Bobby Wardwell looked up at the Carrier Dome roof through his helmet and screamed after Patrick Fraser’s shot bee-lined over the Syracuse goalie’s right shoulder.

A game that saw each team blow three-goal leads was tied at 10 in the fourth quarter, and the seven-person Johns Hopkins pep band could be heard over the season-high 5,778 fans in the Carrier Dome.

But after five minutes of the crowd holding its breath, it erupted. Dylan Donahue found the back of the net and the Orange never looked back.

“It was crucial for us to get that next goal,” SU attack Randy Staats said.

After finding itself in an early four-goal deficit for the second straight game, SU exploded with seven consecutive of its own. Johns Hopkins fought back to tie the game at eight and then again at 10, but No. 1 Syracuse (6-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) eventually got a three-goal lead it wouldn’t relent and staved off No. 16 Johns Hopkins (3-4) in a 13-10 win in the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon.

“The easiest thing to understand about a good team is if you make mistakes, they’re good enough to capitalize,” Blue Jays head coach Dave Pietramala said. “I thought that was the story of today’s game.”

The end result was a stark contrast to how the game began, though. Syracuse faceoff specialist Ben Williams was called for two violations in the first 10 minutes. Balls blistered over each of Wardwell’s shoulders and into the net while even the injured Blue Jays chest-bumped each other on the visitors’ sideline.

Syracuse head coach John Desko called a timeout six minutes in and the home contingent was barely audible.

“I don’t think we touched the ball until about 11 minutes maybe,” Desko said.

But SU clawed back to within one early in the second quarter and midfielder Tim Barber caught the ball 10 yards out on the left side of the goal. He reared back, fired and found the top-right corner to tie the game, pumping his right fist as the crowd erupted in front of him.

Then midfielder Nicky Galasso took advantage of his defender tripping over the back of the goal, beating JHU goalie Eric Schneider for SU’s first lead of the day.

On the sideline, it was Johns Hopkins coaches throwing their hands up in the air at referees’ calls and the rattling of orange pom-poms that could be heard rather than JHU’s instrumental section.

“I think they switched (their defense) up a couple times because they didn’t know quite what to do with us,” SU midfielder Henry Schoonmaker said.

Syracuse added two more, but just as it looked as if the hosts would pull away, Johns Hopkins responded. The Blue Jays tied the game at eight in the third and then again at 10 in the fourth. The crowd was reduced back to silence, and the nation’s top team was in need of another spark.

Donahue provided it. But this time, Johns Hopkins never retaliated. Schoonmaker and Staats stretched the lead to three and JHU wilted as the clock wound down.

“Especially late in the game we took a couple bad shots where we definitely could’ve improved on that,” Johns Hopkins attack Shack Stanwick said. “That ultimately comes back to really hurt us.”

With 21.7 seconds left, the JHU pep band played during a timeout, but quieter than it had all day. Wardwell held onto the ball as the final buzzer sounded, and Syracuse jogged onto the field as the Blue Jays walked off and the Orange prevailed to stay undefeated.

“I thought it was a great college lacrosse game today,” Desko said. “There was a lot of up and down…Both teams played for 60 minutes, and it’s a great W for us.”

Published on March 14, 2015 at 4:23 pm

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