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A no-look pass from Finn Thomson to Michael Leo led to a 9-8 lead. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Syracuse looked like it might’ve done enough to put away No. 10 Johns Hopkins, negate a late poor faceoff effort and capitalize on a season-high three goals from Owen Hiltz. Then, shortly after Brendon Aviles’ penalty was released, Matt Collison got a pass up from X, sprinted toward the goal and fired off a shot past Will Mark to tie the game at 9-9.

Then, Jack Fine, who was only in the game because Johnny Richiusa fell off a cliff after a strong start at the faceoff X, lost the ensuing faceoff to Logan Callahan. The Blue Jays fell into their offensive approach, trying to waste as much of the remaining six minutes in the game as it could. Then, the ball finally worked its way around to Ryan Evans on the left edge. He had Carter Rice on him, but a simple juke move to his left allowed enough space for Evans to sprint past Rice toward the goal. Mark shaded up toward Evans, lept and watched the shot dribble behind him for a goal, giving Johns Hopkins a 10-9 lead.

Syracuse once again battled in a low-scoring affair with Johns Hopkins, mirroring last year’s 10-7 loss in which it couldn’t finish shots and sputtered out. It couldn’t get ahead of Johns Hopkins after a quick 2-0 start to the game. The Orange struggled as the game progressed at the faceoff X. Then, the Orange allowed three goals in the final six minutes of the game. Syracuse (3-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) fell 11-9 after a final goal from Patrick Deans, a long-stick midfielder to Johns Hopkins (5-3) for the second straight year.

We didn’t get a ride because they got the break on us,” head coach Gary Gait said.

Johns Hopkins, a team that has had an up-and-down season, featuring low-scoring losses and two one-goal wins, provided the perfect chance for Syracuse to play the complementary lacrosse and complete game that Gait has been hoping for. It was doing nearly everything right. The faceoffs were better, the ground balls picked up more, the defensive breakdowns rarer. It just couldn’t finish off shots. 

About halfway through the third quarter, Syracuse found itself on a man-up after Beaudan Szuluk got called for unnecessary roughness after checking Jackson Birtwistle into the ground. Joey Spallina collected the ball right next to the crease with one man on him. He opted for an underhanded, behind-the-back pass that sailed past the right side of the cage. Jackson Birtwistle picked up the loose ball, but couldn’t finish his shot either, and Johns Hopkins took over possession.

There were mistakes, as there have been every game this season. Gait’s defense still broke down at key points and kept the game closer than it should have been. It wasn’t clean. The first faceoff took nearly 10 seconds for Syracuse to pick up, and midfield scrums with loose balls that neither team could pick up plagued both sides from the beginning.

Syracuse got called for failing to advance the ball after two straight saves from Will Mark off of Matt Collison shots. Landon Clary got shoved out of bounds and had to limp off the field. The Orange — like they had in the last three games — struggled to possess the ball long enough to have meaningful attempts at scoring opportunities. Johns Hopkins, who hasn’t scored more than 15 goals in a game this season, had Syracuse on its heels.

“The last piece of the puzzle is to make plays on the field. We’re not there yet,” Gait said.

Mark kept up initially, saving two straight shots from Matt Collison from the top of the formation, but struggled to adjust when his defenders wouldn’t slide or keep up with Johns Hopkins’ attackers. It looked as though the Orange were going to keep it close, but fall once again in a tight matchup hindered by mistakes at the faceoff X and on ground balls that led to Johns Hopkins goals. For the second straight week, the Orange, who rank 54th in ground balls per game, had to focus on ground balls in practice.

Then the Orange won another faceoff, one of Richiusa’s four in the first quarter, and began piling shots on goal on the other end. Right after Garrett Degnon sped around his defender and tied the game at two goals apiece, the Orange won their ensuing faceoff, and whipped five straight shots on goal that were eight off target or saved by goalie Tim Marcille. 

Jackson Birtwistle’s first shot flew off the goal. Then, Owen Hiltz fired too high, Griffin Cook’s off-balance shot was tightly defended and bounced wide, and Michael Leo’s shot from the top of the formation was saved, but bounced out of the stick of Marcille. Joey Spallina picked up the loose ball and generated another shot that also went wide.

Marcille was finally saved and could exhale when Johns Hopkins got called for a crosscheck to the neck. But shortly after the break, Hiltz, from the top of the offense, flipped the ball down to Spallina standing to the left of the crease. He faked Marcille with a high shot, then dumped in a low shot to reclaim the lead for the Orange.

“(Pat March) gives us the keys and lets us work. It’s fun having so many Canadian guys with me that can do something inside,” Thomson said.

After the Blue Jays knotted up the score at three goals apiece to open the second quarter, Hiltz immediately came back for the Orange. With Spallina running around at X, Hiltz was crashing toward the net in front of the freshman and grabbed the pass in the wide open field. Birtwistle had set a terrific screen, setting up an untouched shot by Hiltz right in front of the crease that put SU ahead 4-3.

Staying within striking distance and closing out games has been a difficult ask for Syracuse over the last three games. It has been worn down by tremendous offensive opponents, many of which have at least three go-to scoring options that have picked apart the Orange’s defense and led to late goals and three straight losses. It had let up an early 5-1 lead against Duke, eventually storming back late in the game just to break down on defense with one minute left in the first overtime period.

Then that final stretch came, those final six minutes that Syracuse showed its youth, its inability to close out games, the gaping space between where it wants to be and where it is right now. A couple of turnovers, shots and saves, headlined by a career day from Marcille led to a 10-9 lead. The final goal, simply there to slam the door on the Orange for the second straight year, was just a breakdown at the midfield and a turnover.

“These guys won’t forget these games,” Gait said.

Published on March 11, 2023 at 6:22 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt