May 24, 2008

LMO SIDEBAR: Inches Separate Emotional High, Low for Rubeor

by Matt DaSilva, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Four minutes remained in the third quarter when Virginia goalie Bud Petit took a lap around the cage to the end line, tilted his helmet back and squirted his palate with water, the Cavs ahead 9-5 and cruising.

But even he knew it would not be that easy.

Nearly a half hour later, Syracuse and Virginia were still playing. Orange goalie John Galloway patted the crossbar three times and sighed.

Perhaps he knew he'd need it.

A furious exchange typical of college lacrosse's most entertaining rivalry ended with 1:43 remaining in double overtime, when Orange attackman Mike Leveille slipped an admittedly untargeted shot between Petit's legs from about 12 yards out for a 12-11 victory in the first NCAA Division I semifinal Saturday before 48,244 fans at Gillette Stadium.

"Just a typical Syracuse-Virginia lacrosse game," Orange head coach John Desko deadpanned.

Guarded closely by Virginia's Ken Clausen, Leveille dodged left and then right, then backed off Clausen enough to use his hip as a screen for a low, left-handed hopper that befuddled Petit.

On Virginia's previous possession, an extra-man opportunity, Ben Rubeor ripped a hard shot off the corner of the cage that caromed sharply off the left pipe and crossbar and out of bounds, leaving Syracuse closest to the spot of the ball.

"We've been through some tough things recently," said Leveille, referring to the motorcycle crash Tuesday in central New York that killed the brother of teammates Kyle and Tom Guadagnolo, as well as the death this week of an undisclosed family friend. He finished with five goals and two assists. "We knew lacrosse was a thing we could control."

Besides faceoffs (19 of 27), there were few things Syracuse could control in digging itself into an 8-3 hole midway through the third quarter. The Cavaliers left nary a shot uncontested and kept playmaker Steve Brooks scoreless with pressure from defensive midfielder Will Barrow.

Barrow even one-upped his counterpart on the game's most extraordinary effort, escaping a triple-team at midfield and swimming past two more slides en route to a first quarter goal that tied the game 2-2 at the 5:52 mark.

Reinvigorated, Virginia reeled off four more goals to seize a lead that was not seriously challenged until the fourth quarter.

The Cavs led 10-6 after Garrett Billings scored with 14:15 remaining.

"I was thinking to myself, `It's going too fast,'" said Petit, a fifth-year senior who made 16 saves in the loss. "A couple of minutes later, it was going too long."

After an extra-man goal by Leveille, Syracuse's Matt Abbott, a previously unheralded midfielder who kept the Orange close with three goals on strong individual efforts, drew Virginia's Peter Lamade behind the cage and exploited the short-stick match-up to make it 10-8.

Billings scored again on a crisp feed from Rubeor to give the Cavs a three-goal lead, but Syracuse struck back with three more unanswered goals spanning 2:15.

The last goal, by Leveille on a putback after Petit denied Brooks, tied the game at 11 with three minutes remaining.

Petit made two more saves on Syracuse's final possession, one off his facemask and the other off of his athletic protector, to preserve the tie for overtime.

Petit also made a heads-up interception on a feed from Leveille intended for Hardy, who was left open on the back pipe, at the 2:44 mark of the first overtime.

Galloway, who thought he had a "terrible game," responded with a point-blank stuff of Billings going the other way.

Petit's retort: a high stop on Orange midfielder Jovan Miller diving forward.

None of it surprised Virginia head coach Dom Starsia.

"These two teams play with passion. We've produced a lot of fireworks over the years," Starsia said, lauding Petit, whose five-year career was spent primarily backing up other goalies, including freshman Adam Ghitelman for the first half of this season. "OT, I'm getting too old for this. But Bud's one of those guys that keeps you going."

Third-seeded Syracuse (15-2) meets the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between top-seeded Duke and fifth-seeded Johns Hopkins in the championship game Monday, a year after the Orange were 5-8 and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament altogether.

"Right from the start of last summer, we kept that in the back of our minds," Leveille said. "This is where we wanted to be."