Syracuse University
#1 Johns Hopkins
Orangemen End Season with 19-8 Loss in NCAA Semis
5/24/2003 4:32:24 PM | Men's Lacrosse
In the first NCAA Division I men's lacrosse semifinal at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins defeated Syracuse, 19-8. The Blue Jays erased a 7-5 deficit by outscoring Syracuse 14-1 in the final 31:01 of the game. Hopkins will participate in its first national championship contest since 1989 this Memorial Day against either Virginia or Maryland. An NCAA record 37,823 fans were on hand to witness this year's semifinal games.
For Syracuse, it marked the largest margin of defeat in an NCAA Tournament game and the largest margin of defeat overall since a 19-6 loss to Cornell in 1987. The 19 goals by Hopkins were the most allowed by the Orangemen in an NCAA Tournament game since the 1991 semifinals when Carolina defeated Syracuse, 19-13.
"Hopkins made a couple minor adjustments that really threw us off," said SU head coach John Desko. "You can't give a team like that all those opportunities. They've got too many people who can put the ball away."
"We needed to win faceoffs and control the ball offensively, which I thought we did early in the game," said Desko. "In the second half, they seemed to have success with the two and three guys at the faceoff X. It hurt us and put a lot of pressure on our defense."
"We weren't getting the ball as much as we'd like," said SU attackman Michael Powell. "Hopkins really hustled around. They were a step ahead of us all day. The field conditions definitely didn't help our style of play and our groundball ability. They just showed more heart than us today."
The Orangemen started off strong, jumping out to a 3-0 lead behind goals by Jarett Park, Michael Springer and Greg Rommel. Powell assisted on Springer and Rommel’s goals. Joe McDermott put Hopkins on the scoreboard for the first time at the 5:16 mark of the first quarter, but SU increased its lead to 4-1 when senior attackman Liam Banks fed Brian Nee with 3:44 remaining in the opening period.
In the second quarter, SU held three two-goal leads, but each time the Orangemen went ahead by two, the Blue Jays found an answer. Kyle Barrie and Corey Harned each scored goals to pull JHU to within one (4-3) at 9:58 of the second quarter. SU received contribution from its third midfield unit when sophomore Kyle Olson fired a shot off a pass from Bill Perritt just 51 seconds later to push the Orangemen back ahead by two (5-3). A 30-second pushing call on Nee gave Hopkins a man-up advantage and at the 6:16 mark, Conor Ford converted a pass from Kevin Boland to make the score 5-4. Banks registered an unassisted tally at 4:35 to once again give the Orangemen a two-goal cushion (6-4), but Peter LeSueuer registered his 23rd goal of the season at 2:28 to make the score 6-5. SU junior midfielder Sean Lindsay recorded his 29th goal of the year to give SU a 7-5 lead. Boland registered the final goal of the half at 1:01 of the second quarter when he curled around the Syracuse net and snuck the ball between SU goalie Jay Pfeifer and the left goalpost.
The Blue Jays rode the momentum of Boland’s goal into the second half. Kyle Harrison tied the game at 7-7 just 25 seconds into the third quarter. Barrie assisted Conor Ford with 5:51 remaining in the period to give Hopkins its first lead of the game (8-7). From there, the Blue Jays rolled with 11-straight goals, including four by Bobby Benson and three by Barrie.
Nee ended a 30:48 Syracuse scoreless streak when he converted a pass from Banks with 51 seconds remaining in the contest. The assist was the 86th of Banks’ career, which moved him into ninth place on the school’s all-time ledger.
Springer finished his four-year career with 159 career goals, separating himself from Casey Powell for third all-time at SU. Springer finished ranked ninth all-time in scoring at SU with 229 points.
Pfeifer totaled 12 saves in the game.
SU finished the 2003 campaign with a 10-6 mark
