Saturday, May 3
Hamilton, NY
1 p.m.
Syracuse University
11
at
12
Colgate
Mike Leveille has 196 points in his SU career which ranks 15th on the school's all-time scoring list.
Orange Rally Comes Up Short as Colgate Holds on for 12-11 Victory
5/3/2008 4:36:03 PM | Men's Lacrosse
HAMILTON, N.Y. – The second-ranked SU men’ s lacrosse team saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end Saturday, May 3 as Patriot League champion Colgate defeated the Orange, 12-11, in front of 4,572 fans at Andy Kerr Stadium. Syracuse completed the regular season with a 12-2 record. The 12th-ranked Raiders improved to 11-5.
The Orange trailed by four in the final quarter and rallied to cut the lead to one, but could not overtake the Raiders. Senior Mike Leveille (Delmar, N.Y.) led Syracuse with three points, including two goals. Juniors Greg Niewieroski (Watertown, N.Y.), Matt Abbott (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Dan Hardy (Tully, N.Y.) also scored twice for the Orange. Abbott’s two tallies matched his career high.
Down 10-6, Syracuse got unassisted goals from Leveille, Abbott and Hardy in the span of 2:47 to cut the margin to one, 10-9. The two teams traded tallies before an unassisted goal by Patriot League Player of the Year Brandon Corp extended the Raiders’ lead to 12-10 with 1:30 left in regulation. However, Syracuse pulled within one again on a goal by Niewieroski with 29 seconds left. On the ensuing faceoff, freshman long-stick middie Joel White (Cortland, N.Y.) scooped up the ground ball and got it over to Abbott, who dodged through three defenders to get off a shot that went wide with 18 ticks on the clock. Junior Kenny Nims (Watertown, N.Y.) triggered play on the restart and the ball came up top to senior Brendan Loftus (Watertown, N.Y.) who drove to the cage. Loftus tried to get off a shot in traffic, but he was checked to the ground. The ball rolled to Nims, who scooped it up and tried to stuff it home, but his attempt was sticked aside by Raiders’ goalie Tim Harrington as the final horn sounded.
Leveille’s three points extended his consecutive-game scoring streak to 53, one shy of Tim O’Hara for the fourth-longest such streak in school history. Leveille also passed Josh Coffman on SU’s career scoring chart and now ranks 15th with 196 points.
The Raiders grabbed the early lead with two goals in the span of six seconds. Zack Craumer scored at the 12:26 mark of the opening period to give Colgate the advantage. Faceoff ace Chris Eck won the ensuing draw, raced down field and beat SU goaltender John Galloway (Syracuse, N.Y.) with a low shot for the Raiders’ second goal.
Colgate maintained the two-goal cushion for most of the quarter until junior defender Sid Smith (Ohweken, Ontario) intercepted a long clearing pass by Christopher Mulholland and rifled a 50-yard strike to Nims, who scored with one second left in the period to make it 2-1. The assist was Smith’s first career point.
SU evened the game at two when senior Steven Brooks (Libertyville, Ill.) charged down the left alley and scored on a shot inside the right post with 7:11 left in the half. The score ignited a 3-1 Orange scoring spurt keyed by Leveille as the senior had a hand in the game’s next two tallies, assisting on a Niewieroski goal and following with an unassisted goal of his own at the 1:32 mark to give Syracuse its first lead.
Colgate’s Nick Monastero tied the game 32 seconds later off a pass by Matt Lalli to even the score at 4-4 at the break.
The Raiders used the momentum of Monastero’s goal to blow the game open in the third quarter. Colgate out-scored the Orange, 5-1, in the period. Lalli contributed to three of the five Raiders’ goals in the quarter, scoring two and assisting on another, to spur Colgate to a 9-5 advantage heading into the final stanza.
White notched his second goal of the year to make the score 9-6, but Lalli fed Craumer for a score with 13:06 remaining to extend the lead to four and set the stage for the final frantic 13 minutes.
Lalli led the Raiders with a game-high seven points (3g, 4a) and became Colgate’s all-time leader in assists with 94. Craumer added a hat trick and Monastero contributed three points on two goals and an assist. The Syracuse defense did solid job on Corp for the majority of the game, holding Colgate’s leading scorer to two goals. Harrington was terrific in the cage, making 16 saves.
The Orange played the game without the services of senior faceoff specialist Danny Brennan (Farmingdale, N.Y.). Brennan, the nation’s leader in faceoff winning percentage, sat out with an injury. Senior John Carrozza (Katonah, N.Y.) and freshman Jovan Miller (Syracuse, N.Y.) filled in at the X, but Brennan was missed as Eck won 17 of the game’s 25 faceoffs. Colgate also held a 34-24 margin in ground balls.
The Orange will learn its NCAA playoff position Sunday, May 4 when the 16-team field for the 2008 Division I NCAA Lacrosse Championship is announced. The postseason bracket will be revealed between 9 and 10 p.m. on ESPNU.
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