BALTIMORE – John Galloway stomped his feet. He swung his stick, and he kneeled on the rain-soaked turf of Diane Geppi-Aikens Field.

Galloway, the Syracuse goalie, allowed six goals from Loyola in the third quarter and made only a single save. As a result, No. 2 Syracuse trailed the Greyhounds by four Saturday in the fourth quarter. After playing three games in eight days, the defense had lost its focus. The offense had lost its edge.

Loyola was poised for an upset – the team’s bench erupted after every goal. Things looked gray for the Orange.

Suddenly, Syracuse revitalized itself. The Greyhounds switched into a zone defense to start the fourth quarter, in an attempt to hold on to its lead. But Syracuse picked it apart with ease. The Orange countered with a 6-2 run. Syracuse had tried this late surge before against Virginia but fell one goal short.

This time, though, attack Dan Hardy swung the game-winning goal in with 1:17 to play, and Syracuse (7-1) emerged victorious, 14-13, over No. 19 Loyola (5-4) in front of 2,620 fans.

‘We kept our focus and never got down on each other,’ attack Stephen Keogh said. ‘It all just came together in the end. We’ve been behind, against Virginia. We just kept going.’

Syracuse played Saturday’s game shortly after receiving the tragic news of the death of 2006 SU lacrosse grad Brian Crockett. Crockett was killed in a car accident in New Jersey early Friday morning.

‘We got that news, and it’s hard to find a silver lining in those things,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘Obviously it can swing your focus about losing a brother Orangeman.’

After sloppy play from virtually every player on the field through a rain-soaked three quarters, the rain stopped before the fourth quarter. So did the Orange’s mistakes.

Jovan Miller rushed up the field on a fast break with eight minutes remaining and his team in dire need of a goal after not scoring for more than 17 minutes between the third and fourth quarter. Miller then found Keogh on top of the goal line, and Keogh punched it in to start the comeback.

‘Once we had that first goal, we knew it was all going to come,’ Keogh said. ‘Everyone stepped up big time.’

Keogh added another goal less than a minute later. The Loyola zone short-sticked him, but it was not a problem for Keogh, who scored five goals on the day.

Hardy took his turn next. Desko switched him from midfield to attack in the fourth quarter, hoping Hardy’s 6-foot-4 frame would create a favorable matchup for the Orange. After being taunted the entire second half by Greyhound fans, Hardy responded and contributed three goals down the stretch.

‘We had to attack their zone quickly because the time was running,’ Desko said. ‘We couldn’t pass it around a few times, which is what zones normally make you do … I was surprised to see as much of the zone, but I think when they had the lead like they did that had to slow us down, and it was a good move on their part.’

After a horrendous third quarter, Galloway helped Syracuse’s comeback at the other end of the field.

Earlier, Galloway and defenseman John Lade consoled each other after Galloway let up the 12th goal of the game. Galloway patted Lade on the back and told him, ‘This team doesn’t quit.’ Galloway made five saves in the final quarter and allowed just two Loyola goals, while the Syracuse attack registered six.

‘We’re always going to make runs,’ Galloway said. ‘We were a little frustrated with some goals at the end of the third. But my defense played great, there were a couple letups, but that happens in a game.’

As time wound down, the game’s intensity picked up. The Loyola fans chanted ‘Oklahoma’ to mock Syracuse’s blowout loss in basketball Friday night. The Loyola bench screamed with every Syracuse mistake, yearning for the upset. When midfielder Matt Abbott drew a triple-team late in the game and each defender hacked at him with their sticks, a brawl nearly ensued.

But Syracuse stayed focused throughout the final quarter, outlasting the Greyhounds and erasing the mistakes from earlier in the game.

‘We can score in bunches,’ Desko said. ‘Some people will look up at the clock and say it’s over. We don’t. We keep these guys playing until it hits double zeros.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on March 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm