuse offense came to life. Maltz and Loy notched consecutive goals to close the gap to 7-6 with 8:17 remaining. The two sides traded tallies before Cometti scored his third goal of the game to knot the score at eight with 59 seconds left.
This time it was Maltz’s turn to be the hero. The Ashburn, Va. native picked up a rebound with 19.2 seconds to play and scored to propel the Orange to the title game with a 9-8 triumph.
The victory represented Syracuse’s seventh one-goal win of the season and set up a date with Duke for all the marbles on Memorial Day. The Blue Devils had used an impressive offensive display to dispatch Cornell, 16-14, two days earlier.
At the outset, it appeared Syracuse was well on its way to capturing its 12th NCAA championship. The Orange built leads of 5-0 and 6-1 before Duke faceoff specialist Brendan Fowler began to dominate. Fowler won 13 straight draws during the second and third quarters as the Blue Devils stormed back to take a 10-7 advantage heading into the final quarter. Duke continued to pour it on in the fourth, netting six more goals to win the title, 16-10.
For seniors like Marasco and Megill the ending was bitter sweet. Yes, they had avoided becoming the first SU class in 30 years to miss the Final Four, but losing to Duke with the national championship on the line still stung. After the game Megill reflected on the ride that was the 2013 season.
“This team overcame tremendous adversity,” Megill said. “We came out and lost to Albany and we went down in the polls to 19th or whatever it was. We didn’t have stars like Syracuse is used to having. We had a team. We had a balanced team and we used what we had very effectively and efficiently. We did it all year long and I’m just really proud of these guys. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
