WASHINGTON — Trailing by one heading into halftime against a lesser Georgetown team, Syracuse was in danger of its second consecutive loss to a mediocre opponent.

Brian Megill knew it — it was like “Hobart all over again” — but he needed to energize his teammates.

“I asked them if they like losing,” Megill said. “And everyone looked right back at me and said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘We’re still losing.’”

Megill’s words struck a chord as the Orange rallied to stave off an upset, 9-8, in front of 2,736 at Multi-Sport Field. Buoyed by a four-goal third quarter, No. 3 SU (10-3, 4-1 Big East) dug out of a halftime hole and held off a late Hoya (5-8, 2-3) run to win its fourth one-goal game in 14 days.

With the sheer number of games it’s played in the past two weeks, Syracuse was sluggish out of the gate. All five games during the stretch were decided by one goal and the strenuous two weeks finally took its toll against Hobart on Tuesday as the Orange fell to the Statesmen.

For 30 minutes on Saturday it was more of the same. SU committed too many turnovers, missed too many opportunities and went into halftime trailing by one.

“I think it’s the number of games that we’ve had and one day to prepare for the Hoyas, the trip down here,” Syracuse head coach John Desko said. “I think we’re looking forward to having a couple days off.”

Even with Syracuse out of sorts, Scott Loy found himself with a chance to position SU on top. In his first game back, the Syracuse midfielder fired a shot wide of the net in transition. No one was there to back up his shot. Georgetown took over.

As Georgetown struggled, the Orange was simply unable to capitalize. SU turned the ball over on its final five possessions of the half and headed into the locker room trailing 5-4.

“You’ve just got to stay composed,” Megill said. “You don’t want to get hostile with anybody on the team. You’ve got to remain as one and come together.”

Five minutes into the second half, Maltz tied the game and ended a scoring drought that lasted nearly 19 minutes. GU midfielder Tyler Knarr responded immediately with a goal off the faceoff win, but SU found its rhythm.

Syracuse turned to its bread and butter for the next goal: a feed from JoJo Marasco to Luke Cometti.

Then Kevin Rice scored to give Syracuse its second lead of the day before Hakeem Lecky, who has struggled with his shot all season, cranked one from 15 yards out to send the Orange into the fourth quarter in control of the game’s tempo and scoreboard 8-6.

“I thought we did better in the second half — a few less turnovers — but I think what we saw was the accumulation of some of the games in a couple of weeks,” Desko said, “and I’m very happy to get out of here with a win today.”

A Cometti goal early in the fourth quarter stretched SU’s lead to 9-6, the largest for either team on the day. But Syracuse’s rhythm vanished quickly. The same mistakes that plagued the Orange early in the game resurfaced in the final 10 minutes.

Shots found Georgetown goaltender Jake Haley instead of the back of the net. Jarring – but clean – hits were replaced by ones that drew whistles. Offense cycled without purpose, and led to the game’s only stall warning.

The Hoyas, meanwhile, reeled off two goals in 48 seconds to cut Syracuse’s lead to one in the final two minutes.

“We know we’re a good team,” Marasco said, “we know that we’re going to win and for us to bear down in all these close games is only going to help.”

But the problems that plagued the Orange all day — the sloppiness, the boneheaded errors — now plagued GU. Now it was the Hoyas throwing balls away and forcing shots. Even on the game’s final possession, as SU was forced into a man-down situation after midfielder Steve Ianzito broke his stick, Georgetown shot itself in the foot.

Dan McKinney stood 10 yards away from the net with a chance to tie the game. But his pass attempt to Reilly O’Connor sailed high. Even with all its mistakes, mostly unforced, Syracuse would escape with victory.

“I refuse to lose, and so do the rest of the guys on this team,” Megill said, “and we really showed it coming out of halftime.”

Published on April 20, 2013 at 6:08 pm

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