WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alex Bono dropped to his knees. His blue jersey shielding his eyes from the jubilation and celebration that encircled him. He was alone, yet surrounded by a sea of people. His mind both blank and racing at the same time.

It had taken only seconds for the entire Georgetown team to congregate in a jumping circle around the Syracuse goal. And it had taken only seconds for one goal to erase a season of winning dominance.

“I couldn’t even describe to you what I thought when it went in,” Bono, the SU goalkeeper, said. “I heard the crowd behind me. I just kind of put my head in the ground. I was kind of brainless for a second.”

In the same venue, against the same team and on the same faded, worn-out November grass that Syracuse had lost to Georgetown in the third-round in 2012, Sunday’s game followed a similar script. Eighth-seeded Georgetown (14-4-4) overcame a one-goal lead and ninth-seeded Syracuse’s (16-4-1) season came to a screeching halt in a 2-1 overtime loss at Shaw Field in front of 1,505.

With 6:17 remaining in the first overtime period, Jared Rist headed a corner directly into the bottom right corner of the goal, just inches away from Bono, sending the Hoyas into the quarterfinals and Syracuse reflecting on a season its players felt ended prematurely.

“When you commit everything and you put all your chips in, if it doesn’t work, you feel, you have this, you have emotions,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “It’s a tough day.”

As it has in 16 of its 21 games this season, the Orange took a 1-0 lead. Senior defender Skylar Thomas had raced up from the back line, running down the sideline with a Hoya defender before kicking the ball off the Georgetown defender and out of bounds.

The ensuing corner kick went to sophomore striker Alex Halis, who dribbled the ball into the box, rifled a shot past an outstretched yet helpless Tomas Gomez. The Georgetown goalkeeper could only dust himself off following the 55th-minute goal.

Until that point, Georgetown had outshot Syracuse 11-5, but the Hoyas’ opportunities evaporated after. For 35 minutes, the Hoyas didn’t manage a shot on goal.

But when Tyler Rudy lined up his corner kick with a little more than 10 minutes to play, the noise in the stadium reached a pitch it hadn’t yet touched. Some in the crowd rose to their feet, and others stomped them loudly against the aluminum bleachers that were packed with navy blue.

Rudy lifted his cross directly to Keegan Rosenberry at the opposite end of the goal. He headed the ball back across goal and into the net with 10:09 remaining. The crowd that was waiting to explode did.

In 2012, Syracuse’s 1-0 lead vanished on a Georgetown goal from Brandon Allen with 5:04 left to play, and Rosenberry’s goal on Sunday was a prelude to a nearly identical result, sealed by Rist’s overtime game-winner.

“It’s hard giving up a goal (10) minutes before the end of the game,” Thomas said. “That being said, they get all the momentum and we’re kind of on the back foot after that. We got unlucky.”

Syracuse may not have been the same Cinderella story that it was two years ago when it came into the tournament and won its first two games over ranked opponents.

This time around, Syracuse was a national contender that had found its name placed high atop the rankings. Disappointment in 2014 has been few and far between. But when it has happened, there’s always been another game to play.

But as the players walked around the field aimlessly following Sunday’s loss — some with their head in their hands, some on their knees, others back to the bench — there was little solace to be found.

“We went up in this game two years ago and we were kind of clinging for dear life,” McIntyre said. “We’ve come a long way to come down here and to be the protagonist and be on the front foot and be the aggressor.

“… It’s heartbreaking.”

Published on November 30, 2014 at 3:26 pm

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