Syracuse 14 - Virginia 13: Orange fight off scoreless second period for last second win

How spoiled are we? Back-to-back-to-back THRILLERS in the Dome. First up was a last second game winning goal against Army off the crosse of Nick Mariano. Then last week we watched the tables turn as the Black Knights managed a last second game winner.

Different weeks, same ending as the Syracuse Orange fought back against a five goal deficit to beat the Virginia Cavaliers in the final minute.

Coming out of a double time-out, the game was tied at 13 with just 33.3 seconds left in the tank. Sergio Salcido, who had only three goals coming into the game, got the ball top-left outside of the box. The senior worked it into the box and shook off his long-pole defender with some side to side movement before finding room for a deep shot, going low on Virginia’s Will Railey for the game winner with 15.1 seconds remaining. Syracuse’s Ben Williams won the ensuing faceoff and was able to keep it away from the Virginia players for just enough time run out the clock.

It was not all pretty however. Obviously, Virginia plays at a speed that Syracuse is not used to but the Orange struggled mightily going down by as much as five goals. The second period was especially disastrous offensively, Syracuse looking like there was no plan with no one stepping up.

Just 50 seconds into the game, UVA struck first with a Ryan Conrad snipe giving the Cavaliers the opening goal. Freshman Dox Aitken followed that up with an EMO goal, another deep shot, to make it 2-0. Aitken had a huge game for the Hoos with three goals and two assists. He was surpassed only by another freshman, Michael Kraus who had four goals and two assists on the day.

Just over two minutes later it was Nick Mariano with an incredible goal, managing to snag a wild, cross crease pass from Salcido with one hand on his stick and put it away on the crease.

The first quarter finished with the two squads tied at four and was exactly what we expected, a lot of possessions, a lot of shots and a lot of goals.

For as back and forth as the first quarter was, the second was all Virginia. Syracuse failed to score in the period but gave up four to UVA, including three to Michael Kraus. Walking into halftime, it appeared the Cavaliers were running away with the game.

Only 31 seconds into the second half, Syracuse was able to get a goal from Nate Solomon who faked high and went low while falling into the crease to bring the score to 8-5 UVA.

Virginia responded with a pair of scores including one from Zed Williams who beat Scott Firman on a pick and found room to fire a long shot, 10-5 UVA. Right off the next faceoff, Ben Williams won the draw and grabbed the groundball, tying Joel White for the most career ground balls in Syracuse history. Williams, who would break the record a few minutes later, went 14-31 at the faceoff X with seven groundballs and one shot that went wide.

It took over six minutes for the next goal, but it was freshman Jamie Trimboli cutting down the alley with the ball and going low on Railey, 10-6 UVA. Trimboli’s goal was his second of the year and propelled SU onto a 4-0 run to pull within one. Off the next faceoff, Luke Schwasnick was hit with a thirty second push call, putting UVA on the EMO. During the man-up UVA turned the ball over on a crease violation. The clear found Tyson Bomberry on a long pass and Bomberry hit Nate Solomon, in transition, just off of the crease for an easy MAN-DOWN goal. The next two scores in the 4-0 run were Matt Lane specials with the senior finding Brendan Bomberry on a cross crease pass for the first and a man-up rocket on the second. Lane had his biggest game of the year with three goals and two assists and set a career high in goals and points surpassing his 2016 2 goal, 2 assist performance against Albany.

Michael Kraus finished off the third period with his fourth of the game to make it 11-9 UVA.

The final quarter opened up with another goal of the year nominee. With the flag down on UVA, Mariano took a tough angled shot just off of goal line extended. The shot went wide but was corralled by Nate Solomon who caught it and fired a no-look, backhanded shot that found its way into the net to bring SU within one goal.

Salcido tied it up on a low shot to beat Railey but UVA came right back 10 seconds later with Ryan Conrad grabbing the GB on the faceoff and taking it right to the house, 12-11 UVA. Syracuse would go on to score three more while allowing Virginia just one more for a final score of 14-13, Syracuse.