Hard Knocks - Syracuse University Athletics

Anticipation for the 2014 campaign was at a fever pitch. The Orange was coming off its 17th appearance in the national championship game, was ranked No. 1 in the USILA preseason poll, and was about to embark on its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a six-team lacrosse juggernaught that pundits declared was the most competitive collection of college teams ever assembled in any sport.

The Orange was rewarded by being tabbed the ACC preseason favorite, but the start to league play in its new conference didn’t go as planned. Syracuse dropped its first three ACC games, culminating with a 21-7 loss at Duke on March 23.

However, with its hopes at a spot in the ACC Championship dwindling, the Orange showed its resiliency. The team rebounded for a pair of thrilling victories against Notre Dame and North Carolina as part of a six-game winning streak to secure a berth in the tournament, and eventually reached the conference title game by avenging the Duke loss in dramatic fashion.

The Orange played its way to the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, its 31st tournament berth in the last 32 seasons, and finished with an overall record of 11-5, the 45th double-digit win season in in school history.

A number of Orange players took home individual awards. Attackman Kevin Rice and defenseman Brandon Mullins were named USILA Second Team All-Americans, while Dylan Donahue, Matt Harris and Billy Ward earned honorable mention All-America laurels. Rice and Mullins were also All-ACC selections.

Rice and Donahue in particular had standout seasons, elevating themselves into one of the premier attack combinations in the game. Rice led the Orange in points (80), assists (44), and finished fifth in the nation in scoring at 5.0 points per game. Donahue paced the Orange with 37 goals and ranked third on the team with 54 points.

Highly-touted transfer Randy Staats made an instant impact in his first season, racking up 56 points (33 goals, 23 assists) in just 14 games, to give the Orange three 50-point scorers for the first time since 2001.

THE REGULAR SEASON
After losing its season opener for the first time under head coach John Desko in 2013, the Orange made sure the outcome was never in doubt when it took the field for the first time in 2014.

Syracuse hosted New York rival Siena on Feb. 10, the earliest season starter in program history, and proved why it was the top-ranked team in the land. The Orange drubbed the Saints, 19-7, behind 17 combined points from Donahue and Rice. Donahue found the back of the net eight times, one short of the SU single-game record for goals scored. He also recorded one assist. Rice dished out a career-high eight helpers, the most assists for a Syracuse player since 1997.

The Orange next squared off with Albany and eventual Tewaaraton Award winners Lyle and Miles Thompson. The Thompsons led the Great Danes to a 16-15, double-overtime upset of Syracuse the previous year and the Orange wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Fueled by a 6-1 second-half run, the Orange built a 16-11 advantage before Albany roared back to force overtime for the second year in a row. However, this time it was Syracuse that netted the winner as Henry Schoonmaker's goal 28 seconds into the extra frame secured a 17-16 win and moved the Orange to 2-0 in advance of its ACC opener.

Syracuse started conference play on Feb. 22 at home against Maryland and the result was less than desirable. The Terps reeled off eight straight goals in the second quarter and beat the Orange, 16-8. A 17-12 loss at Virginia the following week dropped Syracuse to 2-2 overall, but with two defeats to ACC opponents the team’s chances of making the four-team conference tournament were already fading.

A pair of non-conference wins away from home helped right the ship. In the inaugural Cobb County Classic on March 8 in Kennesaw, Ga., the Syracuse defense stepped up and held St. John’s to four goals in the first three quarters of a 14-8 victory. The Orange also picked up a 12-10 win against archrival Johns Hopkins the next weekend at Homewood Field.

With the Orange still searching for its first ACC win, the team’s next challenge came in the form of a rematch of the 2013 NCAA title game at Duke on March 23. Unfortunately, it was a game where nothing went right for the Orange. Duke’s Brendan Fowler won 24-of-31 faceoffs. Deemer Class had 10 points (6 goals, 4 assists) and the Blue Devils rolled to a 21-7 win.

The loss left Syracuse at 0-3 in the ACC, but also marked the turning point in the team’s season. A spirited team meeting after the loss and the improved play of faceoff specialist Chris Daddio sparked a turnaround in which the Orange won six games in a row.

Daddio won 42.6 percent of his draws in the first seven games of the season, but increased his success rate by more than 12 points (54.9) over the last nine games.

The winning streak started on March 29 as the Orange topped Notre Dame, 11-10, at the Dome to earn its first victory as a member of the ACC. Rice was the catalyst, notching six points on four goals and two assists, including the game-winning goal with 2:05 to play, in a game the Orange never trailed.

Non-conference wins against Binghamton (10-8) and Cornell (14-9) followed. Syracuse’s offensive performance against Cornell was particularly impressive as Staats recorded nine points, including five straight Orange goals at one point, to break the game open and clinch a quality win for the team’s NCAA Tournament résumé.

Those two victories set up an April 12 showdown with North Carolina for the fourth and final spot in the ACC Championship. The game was the first regular-season meeting between the two powerhouses since 1994 and the two sides delivered one of the year’s most thrilling college lacrosse games.

The Tar Heels scored the first three goals of the contest and maintained their lead until Scott Loy tied the game at seven with 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

North Carolina answered Loy’s goal to open the fourth-quarter scoring, but former Tar Heel Nicky Galasso and Donahue scored back-to-back goals to give the Orange its first lead at 9-8. The Tar Heels got both goals back, regaining a one-goal margin with 3:10 to play. That set the stage for Rice, who once again came up big for the Orange by beating his defender and scoring the game-tying goal with eight seconds remaining.

Orange goaltender Bobby Wardwell and Tar Heel netminder Kieran Burke each made crucial point-blank saves in the first overtime to preserve the 10-10 deadlock before Ward put the game away with 2:57 left in the second overtime by finishing a feed from Staats.

The victory secured the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament and set up a rematch with second-seeded Duke at PPL Park at the end of April.
Syracuse played two final out-of-conference games, both against local rivals. The Orange took back the Kraus-Simmons Trophy by winning the 100th meeting between Syracuse and Hobart, 15-9. Rice and Staats combined 14 points and nine goals in the triumph.

Following the ACC Tournament, Syracuse closed the regular season by trouncing Colgate, 19-6, at home on May 3.

THE POSTSEASON
Just over a month after Duke recorded a dominating 21-7 win against the Orange, Syracuse entered the ACC Championship riding a five-game winning streak and was about to face the Blue Devils again in the semifinals on April 25.

Duke held a four-goal lead with 13 minutes to play, but the Orange rallied for four unanswered tallies, with Donahue tying the game 14-all with 4:29 to go. Jordan Wolf ended the Syracuse run with a goal of his own to put the Blue Devils back up by one with 3:15 left.

With Syracuse running out of time, Ward once again delivered some late-game heroics, knotting the game at 15 with 14.7 seconds remaining. That’s all the time Syracuse needed to win it. Daddio won the ensuing faceoff and Rice found Donahue on the crease to beat the buzzer, ending the Orange’s four-game losing streak to the Blue Devils.

Syracuse scored twice in 15 seconds to go from losers of its first three ACC games by a combined score of 54-27, to rallying for a berth in the conference championship game against Notre Dame.

Much like the semifinal game against Duke, the Orange found itself in a fourth-quarter hole in the title tilt, trailing the Irish, 15-10, with 9:45 remaining. Syracuse again mounted a comeback with Ward, Staats, Derek Maltz and Loy each finding the back of the net to pull the Orange within one with 2:02 to play.

However, this time there were no last-second theatrics. Irish goalie Conor Kelly stuffed Rice rolling from behind the cage as the horn sounded to secure a 15-14 victory for Notre Dame.

Despite the team’s 4-3 start, Syracuse did enough over the course of the year to earn the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, setting up a first-round matchup with Bryant for the second year in a row inside the Carrier Dome. The Bulldogs survived a play-in game against Siena for the right to once again face the Orange.

Using the knowledge and experience gained from the 2013 contest, Bryant executed its game plan of ball possession and zone defense to perfection.

Syracuse trailed for most of the game and was down 10-8 with less than 30 seconds left before nearly rallying to force overtime. Harris forced a Bryant turnover and Rice capitalized, scoring with 7.9 seconds left to close the gap to one. Daddio won the ensuing faceoff and charged into the Bryant zone, passing off to Donahue whose potential game-tying shot hit the pipe as the final horn sounded.

In the end, the Orange couldn’t muster one last comeback in a season that saw so many. While the first-round NCAA exit was disappointing, the fact that Syracuse was in that position to begin with was a testament to the team’s resiliency.