May 24, 2007

His finest moment seemed so far away.

He still remembers it in slow motion: backing his way toward the cage, lowering his shoulder to split a pair of Salisbury defenders, sprawling just shy of the crease while flicking the ball into the net. The clock still showing 2.2 seconds. The fans going crazy. Cortland winning the national championship.

Pacing the visitor's locker room at Cabrini in late March of this year, Mike Felice's memories of his 2006 title heroics seemed almost cruel. The elation of that miraculous Memorial Day had been replaced by frustration.

It started in the season-opener with a one-goal loss to upstart Villa Julie and followed two games later with a 7-5 setback to St. Lawrence. The Red Dragons managed to climb over .500 with wins over Springfield and Clarkson, but narrow road losses to Nazareth (7-6) and Cabrini (11-10) left the defending champs at 3-4 before April even started.

Felice, hoping to be an inspiring leader during his senior campaign, was trying to figure out a panacea for his struggling squad as he walked among his peers in the Cabrini locker room. In addition to the team's maladies, Felice was trying to get himself right. A litany of ailments had kept him out of three games already (and would keep him out of the line-up in the following game against Ithaca) and his disgruntlement was growing.

"We had a meeting right after the Cabrini game and a lot was said about what needed to be changed," said Felice. "We needed to look deep inside of ourselves and decide what we wanted to do with the rest of the season. The next eight games were going to make or break us. We decided we needed to pull together and start winning.

"It was a little frustrating at the beginning because it was my last year and I wanted to help out the team as much as I could. I wanted to play my last year of college ball healthy. I just had to get by the whole injury slump and get ready for the rest of the year."

The attitude adjustment instilled by the team meeting was supplemented by personnel adjustments by Steve Beville, Cortland's first-year head coach.

"We started running a couple of more middies," said Beville. "We sat a few guys down that we thought weren't giving maximum effort and we woke some people up and made a difference in our lineup. It worked out pretty well."

"As a team we had to either pack it in and go home, or keep on chugging," added Felice. "That's what we did. We stuck together as a team and made a goal that we would go undefeated for the rest of the season."

Felice lived up to his end. After missing four of the first nine games and accumulating two goals and three assists, he finished the season red hot, netting 34 goals along with 19 assists for a staggering 53 points in the final 11 contests.

"He was a little slow coming back, but I'll tell you, when he came back, he came back big," said Beville. "He's had an unbelievable senior year. He's been a great leader since day one."

With Felice leading the way, Cortland strung together nine straight wins, earning the right to host the SUNYAC tournament championship game. Despite the rocky start to the season, it appeared certain the Red Dragons would earn a shot to defend their title. Cortland had already defeated Geneseo during the regular season on the road, so a home game was in the bag.

Someone forgot to inform the Blue Knights as Geneseo stunned Cortland, 16-15. The loss had the look of a final indignity for Felice and the defending champs. The Red Dragons were carrying some extra baggage in the form of five losses, and with several quality teams in the barn with better records, there was despair for Felice.

"Personally, I thought we were done," he admitted. "Coach said there's still a chance, don't count yourself out yet because crazier things have happened. We all got together on Sunday waiting for that selection show. After that, we were like, `Wow, we have a new life here. We've got to keep this going because we got a second chance.'"

"We were all a little apprehensive about it because you never know," said Beville. "You see some crazy things with the selection committee, like Cornell being a No. 4 seed. I thought our index numbers, our strength of schedule, would carry us."

The brutal early season schedule not only proved to be the difference in the Red Dragons' admission to the tournament, it has also hardened them for the playoff run. Unlike last year when Cortland had the luxury of playing all of its games at home leading up to the finals, this postseason they had to keep the suitcases packed.

"We adopted the name `Road Warriors' this year," said Felice, proudly. "It was a little different than playing in our own stadium, but it's been great. Our parents and fans have traveled with us and it almost seemed like we were playing at home."

The next game will have a road game feel, as well, with M&T Bank Stadium located considerably closer to Salisbury's campus. Location is just one of the many reasons, like last year, that Cortland is universally regarded as a massive underdog heading into Sunday's rematch.

With as many obstacles as the Red Dragons have sidestepped this season, this is hardly a concern.

"I think it is going to be a fun game," said Beville. "A lot of people are obviously picking Salisbury to win and get the title back they held for three years. But we'll be there Sunday at 1:30 p.m."

"We're just going to play Cortland lacrosse and we're not going to be real concerned about that stuff," said Felice. "We're just going to play our game, focus on us, do what we do and see how it works out."

Whether or not they are able to repeat as champions, Cortland's improbable run back to the NCAA title game could be considered just as impressive as Felice's overtime winner in '06. And that's something worth remembering.

Contact Jac Coyne at jcoyne@uslacrosse.org.