Ryan Barber curled into an opening on the right side of the net, but he couldn’t handle a pass from teammate Tim Desko.

Moments later, Barber was the one with the ball, looking to make a play. The Syracuse midfielder ran behind the net on the left side and saw an opportunity. Luke Cometti stood waiting in between Army defenders in the same spot he had been earlier.

Barber hit Cometti with the pass, and he finished it to give the Orange a one-goal lead with more than seven minutes to play.

‘With that pass, Ryan, I was fortunate enough to cut and he saw me and we’ve been playing together the whole season,’ Cometti said, ‘so he knows my tendencies, I know his, so it was a beautiful feed.’

Cometti’s goal held up as the game-winner as Syracuse defeated Army 10-9 in front of 5,619 in the Carrier Dome on Sunday. In a back-and-forth matchup that saw seven ties and four lead changes, the No. 6 Orange (2-0) made enough plays to prevail over the pesky Black Knights (2-2).

SU overcame 25 turnovers and a scoreless second period to earn the win behind an impressive performance from goaltender Dominic Lamolinara in the second half. Lamolinara turned away five shots, including one by Alex Van Krevel in the final seconds to seal the win for the Orange.

‘I knew he had it in his left hand, he had to go high, wasn’t going to go low unless he dropped his stick,’ Lamolinara said. ‘So I went down hoping he would try to get a quick high and he did. Came back up with it, and it hit me in the helmet.’

Syracuse trailed by one at the half after the sluggish second quarter, but the offense came to life in a fast-paced third quarter. Both teams combined for seven goals — always answering the other — and neither could pull ahead by more than a goal. Heading into the final 15 minutes, the score was knotted at 8.

The Orange had some work to do after the brutal second period in which its offense disappeared.

SU managed just two shots in the final seven minutes of the second quarter and went into the half down 5-4. And while the Orange struggled to find any rhythm against the physical Black Knights defense, Army surged in front.

Army attack Conor Hayes’ goal with nine seconds left in the half gave Army its first lead of the game, and the Black Knights stormed into the tunnel with confidence.

When the final nine seconds ticked off the clock, Army’s fans erupted in excitement while the home crowd went silent. On the field, the Black Knights celebrated, greeting Hayes with high fives while Syracuse ran straight to the locker room.

‘In the first half, we struggled a little bit. Not only weren’t we getting good shots, we weren’t getting very many shots,’ Cometti said. ‘… In the second half, coach made adjustments to the offense, which I think helped, and we moved around the crease a lot, which I think helped us get a lot better looks.’

The adjustments worked as Syracuse came out with energy in the third quarter.

Derek Maltz evened the score nearly three minutes into the half on a feed from Tommy Palasek. And just 10 seconds later, after SU took the ensuing faceoff, Palasek snuck a bouncing shot by Army goaltender Zach Palmieri to give the Orange a 6-5 lead.

But Army answered.

Not even a minute later, Devin Lynch beat Lamolinara while falling down to tie it back up. The frantic play continued when Garret Thul found the back of the net in transition to re-energize the Black Knights sideline.

But Syracuse kept pace using the adjustments head coach John Desko made at the half, forcing Army defender Tim Henderson to slide out on the midfielders.

‘We tried to leave him a little bit more on an island and make him come from the crease and try to get our crease middie open,’ Desko said. ‘And I think you saw with Luke Cometti scoring some goals there, we took advantage of some of that with a double-crease offense.’

That strategy was executed perfectly by Cometti to score the final goal of the quarter with more than a minute left.

Cometti streaked in along the left side to finish a pass from Palasek from behind the net, simply catching and finishing in one motion.

It was the same play he scored on in the final period off the feed from Barber to put Syracuse up for good.

‘I thought when we needed to, we played well,’ Desko said. ‘We dug it out.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on February 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu