Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Orange overcome mistakes, head back to Final Four with 13-11 win over North Carolina

The Syracuse Orange have struggled with critical mistakes in big games all season long. On Saturday afternoon on Long Island, they finally figured out how to overcome them.

It wasn’t the perfect outing, but Syracuse is heading back to the Final Four for the second consecutive season on the back of a total team effort that saw them finally outlast North Carolina in their third attempt with a 13-11 victory in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Shuart Stadium.

In a heavyweight sparring match that was all about which team could react better to absorbing body blows of momentum, the Orange had the final answer after it looked like they might give away another fourth quarter lead against their ACC foes.

A couple of North Carolina goals early in the fourth quarter tied the game up at 10s with just over 10 minutes remaining. The goal that tied it up came after a series of brutal ‘Cuse miscues that looked like they were the beginning of another late-game mistake meltdown.

But this time, the Orange overcame, making the plays late to return to Championship Weekend and keep their pursuit of the ultimate goal going. They would score the next three goals of the game while making some huge stops on the other end to take control at 13-10 and never give it up.

Appropriately, they leaned on their senior class to come up big, late when they were needed the most. They delivered. A senior scored all four of SU’s goals in the fourth quarter, coupled with some massive plays on the defensive end by fourth-year players.

Joey Spallina once again led the charge in the quarterfinal round, on the same field he scored eight points last season, with six points on a hat trick and three assists in eerily similar fashion to one year ago. Last year, Joey scored four goals in the first half and turned around with four helpers in the second. Today, he had three assists in the first half and all three of his goals in the second. Doing whatever it takes, whenever it takes.

Finn Thomson was once again on point, scoring a hat trick that included the eventual game-winning goal. Luke Rhoa had three points on two goals and an assist, and Michael Leo added a goal. Non-senior Wyatt Hottle played a huge role in igniting offense with his foot speed and quickness, finishing with a goal and two assists and consistently keeping the UNC defense on the move throughout the day.

On defense, Billy Dwan came up with a few huge plays in the fourth quarter, both in helping make stops and create loose balls on defense and one massive play in transition where he flipped a ball back into the middle of the field while mid-air after being pushed out on a clear, leading to a goal.

The specialists could not have been any more clutch. Johnny Mullen had perhaps the best performance of the day with the way he neutralized North Carolina’s inherent advantage with Brady Wambach on face-offs. Mullen won 13-of-24 as he led SU to a 14-of-27 day at the dot; it’s the first time Wambach has been held below 50 percent in a game since his freshman season two years ago.

He got great help from his wings, too, and ‘Cuse’s face-off unit came up huge agains the toughest opponent possible. Mullen also scored two first-half goals directly off draw wins to add to his incredible day.

Jimmy McCool had another strong day in net, coming up with 12 saves of the 23 UNC put on cage to hold the Tar Heels vaunted offense to just 11 goals on the afternoon.

The game started off incredibly slowly on the scoreboard. It was just about 14 minutes into the game before the seal was broken, and it came off a Syracuse failed clear attempt. Thankfully, it was answered immediately when Mullen gave a pinch-and-pop to win the draw, avoided a trail checked and finished with a twister to tie it up a 1-1 six seconds later.

That was all the scoring for the first quarter, but things really opened up in the second. Carolina got a couple to move ahead, 3-1, but the Orange answered when Bogue Hahn scored his first goal in over a month on a fantastic fadeaway jump shot on the low wing after taking a pass from Spallina.

Unfortunately, UNC had their own immediate answer to that when Brady Wambach found a shot that hit the pipe and threw it in before McCool realized what happened to score just eight seconds later. It was the first a three straight that saw Carolina stretch the lead out to 6-2 with five minutes left in the first half.

At that point, it wasn’t feeling great for SU as the Tar Heels were starting to win their matchups off the dodge and gain some separation from their defenders, led by a pair of tallies from electric freshman Anthony Raio.

But the fight was present from the Orange, and they punched back in the final five minutes. Spallina found Luke Rhoa on the low right wing, where the sharpshooter unloaded that patented cocked-back-as-far-as-possible shot of his for a tally. Six seconds later, Mullen scored his second of the half directly off a face-off.

A few minutes later, Finn got on the board for the first time when Joey found him on the low wing for a smooth finish in which he showed low, and shot high on a goal that came in the aftermath of UNC committing an offside turnover. That three-goal run brought SU back to within comfortable striking distance at 6-5 by halftime, and it was just the beginning of a game-changing run for the Orange.

‘Cuse would also score the first three goals out of the break, as well, to go on a 6-0 mid-game run that brought a 6-2 deficit into an 8-6 lead just under four minutes into the third quarter.

Joey scored less than a minute in when he got a look out on the right wing after the ball was deflected to him, which had been proceeded by a fantastic short-hop pick-up in the middle of transition by Wyatt Hottle. A couple minutes later, Hottle got a goal for himself after Payton Anderson dodged up from below GLE, drew a slide down, and found Wyatt who unleashed an overhand shot from deep that beat goalie Kent Goode low. After that, Michael Leo got to the middle of the field and flicked home a lefty shot that Goode got a piece of but couldn’t corral.

The Heels would close the quarter with a pair of goals sandwiching a very nice connection from Hottle to Finn on a cross-crease pass coming up from GLE on the left side for an easy finish on the right. At the end of three, the Orange had a 9-8 advantage.

They started fast in the fourth, scoring just over 30 seconds in thanks to Hottle’s jitterbug quickness drawing the pole, leaving Rhoa with a shortie. Luke took the feed, ran down the left alley and scored on another big overhand, cocked-back shot to give SU a two-goal lead.

It was short-lived, however, as UNC would score the next two goals to tie the game up at 10-10 with 10:21 remaining in the game. It was at this point that some mistakes were starting to rear their ugly heads. The second goal, in particular, which was Dom Pietramala’s first of the game, came after a terrible one-handed pass by Bogue Hahn sailed out of bounds and Jayden Kittelberger got caught in a pick that led to an open look for Petro in yet another example of bad pick defense.

That was a moment that felt like the exact epitome of this ‘Cuse team’s struggles against top opponents all season. It felt like they were on the verge of losing another one late. But this time, they came up huge.

Possibly the biggest moment of all came with a little over eight minutes to play, when McCool stuffed a shot and threw an outlet pass to Billy Dwan. Hounded by defenders, Dwan attempted to run the ball up towards midfield, but he ran out of real estate and went airborne when he was pushed out of bounds by the Carolina ride (never mind his foot placement). He made a phenomenal flip pass to Dante Bowen, who had been running parallel to him up the field. Dante took the pass and continued the clear into the offensive zone, where he found Spallina coming up top to receive a pass. In the chaos of the moment, Joey ended up with an open look from straight-on up top, and he buried it in the low left corner to give the Orange a lead they’d never rescind.

With just under five minutes to play, Billy Dwan came up big again by throwing himself in front of a shot and blocking it with his back. On the ensuing possession, Finn scored the eventual game-winner when Rhoa corralled a loose ball and dumped a pass down to him for the finish with 4:01 on the clock. Joey tacked on the insurance with 2:40 to play after patiently waiting for defenders to accumulate in front of the goalie and firing around his defender for a shot that was difficult or maybe even impossible for Goode to track, giving SU a 13-10 lead with under three minutes left.

Pietramala got his second after more bad pick defense from X to make it 13-11 with 2:10 to play, and Wambach won the ensuing face-off before UNC called timeout.

On the other side, the Orange came out in a zone defense to catch the Heels off-guard. They did get an open look against the zone, but didn’t score against it as Billy Dwan came up with one more big play when he knocked down a pass towards the interior before getting hit in the head on the subsequent loose-ball scrum with 45 seconds to play.

Up a man, ‘Cuse comfortably passed around to run out the clock and send themselves back to Memorial Day weekend. The Orange will face their second straight ACC foe in Notre Dame in next Saturday’s semifinal after the Irish dispatched of Johns Hopkins earlier today.