SYRACUSE, NY - Time expired. The game was over. The score was 9-8. Each team huddled in front of their own respective benches. One hoisted the Kraus-Simmons Trophy in the air, soliciting roaring cheers from fans. The other gathered for a somber meeting, picking up the pieces after yet another loss.
For 19 consecutive seasons 18th ranked Hobart (4-3) has fallen at the hands of Syracuse, but the loss being pondered wasn’t the 20th straight for the Statesmen. The loss being pondered was the fourth straight for the Orange, dropping it to 1-4 on the year. Syracuse hasn’t started 1-4 since for 1974. SU went 2-9 that year. The win was also Hobart’s first ever at the Carrier Dome.
The frustration was evident. After the game, Hobart transfer Craig Hammond stood alone in the football endzone. He threw down his helmet and furiously beat his stick down against the ground. The Orange has entered unfamiliar territory.
“Simply, we’ve gotta do some soul searching. Now more than ever it’s time to stick together and not make any mistakes on or off the field,” said Syracuse head coach John Desko. “We really gotta be smart. We got a lot of lacrosse in front of us.”
Things started off well for the 10th ranked Orange (1-4). With the big problems for SU this year coming on face-offs and defense, SU took six of the first nine draws, kept pace in ground balls, and goalie Peter Coluccini pitched a shutout for the first 20 minutes of play.
After the game Desko said he believed Coluccini had just played one of his best games of the year. In the end the redshirt freshman had eight saves on 42 total shots, but made one move he’d probably like to have back. With 6:01 to play, Coluccini was caught out of net. He managed to clear the ball, but Hobart came up with it almost immediately after, allowing Coluccini to get back in net, but not get set. Sophomore Nick Currie took advantage and tallied the goal that would turn out to be the difference. Hobart led 9-7.
Things never had to come down to that for SU. The Orange led 2-0 after freshman Matt Abbott rolled outside his defender, cutting back to the inside and putting himself one-on-one with Hobart goalie Mike DeSantis. That score was followed by Brett Bucktooth’s eighth of the season. Pat Perritt passed behind himself and to his left, finding the Onondaga native 15 yards out. Bucktooth’s shot flew behind DeSantis and between his left leg and the cage’s left post.
Statesman goals by Daryl Veltman and Patrick Meade tied things up at two. Meade’s goal came on an big SU mistake. Junior Steve Panarelli fumbled the clearing pass from Coluccini in front of the net. The ball was picked up by Jeff Ryan and fed immediately inside to Meade. The senior from Schenectady wrapped his shot around the Orange defender and to the right of the ‘Cuse keeper.
Joe Yevoli’s open field goal at the 2:42 mark of the second quarter put Syracuse back on top, but defensive mistakes ensued. Veltman notched a man-down goal about one minute later, followed by a Currie score a minute after that. Currie’s tally came when ‘Cuse defender John Wright failed to secure a ground ball rolling towards midfield. Hobart recovered the loose ball and two-passed it for the 15 yard finisher by Currie.
“We know we’re going to make mistakes,” Desko said. “But we need to be making a lot less mistakes at this time of year. It’s coming too hard to us. We shouldn’t be making the same mistakes.”
Playing the Orange tough on defense was something Hobart head coach Matt Kerwick knew his team was going to have to do in order to pull out the victory.
“I think anytime you play Syracuse, you can’t try to sit on the ball,” said Kerwick. “You have to go out there and play and go at them and hopefully get good opportunities and good shots, and I think we did that tonight.”
The Currie goal sent the game into halftime with SU trailing 4-3. Last season the Orange led by a goal at the half, winning by the same margin, 13-12.
Both teams traded goals in the third quarter, starting with a score by Ryan 1:31 in. The fifth year from West Genesee was found knocking on the door, allowing him to shoot over the defender in front of him and above the left shoulder of Coluccini. SU’s Perritt responded, cutting the deficit to one on a man-up goal.
Following Sean Murphy’s second goal of the contest Perritt brought the Orange back yet again, charging the net from the far side. His rocket attempt was knocked down by DeSantis with 6:47 to go in the third, but the ball’s energy carried it into the cage once it hit the ground.
SU built momentum, tying things up at seven with after three. Sophomore Mike Leveille did the honors, working in traffic, falling forward and in the process splitting two defenders. While falling, the sophomore released a shot, bouncing it just under the front crossbar. That, however, was the closest Syracuse would get.
“I told the team in the locker room that when you play a team 20 years in a row, by the law of averages you’ve gotta get one,” said Kerwick.
This year was that one year. In the fourth quarter the Hobart lead opened to 9-7, although SU did mount a comeback late. But as the cliché goes, it was too little too late for the Orange. Once Crocket made it 9-8 on a man-up goal with 1:35 left, the urgency set in, and the crowd got behind the ‘Cuse. For a second there, Lady Luck seemed to be wearing orange, as a Murphy goal was waived off just seven seconds after Jake Myers substituted into goal for Coluccini at the 1:21 mark.
It was Hobart Orange she was wearing, however. With 36 seconds to play, miscommunication between Bucktooth and Yevoli led to a crucial turnover. With 14 seconds left, Perritt charged from midfield, but his shot went astray and was turned over to the Statesmen to run out the clock.
“We ran one of our plays we had from practice,” said Perritt. “I made the play…as I went for the shot I got checked and my shot didn’t go as I planned.”
As time expired, Hobart ran to the football thirty yard line in front of their goal and SU’s bench, mobbing keeper DeSantis, whose 16 saves earned him the game-ball. The strong contingent of Statesmen fans was left screaming “Hobart, Hobart, Hobart…” The streak of 19 consecutive losses in the Kraus-Simmons game was over, leaving Syracuse in an ominous 1-4 hole.
“It basically comes down to – when something isn’t going right – it comes down to hard work,” said Desko. “I think the one thing we’ve been fortunate with is these guys in the first four or five games have really had their heads screwed on right. The attitudes are very good.”
Syracuse will work to right the ship against Loyola in the Dome Saturday at 4PM. SU topped the Greyhounds 12-6 on the road last season.
