by HAMILTON, N.Y. – Nicky Galasso scored a pair of late goals to lead No. 1 Syracuse (12-2) past No. 12 Colgate, 9-7, in the regular-season finale for both teams Saturday, May 2 at Andy Kerr Stadium.
With the game tied 7-all, Galasso found the cage with 8:47 remaining in regulation and again with 3:56 left to provide the winning margin. The senior midfielder finished the game with three goals and one assist. Classmate Kevin Rice recorded his seventh five-point game with two goals and three assists.
Outside of Galasso and Rice, the remainder of the Orange offense came from Randy Staats (Six Nations) and Dylan Donahue. Staats had four points, including three assists. Donahue contributed three goals to post his eighth hat trick of the year.
“I thought Colgate played very well, especially here at home,” Orange head coach John Desko said. “I got to give their goalie (Brandon Burke) a lot of credit. I thought he did a nice job and made some big saves. It was kind of the reverse in the second half. I thought our goalie Bobby Wardwell made some tremendous saves, some great one-on-one saves for us going down the stretch.”
The Raiders jumped out to a 4-3 lead after the first quarter thanks mainly to Matt Clarkson. He was involved in all of Colgate’s first-quarter goals, including scoring a dazzling behind-the-back tally from a sharp angle a little more than five minutes into the contest.
After a Ryan Walsh goal opened the second-quarter scoring for Colgate, Donahue notched his NCAA-leading 13th extra-man goal of the year to spark a 3-0 Orange run that gave the visitors their first lead, 6-5, with 4:49 left in the half.
A goal by Colgate’s Anthony Abbadessa with 14 seconds remaining evened the game, 6-6, at the break.
In the third quarter, both sides scored once, however either team could have gained control of the game if not for some outstanding man-down defense. Syracuse fought off a two-man Colgate advantage midway through the period. Later in the stanza, the Raiders successfully killed a two-minute, non-releasable penalty against John Baker keep the game tied, 7-7.
That set the stage for Galasso, who notched the only two goals of the final period to push the Orange back in front.
Colgate had multiple chances to cut the deficit to one after Galasso’s last goal, but the Orange defense forced a pair of turnovers in the last three minutes, and Wardwell made a save on Peter Donato down the stretch to preserve the victory.
Syracuse dominated the statistics. The Orange outshot Colgate, 43-26. Sophomore Ben Williams (Mendota Heights, Minn.) won 18-of-20 (.900) faceoffs. The Raiders tried three players against Williams at the X, but neither Strecker Backe (0-2), Alex Kinnealey (1-8) nor Peter Marchetto (1-10) could slow him down.
Williams’ play helped the Orange overcome a superb performance from Burke, who stopped 14 shots, including eight in the first half, to help the Raiders get out to the early lead and then stay in the game.
After allowing six goals and making one first-half save, Wardwell elevated his game in the last two quarters. He had seven saves and allowed only a Matt Reyes-Guerra-Dunn goal over the last 30 minutes.
Clarkson had two goals and two assists to pace the Colgate offense. However, after factoring in the Raiders’ first four goals, the Orange defense shut him out for the rest of the game.
As league champion, Syracuse has earned the Atlantic Coast Conference’s automatic bid in the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship. This year’s 18-team tournament field will be revealed live tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
