Down 8-7 with 1:53 left in the third quarter, the Orange scored five unanswered goals to take a 12-8 lead with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter, and tacked on three late goals to reclaim the Kraus-Simmons Trophy.
Syracuse lacrosse improvement starts right there with Chris Daddio turning his season around. That was the glaring problem throughout the year and it blew up in the Duke game.
The Syracuse men’s lacrosse team secured a berth in the four-team ACC tournament and is a virtual lock for the NCAAs after its 11-10 overtime win against North Carolina on Saturday.
What looked like a rout turned into a nail-biter as the Orange, down 6-3 at half and looking stymied by the Tar Heel D, stormed back to tie things up at 7 going into the fourth quarter.
Randy Staats scored a career-high nine points on five goals and four assists, and Kevin Rice chipped in with three goals and four assists as Syracuse defeated Cornell, 14-9.
Randy Staats went on a personal 4-0 run in the second half that turned a 8-6 deficit into a 12-6 lead, and Syracuse was never seriously challenged the rest of the contest.
As always, Syracuse will need to pay close attention to the opposing team’s faceoff specialist. In this case, it will be Cornell’s Doug Tesoriero, who has won 53 percent of his faceoffs this season, though he did struggle against Harvard.
Syracuse lacrosse goalie Dominic Lamolinara calls in to chat about Syracuse lacrosse’s recent success and its push toward the NCAA Tournament with host Wesley Cheng on the Juice on the Cuse podcast hosted by SNY.tv.