Tyson Bomberry dug his stick beside him and put his hand on his hip. Syracuse didn’t look back. As Virginia players ran with their hands in the air, all of the Orange turned to the tunnel. Syracuse had controlled most of the game on the scoreboard. For much of it, SU just looked for another punch to push it ahead. To give it a cushion. But SU never found it. And the Cavaliers took advantage of the opening.

“They had a little bit more offense than we did going down the stretch,” SU head coach John Desko said. “Would like to have gotten that one today. But we didn’t.”

In a back-and-forth game, late plays and a game-winner buried Syracuse (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast), 15-14, against Virginia (3-2, 1-0) in overtime. In a matchup that coming into Saturday has been decided by one-goal in 16 previous matchups, with a slight 452-to-451 goals advantage to the Orange in the series, Saturday’s game periods brought a similar offensive ineptitude. In the Orange’s bout to put the Cavaliers away, it allowed Virginia to hang on for too long. And “just about (the Cavaliers) best,” Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany said, was enough to hand SU its first back-to-back loss to UVA since 2010.

“I’m not sure if we played that great of defense today, and I’m not sure if we played that great of defense in the fourth quarter,” Tiffany said. “But we had the ball a lot.”

Coming into Saturday, SU’s offensive outputs have been varied. The Orange were dominated in their season-opener and then came alive the next week against Albany. In a win over Army last week, the defense-heavy Black Knights gave an on-and-off SU offense trouble for short periods, but Syracuse’s offense was just good enough to capture its second-straight win. While the seventh-ranked SU defense has remained stout after a sloppy opening where it was overrun from all sides of the cage, the question mark on the offensive side became what individual effort could lead SU without Tucker Dordevic.

First it was Bradley Voigt, and then Jacob Buttermore added to the frenzy of surprise contributors. But against Virginia, it came from all over.

After SU undercut Cavaliers shooters twice on back-to-back possessions to start the game, Buttermore scored unassisted on a dodge around the right side of the cage. The following play brought a back-and-forth affair as Syracuse juggled a slight lead with tight defense.

Syracuse went on to score a few more to hold its advantage. Tiffany said the Orange excelled in one-on-one scenarios. Even as the Cavaliers forced quicker slides in the second and third quarters, the worry then became Voigt, who scored most of his goals camped in front of the cage.

But even as Syracuse’s offense started to get going toward the end of the first half, the Cavaliers always answered back. For the entire first half, the Orange never led by more than two goals. With 10 seconds to go in the first period, Virginia took it the length of the field and scored.

“No matter how much we have the ball or how little we have it, we know we can be patient, and we can score,” Virginia attack Michael Kraus said. “We just stuck to it, and we were able to bring them down.”

Syracuse had its opportunities to pull away. Scoreless after playing through an illness, the “pretty much healthy” Stephen Rehfuss worked his way into a few plays. He put a ball in the back of the net, but it was called off for a shot clock violation. Later in the game, Rehfuss had another chance out to the right side of the cage, but his shot just trickled out of the goal. He bent his head back and stared toward the Carrier Dome ceiling. Though SU had a cushion at the time, its constant struggle to get an extra goal allowed the Cavaliers room to mount back.

“We don’t care what’s going on the other side of the ball,” Kraus said. “Sometimes we don’t even look.”

Virgina cut the once-three goal lead to one and threatened again. A shot off the stick of SU goalie Drake Porter dribbled along the goal line before Porter’s stick’s netting covered the ball. By inches, the Orange avoided a lost lead.

Syracuse, once again, just needed a play. With just under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Andrew Helmer tapped the ball over the net and found Voigt, who guided the ball in. Voigt stomped, and found a free corner as he took in the roars of the crowd. Perhaps Syracuse had found its room. Perhaps Syracuse had found its answer to Virginia’s repeated call. But Syracuse sacrificed the lead again. With just over a minute to play, Virginia scored the equalizer.

“At that point it felt like we definitely had the game in our hands. I think we just needed one more. Play a little smarter at that point. Slow down a little bit,” Voigt said. “But the call didn’t go our way at the end of the game. That’s just how it ended up.”

The game pushed to overtime as Syracuse failed to capitalize. In overtime, Virginia had the ball for a majority of play as it dominated on faceoffs and on ground balls to maintain possession.

Porter made another save to provide pause. He’d done so all game. But, eventually, Mikey Herring found a lane and fired his first shot.

“You can’t hesitate at a time like that,” Herring said.

After the goal that downed the Orange, a crowd of majority SU fans were silent. As Syracuse lined up for handshake, a thunderous chant rang throughout the Carrier Dome.

“UVA.”

“UVA.”

“UVA.”

In another close game, Virginia got the last punch, and the last word.

Published on March 2, 2019 at 2:34 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary