Friday, February 23
Syracuse, NY
7 p.m.
Syracuse University
6
vs
8
Army
Jon Jerome won 12 of his 16 face-offs against Army Friday night.
Army Uses Second-Half Surge to Upset #2 Syracuse, 8-6
2/23/2007 10:28:15 PM | Men's Lacrosse
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Army (2-0) outscored #2 Syracuse (1-1), 5-2, in the second half en route to an 8-6 victory at the Carrier Dome on Friday, Feb. 23. The victory ended an 11-game winning streak for the Orange against the Black Knights, and represented Army’s first win in the Dome, and the first time it's beaten the Orange in Syracuse since 1972.
The Black Knights’ defense held SU scoreless in the third quarter and the Army attack scored three straight goals to take command of the game. Justin Bokmeyer scored an unassisted goal at the 12:10 mark of the third and Brooks Korvin beat SU goalie Peter Coluccini off a feed from Ryan McClure with 9:25 remaining in the quarter to reclaim the lead in the contest, 5-4. Bokmeyer registered another goal at the start of the fourth period to push the margin to 6-4.
Syracuse rallied with two goals in the span of 39 seconds to square the match at six goals apiece in the fourth. Junior Steven Brooks scored off feed from linemate Greg Rommel with 5:10 left in regulation. Sophomore attackman Dan Hardy tied the game seconds later off a feed from junior Mike Leveille with 4:31 to play, but Army tallied successive goals, one by Ryan Chase and another by Hunter Wakeland 26 seconds apart to gain a two-goal edge. The Black Knights again relied on their defense, holding SU without a goal the remainder of the contest. Brooks and sophomore Kenny Nims each had chances to close the gap down the stretch, but Brooks’ shot hit the pipe and Nims was rebuffed on a drive to cage with less than a minute to play.
“I give Army a lot of credit,” SU head coach John Desko said after the game. “They were well prepared and did a lot of good things. They recovered well and slid to who they needed to slide to. They also got out on the open men and when they didn’t get there (Adam) Fullerton came up big for them in goal.”
Fullerton, a Liverpool native, finished the game with 16 saves, including nine in the second half and five in the final quarter for the Black Knights.
Hardy led the Orange attack once again with two goals and an assist. Leveille also recorded three points (1g, 2a) and is now one point shy of 100 for his career. Rommel was SU’s only other multiple-point scorer (1g, 1a).
The Orange dominated on face-offs, winning 13-of-18, but was unable to generate much offense due to the hot play of Fullerton and 17 total turnovers. Senior Jon Jerome owned the Army face-off specialists, winning 12 of his 16 draws. He also recorded eight ground balls. When SU did possess the ball in the offensive end of the field it registered 45 shots, but just couldn’t find the net.
Hardy started right where he left off against Hobart, driving to the cage and threading a shot past Fullerton to put SU in front, 1-0, with 13:22 left in the opening quarter. The Black Knight’s defense settled down, though, and held the Orange to one goal the rest of the period. Meanwhile, the Army attack got going, scoring three times in the final six minutes of the quarter, including two in the last 2:55 to claim a 3-2 advantage.
The Orange tallied the only two goals of the second quarter and Leveille had a hand in both. On the first, he fed Rommel, who ripped a laser into the back of the cage to tie the match at the 12:14 mark. Then the Orange turned defense into offense when Hardy intercepted an Army clearing attempt and fed Leveille for a transition goal with 29 seconds to go in the half to give SU a 4-3 margin at the break.
Leveille’s goal was SU’s last until Brooks’ fourth-quarter tally, a span of almost 25 minutes that allowed Army to gain control of the contest.
Coluccini surpassed the 200 saves mark for his career in the game. He played all 60 minutes and stopped 11 shots. He now has 205 career saves.
Bokmeyer and Chase each had two goals to pace the Army offense. Kevin LoRusso also finished with two points (1g, 1a) for the Black Knights.
Syracuse will host #8 Virginia in the second game of the Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, March 3 at 2:30 p.m. The first game of the doubleheader features Johns Hopkins against Princeton. Start time for that game is 12:00 p.m.
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