ITHACA, N.Y. — Dominic Lamolinara knelt. Then he crouched. Then he paced.

With Cornell in a man-up situation and Bobby Wardwell fending off a flurry of shots to preserve a two-goal lead, the senior goalie — who took to the sideline after a strong first half — couldn’t stand still.

But then Wardwell made a play that glued Lamolinara’s feet to the grass.

The junior hustled to a save as it rolled to the near sideline and reached his stick out to give SU possession. Lamolinara, for maybe the only time in the second half, stood still in front of a line of his teammates.

Then he clenched his fists. Then he screamed.

“It’s more adrenaline than anything, I just can’t stop moving,” Lamolinara said. “That just proved that this substitution thing is working for us.”

Against No. 6 Cornell (9-2, 1-3 Ivy League) Lamolinara started, but Wardwell jogged out to the cage for the second half, as has been the case for most of the season. The formula was particularly successful against the Big Red, as No. 7 Syracuse (7-3, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) cruised to a 14-9 win under the lights at Schoellkopf Field on Tuesday night.

Lamolinara made six saves and gave up five goals on 21 shots in the first, and Wardwell followed with six more saves while yielding four goals on 18 attempts. And it was just the second time this season, in eight tries, that Syracuse held a ranked opponent to fewer than 10 goals.

“I thought we both did a great job,” Wardwell said. “He played awesome in the first half and set us up for what we were able to do in the second half.”

Cornell tested Lamolinara with low shot after low shot early in the first half, yet Lamolinara stayed close to the ground and protected an area that usually gives him trouble.

Big Red midfielder John Hogan, who played with Lamolinara at St Mary’s (Md.) High School, was particularly shot happy out of the gates. But he — as well as midfielder Connor Buczek and star attack Dan Lintner — was stymied by his former teammate and Cornell scratched out just one first-quarter goal.

“I felt a little shaky in warmups but getting my first save was a great feeling for me,” Lamolinara said. “Then I got a one-on-one off the knee that really got me in the zone, and it was easy pickings from there.”

Amid his strong first half, Lamolinara let in four straight goals in the middle of the second quarter — a timely run that injected life into an otherwise listless Cornell attack.

The defense broke down on consecutive possessions and Lintner scored two goals in 16 seconds. Then Buczek and midfield Joe Paoletta found space in the zone and pushed the Big Red ahead 5-4 a few minutes later.

But Lamolinara regrouped to close the half unscathed. And once he got to the locker room at halftime, he knew his job was done.

“I could hear him talking to Bobby to get ready and we hadn’t even made the call yet,” SU head coach John Desko said. “There’s a lot of confidence. They’re pretty comfortable in their roles and when they go in.

“We’re very fortunate to have two goalies like that.”

For most of the second half, as the daylight ran out and overhead lights lit the field, Wardwell stood alone as faceoff specialist Chris Daddio secured 9-of-13 faceoffs and the SU offense methodically worked.

But when Wardwell was tested, he assumed his role as the team’s steadfast closer.

After he shutdown Cornell’s pivotal man-up possession in the third, Wardwell made two key saves early in the fourth quarter before catching a rocket from Buczek with just more than three minutes left in the game.

Immediately after he caught the ball, he slung an outlet pass that hit Tom Grimm in stride before Scott Loy netted the game-sealing goal.

Then Wardwell stood up Lintner one-on-one with the final seconds ticking off the game clock, and threw another outlet pass. Except this time it sailed 80 yards and over the heads of all 18 players on the field.

As the white ball dove toward the grass in front of the Cornell net, Lamolinara was already running onto the field to embrace Wardwell in front of the net.

And in a crowd of bouncing orange jerseys, two players somehow stood alone.

Said Lamolinara: “I think I jumped out of the box early because I was so excited. We’re lucky the refs didn’t see that. I was just trying to get to Bob.”

Published on April 9, 2014 at 12:08 am

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