Eventually it had to crack.

Bryant’s Kevin Massa won 4-of-5 faceoffs in the first quarter, 4-of-6 in the second then 4-of-4 in the third. The Bulldogs were offered possession after possession and when they had the ball, they made a deliberate effort to keep it for as long as they could.

The Syracuse defense was set up to crumble, but didn’t – until three back-breaking goals in the final eight minutes softened an otherwise strong showing by the Orange’s back line.

“Our (defense) played pretty well,” SU head coach John Desko said. “Anytime we did make a mistake, Bryant capitalized and scored on it and that’s basically how the game went.”

The Bulldogs (16-4, 5-1 Northeast) beat second-seeded Syracuse (11-5, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) 10-9 in the Carrier Dome on Sunday night, eliminating the Orange from the NCAA tournament.

While Chris Daddio struggled at the faceoff X for most of the game and SU committed 10 first-half turnovers, its defense kept the game close. But then Bryant’s Tucker James found the net twice in three minutes and Shane Morrell’s running shot past Bobby Wardwell proved to be the winner 2:51 after it hit the back of the net.

“In the first half we made a lot of mistakes on our own,” Bryant midfielder Colin Dunster said. “We knew that there were a lot of opportunities there. We just needed to calm down and get our nerves together and we knew we could explode like that.”

Bryant’s offensive approach was clear as soon as a Daddio violation granted the Bulldogs the game’s first possession.

Whereas the Bryant defense huddled into a zone when Syracuse attacked, the Orange’s back line had to counteract the visitors’ slow pace by extending its pressure. And when it did, the Bulldogs threw errant passes out of bounds and couldn’t get into any kind of groove.

“Early in the second half, thanks to the coaches and the older kids that kind of took charge,” James said, “we slowed the game down, which worked in our favor.”

When the Bulldogs eased the pace of the game and started to move the ball around the arc, they gave themselves the opportunity to hand-pick scoring opportunities.

As the game clock ticked below eight minutes, Collins Gantz saw his chance. Tom Grimm gave him space to dodge and he took it, darting past the SU defender and into space on the right wing. The move forced Sean Young to step up and leave James and when he did, Gantz tapped it to his teammate who faked twice before giving the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead — a slight cushion it wouldn’t give up.

What the Syracuse defense had taken away all night cost SU the fourth quarter and consequently, the game.

“I think every possession seemed like three or four minutes long,” senior defender Matt Harris said. “Just a little mistake, like Coach said, they capitalized on. All the credit to them, all the credit to their coaches.”

Published on May 12, 2014 at 1:24 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse