Cornell goalie Christian Knight jogged off the field as Syracuse midfielder Jamie Trimboli threw his head back and pumped his fists. The latter had just scooped a loose ball and scored his second straight to give the Orange a three-goal lead. Knight continued his jogging, stopping near the penalty area, where he was to serve a one-minute penalty for slashing.

Syracuse had an opportunity to take full control of the game. It was already on a 3-0 run to begin the second quarter.

Faceoff specialist Danny Varello won the ensuing faceoff, keeping Syracuse’s man-up hopes intact. The Orange passed the ball around the perimeter, looking for an open cutter. Trimboli found a wide-open Brendan Bomberry right in front of the crease.

He missed wide.

All season long, Syracuse’s offense has shown signs of inexperience. Normally it was turnovers or quick shots that plagued the Orange, which contributed to six regular-season losses. But on Sunday inside the Carrier Dome, the No. 8-seeded Orange (8-7) could not convert its extra-man opportunities, finishing 0-for-3 in a 10-9 loss to Cornell (13-4) in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. For the first time since 2011, Cornell downed SU inside the Dome and will move on to play Maryland in the quarterfinals next weekend.

“We got an extra man, so you should put it in the back of the net,” SU head coach John Desko said. “We had opportunities to shoot it (more), could’ve pulled the trigger, but we didn’t.”

Entering Sunday night, Syracuse had an opportunity at revenge. It had dropped a regular-season matchup to Cornell a month ago, a five-goal loss on the road, yet still earned a higher seed in the tournament. Now, SU was home in a place the Orange is most comfortable in.

In that 13-8 loss in early April, Cornell had been successful at shutting down Syracuse’s only man-up opportunity. After shutting down the Orange’s first man-up on Sunday, Cornell’s Clarke Petterson responded with an extra-man goal of his own to pull the Big Red within two.

As the game progressed and Cornell tied the game at 7-7 midway in the second half, Andrew Helmer recovered a loose ball off the faceoff and was shoved near the sideline, prompting another man-up opportunity for SU. But before Helmer was hit, a behind-the-back pass kept the offense in motion. Brendan Curry scored soon after, and similar to its first opportunity, SU went man-up on the back of a goal.

Again, Varello won the faceoff. And again, the offense worked the ball around the perimeter. Stephen Rehfuss caught the ball in the corner and jogged five yards forward before firing a cross-field pass to Bomberry.

This time, he didn’t miss wide. Instead, it deflected off Knight’s stick and bounced back into play. Cornell’s Dan Bockelman scooped the ground ball and crossed midfield, effectively ending SU’s man-up.

“Syracuse is such a fundamental team,” Cornell interim head coach Peter Milliman said. “A lot of the time they can get away with not doing a whole lot of crazy stuff on man-up. So it can be kind of familiar because you’ve seen it a bunch of times.”

The Orange’s man-up had always been a strong part of its game. It entered the NCAA tournament ranked No. 18 in the country, converting at a 41-percent clip. The man-up unit was one of Syracuse’s most experienced lines of attack, with redshirt senior Matt Lane and junior Brad Voigt replacing freshmen Brendan Curry and Tucker Dordevic. And in all but three games prior to Sunday night, Syracuse had scored at least once while man-up.

Cornell mixed up its tactics. It targeted different attackers, taking out junior Nate Solomon completely on one of the three man-ups. Milliman said he wanted to throw something Syracuse had not seen before, trying to throw them off.

“They shut off Nate and that was something we really never have seen before,” Bomberry said.

The last man-up for Syracuse came in one of the game’s most crucial moments. For the first time all game, the Orange had given up its lead and trailed. Right off the ensuing faceoff, SU’s Brett Kennedy scooped the ground ball and pushed upfield. He was met by two Cornell players before being pushed, drawing the extra-man opportunity.

With 5:15 remaining, Syracuse had a chance to regain momentum with a game-tying goal. Similar to the first man-up, Trimboli took possession at the top of the key. He turned and fired toward Bomberry in front of the crease.

“We did a good job with our pace off-ball,” senior defender Jake Pulver said. “Sometimes on man-down you can get lulled asleep when they’re exchanging the ball at the perimeter and you don’t have clear communication of who’s picking up the ball and what we’re doing. And I think we did a good job staying on a string when we went to the shot.”

For the third straight Syracuse extra-man opportunity, Bomberry found himself alone in front of the cage with only the goalie to beat. He shot low, but Knight met Bomberry there.

Knight scooped the ball up and threw it 40 yards upfield to Jake McCulloch as Cornell cleared the ball.

In its most important game of the season, Syracuse’s normally reliable man-up unit was anything but. And it made a difference that Cornell took advantage of, squeaking out a one-goal win to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals.

“We had some good shots on the man-up, but didn’t capitalize on it,” Desko said. “That especially might’ve been the difference in the game tonight.”

Published on May 13, 2018 at 11:12 pm

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