The newly No. 1 Syracuse Orange froze up Saturday on a snowy afternoon in Cambridge, failing their first test as the top-ranked team on the road with a 13-12 loss to the Harvard Crimson.
For the third time in a year, the Orange and Crimson played to a one-goal result in a game that featured wild momentum swings throughout. After Harvard scored the first goal of the game a little more than a minute in, this turned into a true game of runs the whole way through. Observe:
- Harvard, 1-0
- Syracuse, 4-0
- Harvard, 5-0
- Syracuse, 3-0
- Harvard, 4-0
- Syracuse, 5-0
- Harvard, 3-0
Unfortunately, the final flourish
belonged to the Crimson as they scored the game’s final three goals, including the game winner in the final minute.
After a sloppy start, ‘Cuse took control of the first quarter with four straight goals in the final eight and a half minutes of the frame. Joey Spallina found Tyler McCarthy on a cut through the middle for the first of the run, followed by a Luke Rhoa man-up strike and a goal from Spallina. Rhoa got his second on the tail end of some beautiful ball movement in the final minute of the first, including a Finn Thomson BTB pass and a skip from McCarthy.
When the Orange were on in this game, they were humming, like scoring four goals in eight minutes to take a 4-1 lead out of the first.
But the lapses were too many in number and too prolonged in impact, at no point worse than the second quarter, where ‘Cuse came out like they had completely taken their foot off the gas after gaining the upper hand in the first. SU went scoreless for the quarter as Harvard took control of the game with a 5-0 run that put them up 6-4 at the break.
The offense got sloppy and the team didn’t value possession, turning it over six times while the defense had some miscues that helped contribute to the run. On Harvard’s first goal of the quarter, Billy Dwan got caught cheating to help on a slide and no one recovered as his man came up from below GLE on the left side for a finish. On the second, Ryder Ochoa, who had a brutal game and couldn’t stay in front of anybody, got beaten from up top. On the third, the Crimson had an advantage subbing in that SU couldn’t catch up to.
There was also an EMO goal and a goal that bounced off a ‘Cuse backside and right into the stick of Jack Speidell for a goal with 18 seconds left and the 6-4 advantage. It was a head shaking spell for the Orange that led to some changes coming out of the half.
‘Cuse rearranged the pieces on offense to put Payton Anderson back at attack and Finn running out of the box. They also started moving Spallina around to the left side and more up top as a way of shaking things up, which definitely worked better in a twice-as-productive second half, and it worked immediately out of the break as SU punched back with a 3-0 run in the first few minutes with all three goals being scored within 80 seconds of each other.
Finn opened the second half scoring with a phenomenal BTB shot from about seven or eight yards in front of cage that the broadcast cameras couldn’t keep up with if you can imagine that. About 40 seconds later, Michael Leo drew the eyes of the defense and threw a lovely diagonal pass to Wyatt Hottle, who ripped one home after the defense lost sight of him. 40 more seconds later, Anderson found Finn for a beautiful connection as Bear switched hands and released right before getting hammered, with Finn throwing what appeared to be a twister finish for the goal as he got taken to the ground.
That brief flourish seemingly gave ‘Cuse big momentum to take the lead, 7-6, right out of the second half gates, but it was squashed out as quickly as it arrived by Harvard. The Crimson fired back a couple minutes later with two goals in 29 seconds to re-take the lead before throwing a couple more in as well. The 4-0 run turned SU’s advantage into a 10-7 disadvantage in less than seven minutes time.
Late in the third, the Orange finally got into a more extended rhythm that looked like it might help tip the game in their favor. A bad defensive rotation allowed Matt McIntee to find Leo for a goal that made it 10-8 heading into the fourth.
But ‘Cuse was just getting started on a 5-0 run that allowed them to turn their three-goal deficit into a 12-10 lead. McIntee kept it going with a very nice roll back dodge for a goal early in the fourth to bring the deficit to one, before Payton Anderson tied the game at 10s with an easy X-dodge against a shortie.
A couple minutes after that, the Orange took an 11-10 lead on the man-up. After initially failing on a minute-long penalty and loosing possession, SU got the ball back and took advantage of an unsettled situation as Leo found Rhoa for a well-placed bounce shot of a goal.
The Orange’s final goal came on a very nice and smart dodge from Spallina, who got a switch onto a shortie and methodically backed him down to the crease from right side GLE. He threw in a perfect head fake that the defender bought on, which freed Joey up to roll inside and finish to give SU a 12-10 lead with 6:27 remaining.
At that point, time was winding down and the Orange were on a 5-0 run, so it was looking and feeling pretty good. But on the ensuing face-off, Johnny Mullen had another in a decently long line of violations for him on the day, which led to a Harvard possession and an eventual goal as the Crimson once again took advantage of Ochoa playing way out and diving in on his mark from all the way outside the box near the Harvard bench. They ran right past him and in for the goal to make it 12-11.
Then, Harvard won the ensuing face-off against Drew Angelo and long-pole Sean Jordan ran right down main street for a goal as the slide came way too late to tie the game with 4:46 left on the clock.
The teams traded missed opportunities for the final few minutes, but it was ‘Cuse going offsides on a clear attempt in the last couple minutes that cost the Orange. Harvard re-took possession and scored the game winner with 50 seconds left to play to take the latest one-goal decision, 13-12.
Michael Leo led the way in this one with a goal and four assists, while Rhoa added a hat trick. Spallina had two goals and an assist, while Payton Anderson, Tyler McCarthy and Matt McIntee all finished with one of each. Finn had two beautiful finishes for goals early in the second half. Hottle rounded out the scoring with a goal.
Mullen had a much bigger fight on his hands, going 13-for-24 with nine ground balls, but committed a number of violations and could never get much momentum going in an evenly played game at the dot. Angelo went 2-for-5 in relief. Jimmy McCool made 13 saves with a .500 save percentage.
The Orange’s crazy run now travels to Princeton, NJ for a rematch of last year’s epic NCAA Quarterfinal with the Princeton Tigers, who beat Maryland today. That game is set for Friday at 4 PM.
