The point of Memorial Day Weekend is to take relaxing weekends at the beach, wear festive hats and drink margaritas for all of the soldiers who cannot (right?). But if Syracuse Lacrosse keeps up this pace, the entire nation will soon come to a standstill on this weekend to recognize the awesome power of this program.
As SbN's resident Syracuse blogger, it was my duty to chronicle this weekend. Capture the passion and the excitement. Document the historical significance. Take in every single moment, savor it and interpret every moment with 70's pop culture references and a Shakespearean prose that would make Bud Poliquin jealous.
Naturally, I didn't watch one second of it. Sorry.
Saturday, as Syracuse was butchering Duke 17-7, I was in sunny San Diego for my cousin's graduation from San Diego State. The difference between a west coast college campus and an east coast college campus is jarring. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a building on that campus older than Jim Boeheim. Also, I don't know who the nudnik is who decided black should be the main color of a school in Southern California, but I'm pretty sure every grad wearing an all-black gown in 80 degree weather was cursing their name silently.
So as I learned about Aztec Pride, the Orange were crushing the spirit of the ACC Champions (God that feels good). Up 8-4 at the half, the Orange broke the game wide open in the 3rd period and never looked back. Pat Perritt and Kenny Nims led the Orange with four goals apiece while Cody Jamieson added two.
Also on Saturday, Cornell demolished Virginia in a kinda-surprising-kinda-not 15-6 win. The Cavs, so dominant for stretches over the season, had a knack for disappearing at times, and I'm not even anyone told them they had a game on this day.
And so the All-Central New York Final was set. Syracuse vs. Cornell. Monday at 1pm EST. All eyes were on this one. Except mine...
I was in the mountains outside Santa Barbara, trying not to get eaten by the mountain lions in my mind and the ticks on my socks. Camped out in a covered wagon(!?!?) next to a horse ranch...who knew you could do such things. Then, drove into Solvang (you know, from Sideways), only to discover that it's a Denmark-themed town, right down to the replica windmills and chocolate shoppes. Yes, with an -es on the end. Had myself a nice Dutch Chocolate ice cream cone and a Blue Moon Hefe. Nice little Monday right there...
Obviously, I was celebrating the Syracuse national title....that I wasn't sure we had actually won. But we did. In thrilling fashion. Thankfully for me, the game will be replaying tonight at 7 EST on ESPN Classic so I'll be getting up to speed on that.
I'm also checking out all the articles and reports on the game like the ones I linked to last night. Here's some more below. The best part about all of this is that there's absolutely no reason to think the Orange can't line up a threepeat for next season. Sure we're losing some great players like Nims but we lost some great players last season too (remember Mike Leveille?). We've still got Cody, Galloway is coming back and the rest of the Orange will retool. We've not only regained our proper place the premminent NCAA lacrosse program in the nation, we're also on the cusp of a dynasty.
I cannot wait to not watch Syracuse wins another one of these next season and make it so.
- All the SU lacrosse articles you could need (and the obligatory DOC Gross-with-team-photo)...Syracuse.com
- Kenny Nims was on ESPN this morning...SUAthletics.com
- SU's uncanny mystique leads them to championship #11...InsideLacrosse.com
- Jamieson and Smith propel the Orange in overtime...Daily Orange
- John Desko is the 1st coach to win back-to-back titles in 11 years...Daily Orange
- The forgotten moments of the SU-Cornell game...Dave Rahme
- What we learned from the national title game...ESPN