“Very few times in my life [have I] just looked forward to coming here and playing in this game,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “Quite honestly, the final result doesn’t matter a great deal — for both of these teams. Their goals probably don’t change a great deal no matter who wins or loses. What it means for the winner is: You’re kind of a playoff team now.”
By defeating Syracuse 13-12 Friday night, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team became the first team in history to emerge victorious in three straight appearances at the Carrier Dome.
“It’s our home away from home,” Starsia said. “There really is no secret. The statistics for this game are so mind boggling — that’s just another one, I think.”
En route to celebrating their impressive victory, the Cavaliers had to survive a scoring onslaught from the defending national champions during the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
After overcoming the Syracuse defense, as well as holding the fast-paced Orange offense at bay for the first three quarters of the game, Virginia found itself in a familiar position. The 2009 Cavaliers would have to hold on to a four-goal lead if they wished to avoid the fate of the 2008 Cavaliers, who fell to the Orange in last year's NCAA semifinals in the same situation.
“I thought [Virginia] did a nice job controlling the tempo of the game,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “Especially in the second and third quarter, it felt like we played a lot of defense ... Offensively it felt like we didn’t take care of the ball like I think we can. The guys once again showed a lot of character, a lot of heart [and] never quit. [They] got the ball back and scored to get us back into the game. We had an opportunity to win at the end."
The Cavaliers actually built on the lead they had going into the last period and were up five goals with five minutes left in regulation. But Syracuse came storming back.
“It is just remarkable,” Starsia said. “We had started talking about this game a couple days ago, and one of the first things I told the team was that you need to play Syracuse for 60 minutes -- that the game is not over until the final whistle blows.”
During the waning minutes of the game, the Orange seemed practically unstoppable as they scored almost at will against the Cavalier defense.
“I didn’t think — and I felt this way for the semifinal game a year ago — we were handing them that game out there,” Starsia said. “There were just some remarkable plays being made at the end of the game.”
In particular, Syracuse's sophomore goalkeeper, John Galloway, came up with several key saves during the final minutes, as Virginia tried to keep its lead.
“This is the most nervous I have been for a game in a while,” Galloway said. “The first quarter, I think really showed it. After that quarter, I realized I needed to step it up or this team was going to run all over us. I felt like I was seeing the ball for the first time against a good team. I let these guys down in a lot of big games last year — it was time for me to finally make some saves.”
Galloway's saves in the final quarter were important not only because they kept Virginia from increasing its lead, but also because they allowed Syracuse its own chances to score.
“I thought we might have got a little tentative on offense at the end,” Starsia said. “You sort of reach a point on offense in a game like that where you are not sure what your approach should be. In retrospect - when it gets away from you a little bit like that - you are thinking to yourself, ‘We probably should have slowed it down.’”
After two straight Syracuse goals in a one minute span by senior midfielder Kenny Nims, redshirt freshman attackman Tim Desko scored on an extra-man possession with 1:18 left to bring the Orange within one goal of the Cavaliers.
Syracuse then won the ensuing faceoff, and after calling a timeout with 50 seconds to play, the defending national champions found themselves with one final chance to even the score before time expired.
“Its kind of something you go into the game knowing that [a one-goal game is] a very good possibility,” said senior attackman Danny Glading, adding that, “it doesn’t really matter who’s winning [throughout the game, all that matters] is the last minutes of the game. It doesn’t matter what happens in the first game - it always ends up being close. It’s kind of funny how it turned out that way.”
The Orange never got a legitimate chance at goal, however, as they turned the ball over and allowed a Virginia clear to the other end of the field. Following a loose ball and a scrum for possession, time expired and the Cavaliers emerged victorious against the country's top-ranked team in front of a Syracuse home crowd of 16,995.
“This is the joy of it all right here — playing in that game right there,” Starsia said. “There have been so many great moments like that that. Someday I’ll hang up my whistle, but I’m always going to remember each one of these. Each one of these games has a life of its own.”
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