In the same game that Syracuse goalie Evan Molloy turned in the best half of his career, he followed it with the worst quarter.

A 20-minute, five-save, two-goals allowed opening to the game preceded a 10-minute stretch in which Molloy gave up four goals on five shots.

Molloy watched helplessly in net as North Carolina shots flew past him and Syracuse’s once 8-2 lead shrunk to 9-7 in the fourth quarter. But then he responded. Two key saves stopped the Tar Heel run and prevented Syracuse from blowing four of its last five fourth-quarter leads.

In an up-and-down game, Molloy did just enough to get the No. 9 Orange (7-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) the 13-7 win over No. 11 North Carolina (6-5, 2-1) and clinch a spot in the conference tournament.

It was SU’s first win this season in five tries against a team ranked No. 11 or higher.

“He did a good job in the beginning and then they stuck a couple,” head coach John Desko said. “It was good to have him make the big saves going down the stretch because that kind of stopped their momentum, especially when they got within two goals and he made a couple nice saves right after that.”

The first goal of the third quarter was a fluke. Luke Goldstock picked up a loose ball in front of the net among a group of defenders and shot it in. But it gave UNC life.

In the last seven minutes of the quarter, the Tar Heels scored three times on three shots.

It was a stark contrast to what happened in the first half. Molloy made a save one minute into the game and tossed it far down field leading to a goal in transition — the most fun part of playing in net, he said. He did that one other time in the half, too.

He was riding high after allowing just two goals on 11 shots midway through the game against the No. 4 scoring team in the country that averages nearly 14 goals per game. Molloy had made point-blank stops and was the backbone of a defense that was playing like a new and improved version of its old self.

“I felt great the whole game to be honest,” Molloy said. “I thought we were giving up shots I could save the whole game.”

But to start the third, Syracuse was testing out its zone defense and North Carolina was running isolation schemes that it hadn’t earlier. The Orange defense had trouble figuring out which player was going to slide.

After the disastrous third quarter for Molloy, the fourth didn’t start any better. Just two and a half minutes in, Michael Tagliaferri scored his third goal of the night running in from the left side to cut Syracuse’s lead to two.

“As a goalie you’re going to get scored on,” Molloy said. “What’s important — and I think that I did well — was not kind of get down, not get in my own head. Focus on the next shot.”

That next shot came with 10:34 left in the game off the stick of Luke Goldstock, who had scored twice before. A goal would have made it five in a row for North Carolina and made it a one-goal game.

Goldstock ran across the middle of the field and bounced a shot that Molloy dropped to the ground to save — his first in 12 minutes and 39 seconds.

“Goalie made a nice save,” North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi said, “and then they put two on the board before we could get the ball back.”

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Desko started thinking about those games against Duke, Johns Hopkins and Cornell where SU collapsed with fourth quarter leads. He joked that the clock couldn’t run fast enough.

Midfielder Nick Mariano called the overtime loss to Cornell on Tuesday frustrating and said it was on the team to fix its mistakes.

Saturday was a closer call than the scoreboard suggests, but a few late saves by Molloy were enough to end the furious Tar Heels come back.

“We’re never frustrated at all,” Molloy said. “In my three games I’ve played in so far we’re always ready. We feel comfortable in what we’re doing and we trust that it’s going to work and it worked great for us.”

Not great, but good enough.

Published on April 16, 2016 at 8:52 pm

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