BALTIMORE — The yellow penalty flag plummeted to the turf in front of the Syracuse bench as head coach John Desko raised his arms and barked at the official.

Late in the third quarter of its opening-round NCAA tournament game against No. 8 seed Loyola, SU had been keeping the Greyhounds at arm’s length. Every time Loyola managed a goal, the Orange scored one of its own.

But Syracuse had just surrendered a man-up goal to the Greyhounds and seven seconds after LU’s faceoff man, Bailey Savio, won the ensuing melee for the ball, Syracuse long stick midfielder Jared Fernandez was called for a push while riding his defender to the sideline. Desko didn’t agree with the call, but that didn’t matter.

Loyola’s top-flight offense took the field and minced SU’s man-down defense. Savio won the ensuing faceoff.

“I was frustrated,” Desko said. “I thought Jared kind of rode the guy out of bounds and it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t like he shoved him or anything like that. To lose the faceoff, to give up the one on the man-up, then give another man-up right away off the faceoff, that was difficult.”

Syracuse’s (9-5, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) combination of untimely, back-to-back penalties from Fernandez and Brett Kennedy and an inability to win faceoffs and control possession in the second half left the door open. Loyola (12-4, 7-1 Patriot) came in, kicked SU out and slammed it shut, topping the Orange 15-13 after scoring seven straight goals from 2:23 left in the third quarter into the last two minutes. SU, which controlled most of the game to that point, crashed out in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.

“I could just see the energy in our sideline develop in that moment,” Loyola head coach Charley Toomey said of the second man-up goal. “When we hit Chase (Scanlan) on that backside, that got us going.”

When Kennedy wandered to the penalty box with 2:57 left in the third quarter, the Orange nursed a four-goal lead, the largest for either team. A couple more goals may have secured a victory. Instead, with extra space to operate, the Greyhounds offense whipped the ball around the outside of Syracuse’s defense, seeking an open shooting line or pass inside.

The ball rested in Tewaaraton finalist Pat Spencer’s stick at the top of the alley when he spotted Aidan Olmstead standing on the backside of the crease. Before SU goalie Drake Porter fully moved to cover his goal mouth, Olmstead was already putting Spencer’s feed in the back of the net.

On the next man-up situation, less than a minute later, Loyola got an identical look, but to Porter’s opposite side. This time, Olmstead fed midfielder Chase Scanlan, who easily beat Porter.

In a 33 second span, the Greyhounds cut the Orange’s lead in half.

“When you get two in a row, especially in a close game like that, it definitely swings the momentum a little bit,” Loyola midfielder John Duffy said. “When you’re able to capitalize on it, it makes a world of difference.”

Riding the wave of momentum into the fourth quarter, the Greyhounds started dominating possession, keyed mainly by Savio. He dominated SU’s faceoff duo of sophomore Jakob Phaup and junior Danny Varello after playing relatively even in the first half. 

Kaci Wasilewski | Senior Staff Writer

Syracuse had two faceoff violations in the third quarter and risked giving up an extra-man opportunity with a third. In response, SU’s specialists had to react to the whistle instead of anticipating it, letting Savio get the jump. In the second half, Loyola won 10-of-13 faceoffs.

Constantly defending, Syracuse’s back line wore down in the fourth quarter. Spencer started to get the best of Mellen and rifled assists left and right, eventually setting the NCAA record for career assists (226). When Syracuse needed a short stick to help contain Spencer, the first slide often came in time, Mellen said, but SU’s defense struggled to fill in the space left where the second slide should’ve come.

Against fatigued defenders, Loyola poured in four goals through the first 7:14 of the fourth quarter, flipping a two-goal deficit into a two-goal lead. The Greyhounds parlayed two lapses by the Orange into an 8-1 run that ended the game and SU’s season.

“There was still so much time left on the clock and then, again, those penalties were off of faceoffs,” Desko said. “So it was Kennedy on the slash and Jared on the push, so did those mistakes come because of playing so much defense?”

It’s a question Desko has all offseason to mull over.

Published on May 11, 2019 at 4:38 pm

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