As their college careers have started to wind down, the conversation around the Syracuse senior class has exclusively boiled down to this May existing as the legacy-defining stretch for a class and a program still chasing after their ultimate goal.
Earlier this season, after a perfect, 6-0 month of March, a calendar flip to April brought with it the struggle of the ACC portion of the schedule. The Orange stumbled, losing games due to mistake-riddled second halves. They didn’t have the feel of a team
that was ready to be led by a group making their final journey through May.
The mistakes had become so persistent that recent discussions of the team have been a chorus of ‘The talent is there, but…’, which invariably leads into a discussion of their undisciplined play and how its the main thing holding them back.
They entered the NCAA Tournament having lost three of their last five, dropping to the sixth seed in the field and staring down the potential prospect of a third matchup with North Carolina if both made it to the second weekend.
After narrowly escaping Yale at home in the first round, that prospect came to pass on Saturday in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Shuart Stadium on Long Island in a game the Orange won, 13-11, to advance to the Final Four for the second straight season.
The funniest part about SU beating UNC on Saturday is that they didn’t cure themselves of their undisciplined play at all. In some ways, they were actually worse. They finished the game with a season-high 19 turnovers, as well as six failed clears and five penalties.
Some of the mistakes were more costly than others, such as a failed cross-field pass on a clear attempt from Billy Dwan to Riley Figueiras that led to the first goal of the game by Peter Thomann late in the first quarter. Or Jake Spallina’s silly penalty with six minutes left in the third quarter, in which he came in for a late hit in the back after a shooter released a shot and picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Tar Heels scored on the man-up less than 20 seconds later.
But what they did on this particular Long Island Saturday was find a way to finally fight past a top-flight opponent in spite of those issues, and no part of it was more important than the way the senior class helped write their own story in the game-clinching fourth quarter.
It wasn’t looking so good in the early going of that frame, however. After Owen Duffy toughed his way to a big juice goal for his team that brought the Heels to within one, 10-9, with 13:37 left, momentum was turning in Carolina’s direction.
It only got worse a couple minutes later. After the defense successfully killed a penalty and caused a turnover, Bogue Hahn made a terrible mistake after clearing the ball by casually tossing a one-handed, underhand pass in an attempt to work the ball into the offensive zone. The ball sailed up and out of bounds, and just like that ‘Cuse had committed another careless, sloppy turnover. That error led directly to an even bigger juice goal when Dom Pietramala finally got on the board with a goal after Jayden Kittelberger got caught up in a pick. Dom’s goal tied the game at 10 with 10:21 left in the game.
At the time, it felt like a devastating sequence of events. SU committing two of their most common mistakes, back-to-back, with a sloppy turnover and bad pick defense that helped UNC tie the game back up on the strength of scores from their two biggest stars.
It felt like a real ‘here we go again’ type moment. On the ensuing face-off, ESPN’s Dana Boyle even chimed in on the broadcast with a note from field level that the Syracuse sideline was “dejected” and “silent” after the Pietramala goal. It felt like the next big play was going to be crucial in determining the home stretch, especially if it compounded things by going against the Orange.
Thankfully, it was quite the opposite, and it was a quartet of seniors who combined to deliver the sequence of the game and put SU back in the driver’s seat.
After a late-shot-clock ‘Cuse turnover after winning the ensuing face-off, the Tar Heels got the ball back with a chance to take the lead. But Jimmy McCool came up big with a low save on a James Matan shot from up top. The rebound caromed to Billy Dwan, who ran the clear attempt up field himself. As he was losing real estate on the sideline near midfield, Dwan got pushed out of bounds and went airborne before backhand flipping the ball back in-bounds. Dante Bowen was there to receive, and he completed the clear before finding Joey Spallina streaking in towards the middle of the field. Joey took the pass from Dante, and fired home a wide-open look from up-top into the lower left hand corner of the goal for an 11-10 lead with 7:57 left.
It was a massive moment that put the Orange back in front, helped them regain control and gave them a lead they would never rescind.
It was followed by more key plays that helped lead to the win. Billy Dwan made another big play by blocking a shot that could have tied the game with his back out in front of the crease to help make a defensive stop before the offense came down and extended the lead with a goal between a couple more seniors as Luke Rhoa found Finn Thomson to give SU a two-goal lead with four minutes to play.
At that point, they kept their foot on the gas with another face-off win from one of the players of the game in Johnny Mullen. The Orange took full advantage of the opportunity when Spallina scored his sixth point of the game on a shot in which he displayed incredible patience as he waited to shoot until the goalie was screened and couldn’t see his shot coming.
‘Cuse’s three deciding goals in the mid-to-late fourth quarter were all orchestrated by a cast of seniors who were taking matters into their own hands.
After UNC got one back to make it 13-11, the Orange defense emerged from a timeout in a zone as the Tar Heels were attempting to get in back to a one-goal difference. But Jimmy McCool made another save and Billy Dwan knocked down a pass that led to Carolina picking up an illegal body check penalty. ’Cuse ran out the final 45 seconds from there.
At times this season, it’s felt like there were questions about the urgency and focus of a senior-laden team gearing up to make their final run through May. Why were we continuing to see so much undisciplined play from a group with so much experience? We’ve been waiting for the lightbulb moment where the mistakes give way to the talent to take over full-time.
We didn’t quite get that on Saturday, but what we saw was a senior class that knew that falling short of Championship Weekend was not acceptable, by their own standards or anyone else’s.
It may have taken until May for the 2026 Orange, but they finally showed everyone their ability to overcome and endure against a top opponent, and it earned them their second straight trip to the Final Four.
And now, it’s time for the free-for-all that is Memorial Day weekend. Anything is possible in one of the most wide-open years in recent memory. ‘Cuse is ready to take their shot, come what may.
