Regardless of the seven saves he made in the first half, Dominic Lamolinara knew what to expect at halftime Saturday.

The senior didn’t ask the coaches if he’d return to his spot between the pipes. He asked when Bobby Wardwell wanted to warm up, just like every other break, then strapped his helmet back on and helped his teammate prepare.

And when the final horn sounded in Syracuse’s 11-10 win over Notre Dame, Lamolinara led the charge from the sideline onto the field. It didn’t matter to him he had been pulled from the cage after playing a strong first half, because Wardwell replaced him and closed out the Orange’s inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference win with another sturdy second-half outing between the pipes.

“After he made that big save at the end,” Lamolinara said, “we got a clear that led to our game-winning goal — that was all Bob. If he doesn’t make that save, it’s a two-goal swing. I think he won us the game on Saturday.”

Wardwell will likely receive an opportunity to extend his stretch of solid play when No. 7 Syracuse (5-3, 1-3 ACC) takes on Central New York opponent Binghamton (3-5, 1-0 America East) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. Although Lamolinara has nearly doubled Wardwell’s minutes on the season, the latter has made a strong case for SU head coach John Desko to continue the platoon system that has worked more often than not for the Orange this year.

“It’s really the song remains the same,” Desko said. “We’ve played two goalies as much as we’ve felt comfortable doing it this year. We have a lot of confidence in (Wardwell).

“He’s been playing well right along and he showed it in the second half against Notre Dame.”

At Duke on March 23, Wardwell saved 11 second-half shots and his play was one of the few positives Desko took away from the game. Against the Irish on Saturday, the junior made a trio of saves in the third quarter to help Syracuse take a one-goal edge into the final frame.

Although SU pushed its lead to three goals in the fourth, Notre Dame rallied back to knot the score at 10 with 6:29 left.

But with the Orange’s ACC tournament hopes hanging in the balance, Wardwell made three saves in a two-minute span down the stretch.

On the last save, Wardwell snared an outside shot and then flipped a pass ahead to long-stick midfielder Peter Macartney, which led to the decisive transition goal.

“The defense did a really good job of keeping them to the outside for the most part and giving me good shots,” Wardwell said.

After Syracuse’s upset of Johns Hopkins on March 15, it appeared Lamolinara had possibly wrestled the job from Wardwell. Lamolinara played all but 27 seconds in SU’s loss to Virginia on March 1, left the game after three quarters with an eight-goal lead against St. John’s a week later and recorded 11 saves in 60 minutes at JHU.

But since, Wardwell has forced himself back into the picture by reaping the benefits of picking Lamolinara’s brain at halftime before entering the game.

“I think it’s a good system and it’s working,” Wardwell said. “I get to see what’s going on in the first half, how the other team’s riding, what their shooters are doing, what their offense is doing, so you can help the defense adjust.

“It’s almost a little easier to prepare, I think, going in in the second half.”

After halftime, Wardwell doesn’t have much time to get warmed up for live action, but Jeff Desko and Brenny Daly’s warm-up shots before the start of each second half are enough.

Not many other college teams utilize two goalies the way the Orange does, but Lamolinara and Wardwell are just fine with it — as long as the results are to their satisfaction.

Said Lamolinara: “I haven’t been on a whole lot of teams where there’s that much support in competing positions. At the end of the day, we just want to win the game.”

Published on April 2, 2014 at 12:02 am

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