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SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The second-ranked Orange lacrosse team (7-1) extended its winning streak to five games with a 13-8 victory against No. 18 Loyola (4-4) Saturday, March 29 in front of a crowd of 4,570 at the Carrier Dome. With the win, the Orange remained perfect at home this season (5-0) and handed the Greyhounds their first road loss of 2008.
Syracuse got seven goals from the midfield line of juniors Dan Hardy (Tully, N.Y.), Pat Perritt (Holtsville, N.Y.) and freshman Jovan Miller (Syracuse, N.Y.) in the victory. Hardy and Perritt tied their career highs with three goals each. Miller scored once and contributed two assists to finish with a personal-best three points.
Senior attackman
Mike Leveille (Delmar, N.Y.) netted a game-best five points (3g, 2a) Saturday. Through eight games, Leveille has 38 points (22g, 16a), one shy of his entire 2007 total accumulated in 13 contests. Leveille also broke into the top 20 at SU in both career points and goals with the peformance. He now has 105 goals and 170 points in 49 games. Those totals rank 20th and 19th, respectively, in the SU annals. In addition, he extended his number of consecutive games with a point to 47, tied with Tim Nelson (1983-85) for the seventh-longest streak in school history.
Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Orange got three goals in the span of 1:11 to gain a 3-2 lead with 12:24 left in the opening half. Junior
Kenny Nims (Watertown, N.Y.) started the scoring spurt with a goal at the 13:35 mark. An unassisted tally by Leveille followed 44 seconds later, and Hardy capped the run with a laser from 15 yards out at 12:24.
Loyola regained the lead briefly, 4-3, on a pair of goals by Cooper MacDonnell. MacDonnell, who notched three of the Greyhounds’ first four goals, scored with 12:06 to go in the half and again at the 10:57 mark. After that, the Orange defense clamped down on him and the rest of the Loyola attack, not allowing a goal for the remainder of the quarter to head into the locker room with a 5-4 edge.
For the second straight game, the Orange offense exploded in the third quarter. SU scored four of the first five goals in the period as part of an overall 6-1 run that resulted in a 9-5 advantage. Six different players had goals in the scoring spree and Leveille had three points (1g, 2a) in the run. Included in the rally was a spectacular, length-of-the-field outlet pass from rookie goalie
John Galloway (Syracuse, N.Y.) to Nims, who fed classmate
Greg Niewieroski (Watertown, N.Y.) from behind the cage for an easy goal that made the score 7-5.
Loyola briefly got back in the game, scoring back-to-back goals to pull within 9-7 after three quarters, but the Orange outscored the Greyhounds, 4-1, in the final stanza, including two tallies by Perritt, to seal the win.
The Orange won the ground ball battle for the sixth time in eight games, holding a 35-23 margin over the Greyhounds in the statistic. Leveille led the way with six, while junior
Matt Abbott (Syracuse, N.Y.) and freshman
Joel White (Cortland, N.Y.) each had five. White leads the team with five games with at least five ground balls this season.
MacDonnell finished with a game-high four goals to lead the Greyhounds. Freshman goalie Jake Hagelin made 13 saves.
Syracuse’s win marked the seventh time in the last eight meetings it has gotten the better of the Greyhounds.
The Orange returns to action on Saturday, April 5 against Princeton. Faceoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. on Time Warner 26.
