ITHACA - Kevin Dougherty wasn't thinking about "The Streak." The scoreboard at Cornell's Schoellkopf Field wasn't working, and he was more concerned about how much time was left as Syracuse battled Georgetown for a berth in the lacrosse Final Four.
Syracuse's Mike Powell (22) scores on Georgetown goalie Rich D'Andrea while being upended by Mike White, left, during the third quarter of the NCAA Division I lacrosse championship quarterfinals in Ithaca, Sunday. The Associated Press
"I heard the referee yell 15 seconds and kept my eye on him," Dougherty said. "Then he put in that goal. Thank God!"
Sean Lindsay scored from in front of the net off a feed from Steve Vallone with five seconds remaining in regulation Sunday to give fourth-seeded Syracuse a comeback 8-7 victory over No. 5 Georgetown and propel the Orange into a berth in the national semifinals for a remarkable 22nd straight time.
"We showed some character," said Syracuse coach John Desko, who has been to every one of those 22 Final Fours, either as a player or coach at his alma mater. "We're just happy to be playing again next week."
Syracuse (13-2) will face top-ranked Johns Hopkins (13-1) in next Saturday's semifinals in Baltimore.
The final minutes of the Syracuse-Georgetown game were especially nerve-racking. Desko asked for the official time every 10 seconds as the Orange played from behind virtually the entire game.
The scoreboard had malfunctioned in the final seconds of the first half and went dark.
Although the players on the field never knew how much time was left, everybody knew it was short when Georgetown lost the ball after a long possession in the fourth produced no good scoring chances with the score tied at 7.
"It was pretty unnerving not being able to look up and see the scoreboard and the score," Desko said. "You knew that it was a one-goal difference or a tie game, but not to see it on the scoreboard was eerie."
After the Orange called timeout with 1:43 to go, Dougherty missed wide from the right side and Georgetown goalie Rich D'Andrea followed with a big save on Brian Nee's low shot.
A Georgetown offsides in the final minute, however, gave Syracuse the ball, and after another timeout with 40 seconds left the Orange struck for the winner.
Syracuse patiently worked the ball around the perimeter before Vallone zipped a pass to Lindsay at the left side of the cage.
D'Andrea never had a chance as the Syracuse bench erupted in glee.
"We're all seniors out there," said Lindsay, who also scored in the first period. "We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity we had, but we didn't want to force anything."
Mike Powell, Syracuse's all-time leading scorer, had three goals, all in the third period, to erase a 5-3 halftime deficit and give him 297 career points (148 goals, 149 assists). Alex Zink, Kevin Dougherty and Brian Crockett each scored once for the Orange.
Sean Denihan had four goals and one assist, and Brodie Merrill, Walid Hajj and Trevor Casey each scored once for Georgetown (11-4).
Denihan had given Georgetown a 7-6 lead when he slid a shot through the legs of Syracuse goalie Jay Pfeifer at 11:09 of the fourth quarter, but the Hoyas couldn't hold on.
Dougherty eluded Georgetown's Neal Goldman and scored past D'Andrea from the right side at 8:19 to tie it and set the stage for the dramatic ending.
"Obviously, the result wasn't exactly what we were looking for," Georgetown coach Dave Urick said. "It's an awful high mountain to climb. These guys got us as close to the top as you could."
Urick quickly put everything in perspective, though.
In the other quarterfinal game played here earlier, second-ranked Navy held off Cornell 6-5 in an emotionally charged game.
The Big Red had been playing since mid-March without senior captain George Boiardi, who died after being struck in the chest with a lacrosse ball in the waning moments of a game. And the Middies were trying to concentrate knowing that several former players were in harm's way serving in the Middle East.
When the Middies took the field, a sergeant carried a flag that had flown over a compound in Afghanistan.
"Knowing what the Cornell guys have had to deal with this year puts things in perspective a little bit," Urick said. "We lost a lacrosse game today, and that's not the worst thing in the world that could have happened."
Sean Lindsay scored from in front of the net off a feed from Steve Vallone with five seconds remaining in regulation Sunday to give fourth-seeded Syracuse a comeback 8-7 victory over No. 5 Georgetown and propel the Orange into a berth in the national semifinals for a remarkable 22nd straight time.
"We showed some character," said Syracuse coach John Desko, who has been to every one of those 22 Final Fours, either as a player or coach at his alma mater. "We're just happy to be playing again next week."
Syracuse (13-2) will face top-ranked Johns Hopkins (13-1) in next Saturday's semifinals in Baltimore.
The final minutes of the Syracuse-Georgetown game were especially nerve-racking. Desko asked for the official time every 10 seconds as the Orange played from behind virtually the entire game.
The scoreboard had malfunctioned in the final seconds of the first half and went dark.
Although the players on the field never knew how much time was left, everybody knew it was short when Georgetown lost the ball after a long possession in the fourth produced no good scoring chances with the score tied at 7.
"It was pretty unnerving not being able to look up and see the scoreboard and the score," Desko said. "You knew that it was a one-goal difference or a tie game, but not to see it on the scoreboard was eerie."
After the Orange called timeout with 1:43 to go, Dougherty missed wide from the right side and Georgetown goalie Rich D'Andrea followed with a big save on Brian Nee's low shot.
A Georgetown offsides in the final minute, however, gave Syracuse the ball, and after another timeout with 40 seconds left the Orange struck for the winner.
Syracuse patiently worked the ball around the perimeter before Vallone zipped a pass to Lindsay at the left side of the cage.
D'Andrea never had a chance as the Syracuse bench erupted in glee.
"We're all seniors out there," said Lindsay, who also scored in the first period. "We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity we had, but we didn't want to force anything."
Mike Powell, Syracuse's all-time leading scorer, had three goals, all in the third period, to erase a 5-3 halftime deficit and give him 297 career points (148 goals, 149 assists). Alex Zink, Kevin Dougherty and Brian Crockett each scored once for the Orange.
Sean Denihan had four goals and one assist, and Brodie Merrill, Walid Hajj and Trevor Casey each scored once for Georgetown (11-4).
Denihan had given Georgetown a 7-6 lead when he slid a shot through the legs of Syracuse goalie Jay Pfeifer at 11:09 of the fourth quarter, but the Hoyas couldn't hold on.
Dougherty eluded Georgetown's Neal Goldman and scored past D'Andrea from the right side at 8:19 to tie it and set the stage for the dramatic ending.
"Obviously, the result wasn't exactly what we were looking for," Georgetown coach Dave Urick said. "It's an awful high mountain to climb. These guys got us as close to the top as you could."
Urick quickly put everything in perspective, though.
In the other quarterfinal game played here earlier, second-ranked Navy held off Cornell 6-5 in an emotionally charged game.
The Big Red had been playing since mid-March without senior captain George Boiardi, who died after being struck in the chest with a lacrosse ball in the waning moments of a game. And the Middies were trying to concentrate knowing that several former players were in harm's way serving in the Middle East.
When the Middies took the field, a sergeant carried a flag that had flown over a compound in Afghanistan.
"Knowing what the Cornell guys have had to deal with this year puts things in perspective a little bit," Urick said. "We lost a lacrosse game today, and that's not the worst thing in the world that could have happened."
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