PHILADELPHIA — For 15 minutes in Monday’s national championship Kevin Rice sat behind the net, surgically dissecting the Duke defense.

Syracuse charged out to a 5-0 lead, including a near-flawless four-goal first quarter. Rice scored a goal and dished out a pair of assists, igniting the SU faithful that turned out in droves at Lincoln Financial Field. The game was far from over, but Syracuse just needed to keep it up.

“We had the early lead in the game, and we were feeling good about things,” SU head coach John Desko said, “but we were smart enough to know it’s a game of runs.”

The brilliant opening frame wouldn’t hold. The No. 7 Blue Devils (16-5) embarked on a 12-1 run to silence the Orange fans that made up much of the 28,244 in attendance for Monday’s national championship and stun top-seeded SU (16-4) with a 16-10 victory. But for 15 minutes the Orange reminded the nation why it was the No. 1 seed. The offense has so many weapons and so often executes to perfection.

The offense oftentimes starts with Rice. When JoJo Marasco gets shut off — a popular tactic late in the season as teams double- or triple-teamed the midfielder — the keys to the offense were placed in Rice’s hands.

On Monday, the game started with Rice, too. He stood in his usual position behind the net before coming to the left doorstep. A double team came and attack Billy Ward was left open for an easy goal and a 1-0 lead.

“(The coaches) really knew that from day one that we had a very well-rounded offense and very smart,” Marasco said, “and they really were able to work — try a lot of new things with us.”

Less than a minute later, the Duke defense adjusted. Rice again wrapped around the net, but this time an extra defender never came. Rice beat Chris Hipps one-on-one to give Syracuse a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the game.

Another minute later, attack Dylan Donahue used a pump fake to freeze Duke goaltender Kyle Turri and scored to put the Orange up 3-0.

“Once they started rotating, that’s our offense’s bread and butter is picking apart a rotating defense,” Rice said. “I think we were doing that very well in the first quarter.”

While the offense was putting on a clinic in the opening frame, the rest of the team followed suit. Goalie Dominic Lamolinara stopped all four shots he saw. Syracuse outshot the Blue Devils, converted 5-of-6 clears, won seven ground balls and scored on half of its extra-man opportunities. The Orange even managed to hold Duke midfielder Brendan Fowler, one of the best faceoff men in the country, to just a 60-40 split at the X.

Another assist from Rice, this time to midfielder Luke Cometti, capped SU’s brilliant first quarter. Everything that could’ve gone wrong for the Blue Devils in the opening frame did. But they found a way to adjust.

“We basically said that we needed to play Duke lacrosse over the next 30 minutes,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “I don’t know what we did in that first 15.”

After Syracuse scored two of the first three goals in the second quarter, the Blue Devils ended the first half on a 4-0 run of its own.

“Nobody scripts being down 4-0 or 5-0,” Danowski said, “and inside I think we were all freaking out.

“I think getting back to 6-5 helped everybody. I think we were settled down at halftime.”

The Orange’s offense lost any and all rhythm. With just one faceoff win combined in the second and third quarters, possessions were scarce and execution suffered. SU stopped taking its time and turned the ball over 11 times throughout the game.

They were possessions Syracuse couldn’t afford to squander. The Blue Devils broke the game open in the third quarter. They scored five goals and won all seven faceoffs, but the Orange still got possessions off Blue Devil misses and four turnovers.

Still, when SU needed to make them pay, it couldn’t. The offense that operated so brilliantly for 15 minutes was a shell of its former self, and it left room for the Blue Devil comeback.

“We probably had the ball two or three times, and we threw it away a couple of those times,” Rice said, “and we really needed to be more patient when we did get it.”

Published on May 27, 2013 at 8:49 pm

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