Decked in a black and red vest, one Cornell fan’s screams during open introductions rang through the Carrier Dome. His blow horn, the outlet for his excitement, wasn’t supposed to be featured much throughout the game — Syracuse has defeated seven ranked opponents this season, and the unranked Big Red didn’t initially pose that same challenge.

Yet, the man’s voice buzzed regularly on Tuesday. Cornell mounted a lead against a top-five team, and after fending off a second-half scoring run, it was in a position to upset the Orange with 15 minutes left.

As some fans looked his way, the man’s voice was hard to disregard. His elation — one that lasted most of the game — gradually disappeared in the closing minutes. Cornell’s bid to knock off the Orange quickly evaporated.

No. 5 Syracuse (14-3, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) eventually rebounded from its slow start to fend off Cornell (8-5, 4-1 Ivy) in its season finale. Despite a 4-0 deficit to start and a late second-half lead by the Big Red, SU responded to win its 14th game of the season in a 16-13 win on Senior Night. It wasn’t a late-game scoring run like against Notre Dame or eight goals in eight minutes against Connecticut, just a steady recovery from its lapses. Now, Syracuse heads into the ACC championship with its best record in five years.

“We had a little rust left from the weekend, so it took us a bit to get going,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “Once our offense started getting fired up, I think things were good.”

Coming off a loss in which Syracuse scored just five goals against North Carolina, the intense stares and usual silence in the stick check line all season shifted to a rarefied joy Tuesday, one that wouldn’t last long.

That loose attitude was met with the Big Red winning the first three draws, all off of senior Julie Cross. SU’s offense found lanes in close, but they weren’t hitting nylon.

“The first three shots hit off the pipe,” Gait said. “Three in a row. And we’re all sitting there like ‘Just like the weekend, oh my god.’”

Gait’s head slumped on the first and immediately turned to the other side of the field on the second, assuming it would change possession. The care-free pregame had turned into assistant coach Caitlin Defliese yelling at midfielders on the sidelines. The Cornell lead widened to four, and Gait motioned for a timeout.

“We would always come together,” attack Emily Hawryschuk said, “and tell each other ‘It’s gonna happen, it’s going to come to us.’”

When the 10 minutes of stagnancy came to a halt and the SU offense responded, Cornell senior Sarah Phillips slammed both hands. She had just turned the ball over, and as she ran back into the play, trying to avoid a Syracuse scoring run, the Orange rushed to the net. After the SU goal, Phillips shook off her head coach on the sidelines.

By the time Hawryschuk forced the Big Red goalie in and snuck a ball past her hip, the deficit had ended just as quickly as it started — in 10 minutes. But the trademark SU scoring run that catapulted it to wins over Northwestern and Florida was nonexistent.

The man with the blow horn looked to his right and smiled to the people next to him as the halftime buzzer sounded. The score was still tied after 30 minutes, and Cornell, an unlikely competitor, was holding up.

“You got to focus on playing the game, not just scoring,” Gait said.

The Orange mounted their first lead of the game, up two early in the second frame. On one play, Ellie Walsh slinged a shot past Asa Goldstock, but a whistle rang. The man put his blow horn on his lap, just in case it was an errant foul call. There was none. As the announcement of the score from Walsh rang, his wait to lift up his horn ended in an extended “Ellie” cheer. A comeback, this time from Cornell, still loomed.

Within reach, the Big Red started to dominate Morgan Widner and exposed the open spaces of Goldstock’s defense — beating her five-hole on one-hoppers or up top when her knees bent.

Tied at 11, Olivia Jensen jumped on a loose ball on the turf. Reacting faster than Goldstock, she gave the Big Red the lead. The man stood from his seat position, and shouted toward his team — who was winning again.

Sarah Cooper noticed they were dodging high and in the middle, so the freshman moved up that direction. When Cornell turnovers ensued — SU forced almost a turnover every two minutes — its offense, rejuvenated with more spacing, came alive, Morgan Alexander said.

“Once we settled down, then it started to come back,” Gait said.

After a Phillips turnover led to a SU goal and a subsequent lead, the man quickly put his jacket on and put his blow horn in a tote bag. A 5-1 stretch to close out the game provided the dagger Syracuse couldn’t find for the first 50 minutes and saved its season finale from disaster.

Postgame, the slow start, and the blame, was placed on the reaction to Syracuse’s first loss in over a month three days prior. Tuesday’s game had little meaning in the standings, but it served as a reminder that the Orange, a team that was once was No. 3 in the nation, could be broken.

“That could’ve been 25 goals if we shot better from the beginning,” Gait said. “… We just had a tough day.”

Published on April 16, 2019 at 9:13 pm

Contact KJ: kjedelma@syr.edu | @KJEdelman