Syracuse men’s lacrosse: Orange complete epic comeback, win 13-12 overtime thriller over Harvard

Anybody else’s pulse racing uncontrollably after that one?

It took the Syracuse Orange until the fourth quarter of their second game against Harvard, but they finally figured out how to beat the Crimson.

On a disaster of a night when it seemed like nothing was going right for the Orange, they found themselves down six goals at halftime and 11-6 in the fourth quarter with just under 11 minutes left in the game and their season.

All seemed lost, and another early exit from the NCAA Tournament was being penciled into the record books.

Backed into a corner, the Orange finally fought back with a furious rage, landing punch after punch until Harvard was down on the canvas. And once they had them there, they put their foot down and kept them there.

Well, almost.

Just 31 seconds after Harvard scored to extend their lead to five with 10:59 left in the game, ‘Cuse went on a run that will live long in the Orange lacrosse memory, scoring five goals in 99 seconds to tie the game at 11-11 with 8:49 to play.

With an erupting Dome surrounding them, SU rode the monsoon of momentum to one of the fastest comeback runs you’ll ever see.

After they tied it, the teams traded unsuccessful possessions back and forth until Harvard committed a penalty with just under four minutes left in the fourth. ‘Cuse’s man-up execution was patient and textbook, and it reached its apex when Joey Spallina threw a skip pass to Owen Hiltz, who faked a shot a flipped a BTB pass to Michael Leo for the open wing finish.

That moment of brilliance gave the Orange a 12-11 lead with 3:32 left in the fourth. After a few more empty possessions for each team, SU had the ball with a man-up with just 1:07 left in the game. SU killed off the penalty but then almost immediately lost the ball once Harvard got back to full strength, and the Crimson came down and scored a soul-crushing goal with six seconds left in regulation.

It was a head-in-hands moment for Orange nation, but the despair didn’t last long as Johnny Mullen and the offense quickly took care of business in overtime. Mullen, who led SU to 24-of-28 restarts on the night (85.7 percent), won the opening face-off and let his teammates take care of the rest.

Spallina found Hiltz, who made a cut when the defense lost sight of him, as the redshirt senior took the pass, split a double team while receiving at least one check to the head, and finished five-hole while dodging down the left alley to complete the incredible, six-goal comeback.

The game-winning goal, just 51 seconds into overtime, was the culmination of a final 12 minutes or so in which the offense finally figured out how to capitalize on all the possession afforded to them by Mullen.

It started with Luke Rhoa, who scored his third of four goals on a nice dodge across the middle to kick off the five-goals-in-99-seconds run.

But the biggest factor came down to the Orange’s EMO unit, which played a central role in the victory. After going 0-for-3 in the first three quarters, ‘Cuse took full opportunity given them by Harvard and went 4-for-4 on man-up in the fourth quarter.

Most of it stemmed from a one-minute, unreleasable head check penalty that Harvard committed with 10:13 left in the fourth. The Orange were able to do something you rarely see in unreleasable penalty situations: they punished the offending team with multiple goals. They scored three goals during that minute, in fact, and that penalty proved to be a huge turning point as it gave SU life with a pair of Trey Deere crease finishes and a Chuck Kuczynski pole goal off a face-off win.

Mullen going against a bad Harvard face-off unit allowed the Orange to play make-it-take-it and take full advantage of the extra man both on face-off wings and on offense. That minute penalty turned the game from an 11-7 Crimson lead to a one-goal game that ‘Cuse tied up just over 20 seconds later off the ensuing face-off after the penalty expired.

Like I said, they finally figured out how to capitalize on the advantage Mullen gave them.

An unforgettable night in the Dome extends the Orange’s season and catapults them into the NCAA quarterfinals next weekend down at Hofstra, where they’ll face the 3-seed Princeton Tigers next Saturday.