CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Syracuse had one last chance to complete its comeback against Virginia.

After a timeout by head coach John Desko with 1:15 remaining, freshman midfielder JoJo Marasco and Tim Desko started passing back and forth behind the net. Marasco eventually worked the ball to the front, and the Orange continued working it around the perimeter.

But as the clock wound down below 30 seconds, SU still couldn’t find any openings. Attack Stephen Keogh tried to post up his defender 15 yards out before dishing across the field to teammate Josh Amidon. Amidon quickly cycled the ball to Marasco behind the net, but his pass sailed over the freshman’s head and out of play.

After that, No. 2 Virginia (4-0) held the ball as the final 12 seconds ticked off the clock, securing an 11-10 win Sunday over top-ranked Syracuse (2-1) in front of 7,501 in Klockner Stadium. The Cavaliers held the Orange offense scoreless for nearly half of the game and staved off a late rally to seal the win. The loss marks SU’s sixth consecutive regular-season defeat at the hands of UVa.

‘When we did get the ball, we threw some turnovers away,’ Keogh said. ‘We shot pretty poorly. We didn’t change the plan at all, and they just kept playing strong. They’re a great team and they showed it today.’

After a Rhamel Bratton goal just more than a minute into the game, junior goalie John Galloway held the Cavaliers at bay for much of the first period. He tallied eight of his 18 saves in the quarter, as SU’s extra-man offense shined on the other end of the field.
But after midfielder Jeremy Thompson scored the Orange’s fifth man-up goal with 13:31 remaining in the second to give Syracuse a 5-2 lead, the UVa defense put SU on lockdown.

‘I think it was just discipline at the defensive end,’ Virginia head coach Dom Starsia said. ‘We did a good job of identifying the things we thought were important going into the game. When we stopped taking the stupid fouls after the first quarter, I thought we settled down and just played good defense.’

SU struggled to gain possession from the Cavaliers during the scoreless stretch. But even when it did have the ball, the Orange couldn’t find any room to get shots off against the stingy Virginia defense. UVa scored seven straight goals to take a 9-5 lead before junior midfielder Jovan Miller finally beat goalie Adam Ghitelman with eight seconds left in the third quarter.

John Desko said that even with the lack of possession for Syracuse, the Orange still had its chances during that drought.

‘I still thought we had plenty of unsettled situations that we just didn’t capitalize on,’ he said. ‘We needed to get better on settled situations in the second half and we did. We slowly got better.’

Despite the offensive woes through most of the second and third quarters, the Orange did wake up in the final period. Keogh and senior attack Cody Jamieson, who had been non-factors for most of the game, scored less than thirty seconds apart to pull Syracuse within two goals.

After another Virginia goal put the Cavaliers up 11-8, Jamieson found senior midfielder Chris Daniello just outside the crease. Daniello, who tallied five points on the day, buried the shot with just less than five and a half minutes left.

Seconds later, Thompson won the faceoff and took off toward the UVa cage. He fired a laser shot from 15 yards out to pull Syracuse within 11-10.

But the fourth-quarter spurt was not enough. The Orange’s even-strength attack had been stymied for most of the day and was once again shut down in its last chance at comeback.
Desko said he set up a play to free Jamieson or Keogh in front, but neither could shake their defenders. The Orange was forced to cycle the ball around the outside before Amidon’s turnover with 12 seconds left sealed the Virginia win.

Keogh said afterward that while it was a tough loss, Syracuse will need to move on and learn from its toughest test so far.

‘We’ve done this every year,’ he said. ‘We lose to Virginia early in the season. We’re going to see our mistakes on film, offensively, defensively. It’s still early in the season, so we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on March 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm