ITHACA, N.Y. — Ryan Matthews sprinted from the goal to the 25-yard line before a mob of his teammates finally chased him down and tackled him to the ground. One Cornell player launched his stick 30 feet into the air and another ripped off his helmet and gloves before tossing them in various directions as he spun in a circle.

Matthews had just charged toward the Syracuse goal and dunked in a point-blank shot in overtime to upset No. 9 Syracuse (6-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast), 10-9, at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York on Tuesday night. The Big Red (5-5, 1-3 Ivy) celebrated in a massive dog pile while the Orange’s players remained on the bench.

For the third time this season, SU blew a lead and fell in overtime. Syracuse has now lost four of its last five games. And for the just the second time in the last nine years, the Orange has suffered four losses in a regular season — with three games still to go.

“We’re fine,” goalie Evan Molloy said. “I don’t think anyone would argue that was Cornell’s best game of the season.

“I think we lost to a great Hopkins team and a great Duke team and it’s by one goal so that’s not a knock on us at all. We just got to finish here.”

Finishing has been the problem.

Against Johns Hopkins on March 19, the Orange was ahead by two with two and a half minutes to go in the game. Against Duke on March 26, SU was up four heading into the final quarter. Syracuse couldn’t put its opponent away either time.

On Tuesday, the Orange held a two goal lead three separate times, but could never get ahead by more. Twice Nick Mariano put SU up by one in the fourth, but it was the Big Red that came away with the final goal.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Mariano said, “but it’s on us. We got to go back to work.”

 

Logan Reidsma | Senior Staff Photographer

 

For every punch Syracuse had, Cornell hit right back.

Mariano’s first of four goals on the night gave SU the 3-1 advantage, but a score as time expired in the first and another early in the second tied the game for Cornell.

Syracuse had two leads by two goals in the third quarter alone, but watched both of them dissipate in a matter of minutes.

The Orange pounded shots at the Cornell goal, but goalie Brennan Donville countered with 13 saves, including four in the fourth quarter. Molloy made six stops for Syracuse in his second career start.

After each Cornell goal, Molloy and the defenders around him shouted at one another and pointed their hands and sticks in different directions to say where another person should have been.

“I didn’t look at it as Evan had a bad game,” Desko said of the redshirt junior goalie that he started over previous starter Warren Hill after three straight losses. “They just played well.”

Syracuse’s faceoff specialist Ben Williams had struggled in the Orange’s previous overtime games this season, but won 18-of-22 against Cornell. In his previous two chances, he lost overtime’s opening faceoff, but on Tuesday, SU’s Austin Fusco came out of the scrum with the ball.

Syracuse, however, did nothing with the opportunity as a Derek DeJoe shot from close sailed wide and out of bounds. Cornell took the ball the other way and scored on a difficult shot.

“They went down and they had a nice goal,” Mariano said. “Those are things that we can’t control sometimes.

“It is what it is.”

The reality is that the Orange has had control in each of the three overtime losses. It’s given up fourth quarter leads every time and never put Johns Hopkins, Duke and Cornell away when it did have the chance.

“I can’t blame anybody,” Desko said. “… We got to put this one behind us.”

Published on April 12, 2016 at 9:02 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus