Cody Jamieson Proves Worth the Wait
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
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Cody Jamieson receives a congratulatory nudge from Joel White following his overtime goal that sent Syracuse to a 10-9 comeback win over Cornell and its second straight NCAA Division I championship. © Kevin P. Tucker |
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Cody Jamieson asked Stephen
Keogh the same question that likely weighed on the minds of 41,935
fans at Gillette Stadium on Monday.
"Is it time to get desperate yet?"
Syracuse trailed 9-6 with 5:31 remaining and head coach John Desko
was spewing directives in a timeout when Jamieson approached
Keogh.
"Is it time to get desperate yet?" Jamieson asked his Canadian
cohort.
"No," Keogh replied. "Just have fun. Let's do what we do and have
fun."
Jamieson needed that encouragement Sunday and for most of the past
four months as the NCAA held him in competitive purgatory. There
were desperate times during which he considered desperate measures.
Appeal after appeal was denied as the former junior college star
from Six Nations, Ontario, pleaded the NCAA to deem him
academically eligible - with an online course taken at Onondaga
Community College reportedly at the root of delay.
"There are definitely nights when you stayed awake and looked at
your ceiling wondering if it was ever going to happen," Jamieson
said. "I leaned on my friends."
So after Jamieson converted a Dan Hardy feed for the game-winning
goal with 2:40 left in overtime to send Syracuse to a 10-9 win over
Cornell and its second straight NCAA Division I men's lacrosse
championship -- capping a comeback staged in the kind of chaos only
Syracuse could concoct with its renegade style -- he sprinted the
length of the field to lean once more on Sid Smith.
This time, they rejoiced.
They rejoiced in a moment they had envisioned together as children
growing up on the Six Nations reservation. Smith, Jamieson's
roommate and a defenseman at Syracuse, reminded him of that vision
when the outlook was bleakest.
"I'm just proud of him, the way he stuck it out," said Smith, who
had stripped Ryan Hurley on the other end to set up the
game-winning possession. "He really deserved what he got there at
the end."
Questions over Jamieson's eligibility had lingered throughout the
regular season up until the end, when he finally got the green
light. He played April 26 against UMass and scored a goal May 2
against Cornell. He started in Syracuse's first-round win over
Siena and produced three goals, scored again in the NCAA
quarterfinals against Maryland, and then had a two-goal, one-assist
performance in Friday's 17-7 dismantling of Duke in the NCAA
semifinals.
But Jamieson, like the rest of the Orange's big weapons, had
trouble getting untracked Monday. Cornell shifted between
man-to-man and zone defenses to neutralize Syracuse on offense, and
the Big Red managed many methodical possessions of its own.
But the Orange proved once again it is at its best when the, um,
stick hits the fan.
And so it unraveled for Cornell, vying for its first national
championship since 1977.
Fittingly, after reassuring Jamieson that it was not time to
panic, Keogh scored off a Hardy feed to make it 9-7 with 3:37
remaining.
Then Syracuse struck again 51 seconds later in a goal that
foreshadowed its victory, with Josh Amidon scooping a loose ball
out of a scrum and Jamieson handling his high feed and stuffing it
to make it 9-8.
Cornell goalie Jake Myers, who transferred from Syracuse in
2007-08, made two of his 10 saves during the ensuing possession --
the second on Jamieson on the doorstep.
Then the play that will be etched forever in lacrosse lore:
Joel White stripped Matt Moyer at midfield. Keogh surfaced with
the ground ball and flipped it fortuitously behind his back into
the stick of Matt Abbott, who floated the ball over his shoulder
while falling towards the sideline. It sauntered over an
outstretched long pole and found previously scoreless Kenny Nims on
the crease, and Nims deposited the game-tying goal with 4.5 seconds
remaining.
Desperation sometimes has its benefits.
Nims insisted twice during the post-game press conference and
again afterward that Abbott made eye contact with him before making
that miraculous feed.
"We practice broken plays. It's just second nature to go to the
goal," Nims said. "There were a lot of odd plays today, and that
was certainly one of them. But it definitely was not a fluke. Matt
saw me."
Abbott confirmed.
"As I turned to face the goal, my guy as well as Kenny's guy slid
to me and I saw him out of the corner of my eye down low as I
rolled around. I don't even know how I got it to him," Abbott said,
adding of the play's unsettled nature, "That's what we thrive on.
It couldn't have come at a better time."
For Jamieson, the last year has been an unsettled situation, but
he hopes his persistence will serve as an example to younger kids
who might otherwise doubt life off the reservation.
"It's definitely not easy. A lot of people don't think guys can
come off the reservation and make something of themselves," he
said, "and we're proving that we can."
