A Syracuse Orange team that constantly operates on the razor’s edge between control and chaos took part in yet another frenetic game on Sunday evening in their 16-15 win over the Yale Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Playing in their last game of the season inside the JMA Wireless Dome, and wrapping up an unbeaten Dome record in the process, the Orange put on their typical high-wire act that was equal parts thrilling and agita-inducing.
A game that featured seven ties and five lead
changes, ‘Cuse and Yale engaged in a back-and-forth where momentum changed hands as quickly as goals were scored. While the offenses were the attention-grabbers in the 31-goal affair, the difference-maker on the night was Jimmy McCool, who starred with 17 saves (.531 save percentage), 12 of which came in the second half.
In a close game that was played within a two-goal margin the majority of the way through, the biggest difference on the night came between the pipes as McCool made 11 more saves than Yale’s Ben Friedman to help lock down the season-extending win.
It didn’t start out that way, as Jimmy was inconsistent in a first half in which he made five saves but gave up a late flurry that drove Yale to a two-goal halftime lead and sent the Orange to the locker room amidst a nervous Dome crowd. But after the break, he found his rhythm. And after making the same number of saves in the opening half, Jimmy stuffed 12 attempts while Friedman only mustered one in the second half.
The tide of the game really turned in that third quarter, in which Jimmy made five stops while the offense did something unbelievable. They took seven shots in the quarter, and scored on every single one of them. They shot a perfect 7-for-7 in the third to put themselves in the driver’s seat of the tightly contested proceedings.
The perfect shooting extended beyond the third, as the Orange scored a goal on the first nine shots they attempted in the second half, and it was at almost the mid-point of the fourth quarter before they finally missed a second-half shot.
‘Cuse was able to use their torrid shooting to stretch the lead out to four goals with six minutes remaining in the game, but it wouldn’t be much of a Syracuse game if it ended calmly, would it?
Yale turned the heat up, scoring three straight goals to get within one and give themselves a chance in the final minute. Coming out of a ‘Cuse dead-ball timeout with 47 seconds on the clock, Yale’s Luke Pascal attempted a jump shot after a roll dodge towards the middle of the field that ended up hitting off the lower leg/foot of Riley Figueiras, who was camped out right in front of the crease.
The ball deflected off Riley’s leg and popped straight up into the stick of Cole Cashion on the right side of the crease. Cashion instinctively attempted an around-the-world shot as his body momentum was lowering his angle, and that was the Jimmy McCool hero moment.
Jimmy, whose lunging reaction to the Pascal shot took him down to his knees before it deflected off Riley, had to quickly pop back up in time to face Cashion’s shot. That’s exactly what he did, and when Cashion’s around-the-world went low, Jimmy’s lightning-quick reaction lowered his stick in time to stop the ball and pop it up and away from the crease. It settled into Jordan Beck’s stick, and the Orange were able to run out the final 25 seconds of the clock without much issue to take the win on the back of a thrilling finish.
It was a night in which ‘Cuse showcased all the good and the bad that makes them a true roller coaster ride of an experience. The offensive stars shone on their way to scoring 16 goals against a solid Yale defense. Every starter scored multiple points, and five of them scored at least four points as they lit up the scoreboard.
Finn Thomson was the poster boy for SU hitting four pipes in the first half, but he led the charge during that incredible second-half stretch and finished with a game-high five points on a hat trick and two assists. Four of Finn’s points, including all three goals, came after halftime.
Michael Leo also had a hat trick and an assist, while Joey Spallina and Luke Rhoa each had two goals and two assists. Payton Anderson had a goal and a team-leading three assists. Wyatt Hottle added a pair of goals.
Johnny Mullen was a one-man roller coaster ride on face-offs. Mullen, who had a great game overall in going 21-of-33 and snagging a career-high-tying 18 ground balls, also had a goal which he scored six seconds into the contest. But he still couldn’t shake the inconsistencies that have plagued him for most of the season.
Mullen led the stampede out of the gates in which the Orange won 13-of-16 first-half draws. But Yale caught up to him, and in the second half, ‘Cuse only won 8-of-19 restarts.
The defense continued to be a mess in defending the pick game and being unsure of themselves when it came to switches, rotations, when to switch back, etc. Yale spent much of the night, consistently and without issue, getting their leading scorer, Connor Gately, switched off Riley Figueiras and onto a shortie with effective big-little picks. Plays like that throw the whole unit into chaos as everybody scrambles to adjust, putting the offense in prime position to pounce on the confusion and/or lack of conviction. Thank goodness for Jimmy and his 17 saves.
The majority of the first half in this game involved the team’s trading body blows as the pendulum swung back and forth between the two. ‘Cuse scored two quick ones out of the gate, including Mullen’s six seconds into the game. Yale fired back with two of their own to tie it before Bear scored on a time-and-room rocket shot from way far outside on the left wing, a goal that gave SU a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Yale tied it up to start the second, but the Orange got an inverted goal from Luke Rhoa off a restart from below GLE followed by a Michael Leo lefty rip on the man-up to re-take a two-goal lead. Yale got one back after Figueiras and Tyler McCarthy got caught in a mess after a big-little pick, but SU answered quickly again on a beautiful use of the Dome turf on a high bouncer by Tucker Kellogg for the second midfield’s only point of the game.
The Bulldogs took over the final five minutes of the first half amidst more messy defense and turnovers from the hosts. They closed the half on a 4-0 run that gave them a nerve-shaking 8-6 lead at the half.
Unlike in their last two games, the Orange came out solidly in the second half. They quickly erased Yale’s advantage, scoring three goals in the opening five minutes of the third quarter to start their shooting streak and take a 9-8 lead. They went through a stretch where they never got a shot off, though, due to three straight possessions with a turnover, which ultimately resulted in Yale re-taking the lead with back-to-back tallies that made it 10-9.
The pendulum swung back again when SU scored two goals in just over 30 seconds to re-re-take over the lead at 11-10. Less than a minute later, of course, Yale tied it at 11 with a hidden ball trick at X on a man-up.
But the Orange got the last say of the third, scoring their sixth and seventh goals of the quarter in the final 35 seconds to take a 13-11 lead. The third quarter was crazy, as the teams combined for four ties and three lead changes in just that frame alone.
The fourth followed suit, with the Bulldogs scoring 32 seconds in to make it 13-12. But ‘Cuse had their best answer yet, scoring three straight goals to extend the lead to four for the first time all night at 16-12. When Joey Spallina found the net with exactly six minutes to play in the game, it would be the last goal they would score.
Yale finished with a flurry, scoring three goals in the final six minutes of the game to ensure the game went all the way down to the wire. But, ultimately, it was just too much Jimmy McCool to spring the upset as the Orange advance on to next weekend’s quarterfinals.
‘Cuse is lined up to pay North Carolina in the quarters for their third meeting of the season, with the first two being taken by the Tar Heels. The game is set for Saturday on Long Island (Hempstead, to be specific) at 2:30 PM (or roughly 40 minutes after the end of the first game) on ESPN U.
