The Syracuse players stood dejected on the field, eventually wandering aimlessly into a jumbled mess at midfield as Villanova’s celebration continued. The shocked group finally managed to organize around SU head coach John Desko on the sideline, waiting for the celebration to end.

They still couldn’t shake what just happened. Matt Harris swung his stick up outside the huddle, unable to contain his emotions. Others stood with their heads down, hands on their hips, bothered by the loss they just suffered.

‘My hat’s off to Villanova,’ Desko said. ‘It’s never easy to come into the Carrier Dome and face the Orange, but I thought they played very well today, goalie made some big saves. … My hat’s off to them. It’s a good win for them.’

The emotional scene on both sides after No. 8 Syracuse’s 11-10 loss to No. 15 Villanova (5-3, 1-0 Big East) on Sunday in front of 3,811 in the Carrier Dome highlighted the magnitude of result in a midseason conference matchup. The Orange (4-3, 2-1 Big East) fell for the first time in Big East play after winning its first 14 games in the last two-plus seasons. SU cruised to undefeated records in conference play the last two seasons, dominating its opponents in the process.

Among them were the Wildcats, who lost its four previous matchups with the Orange by a combined score of 65-24. But on Sunday, Villanova finally broke through to defeat Syracuse, battling back from multiple two-goal deficits in the first half and holding on behind the brilliant play of goaltender Dan Gutierrez down the stretch.

‘They just kept crawling back in there, crawling back in there, and when you give a team confidence, they’re going to do some amazing things,’ SU defender Brian Megill said. ‘And hat’s off to Villanova, they wanted it more than us today.’

The Orange led for the entire second period before taking a 7-5 lead into halftime. Megill said it felt like Syracuse was going to break open the game on multiple occasions, but the Orange never went ahead by more than two goals.

Villanova came out firing in the second half, erasing the halftime deficit in the first five minutes. Less than four minutes later, the Wildcats went ahead 8-7, taking their first lead since the opening frame.

Villanova attack Kevin Cunningham worked down the right alley behind the net and sent a pass behind teammate Jack Rice, who waited about 10 yards outside the goal. Harris, an SU defender, lunged at the pass but couldn’t deflect it, and Rice grabbed the ball, spun back and fired a shot into the back of the net.

As Harris lay face down on the turf, frustrated by his miscue, the Villanova players and fans in the Carrier Dome came to life as they could feel the momentum shifting.

‘We got to do some real soul searching as a team as a whole. I thought we came out great. We came out hot,’ Megill said. ‘We showed signs that we were going to break away from them, but they just kept fighting back and we kept getting turnovers and not making plays on defense.’

Syracuse quickly tied the game 8-8, and each team scored again to head into the final period deadlocked.

But Villanova scored twice in the first five minutes, and the Orange offense went cold. Syracuse couldn’t score as it fired seemingly every shot high to make life easy on Gutierrez as he protected a two-goal lead.

‘I never want to discredit the goalie,’ Desko said. ‘I thought he stood tall and made some very good saves. Although we talked about changing the plane of our shots, I found it pretty amazing that we kept shooting high and not changing the plane on him.’

SU still had a chance later after Luke Cometti scored to cut the lead to 11-10 with just more than five minutes remaining.

But neither JoJo Marasco nor Brandon Mullins could get past Gutierrez, who finished with 12 saves, with the equalizer in two good looks in the final 80 seconds.

And Desko and his players watched stunned as the Villanova sideline streamed onto the field around Gutierrez at the net, knowing the missed opportunities offensively in the second half cost them for the program’s first-ever loss in the Big East.

‘Looking back on it, it hurts because you want to just be able to finish and capitalize on those regardless of who it is or who takes the shot,’ Palasek said. ‘Yeah, it definitely burns.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on March 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu