Pete Coluccini broke his stick across his knee and pushed his teammates away from him as he stalked off the field.

Moments later, the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team formed a huddle on the sideline, but defenseman Steve Panarelli squatted outside the huddle by himself, burying his head in his hands.

It was that painful for the Orange on Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome. No. 17 Syracuse battled back from a huge early deficit to finally tie the game with 28 seconds remaining against No. 1 Cornell, but SU allowed a game-winning goal with four seconds left, 16-15, in front of 5,398.

Syracuse wasted a brilliant performance from its goaltender, Coluccini, who saved a career-high 22 shots, including many from point-blank range. SU midfielder/attackman Greg Niewieroski scored a personal-best five goals.

‘All that work that you did to get out of that hole, to get back into the game, to leave the game a tie game – it doesn’t mean anything anymore,’ Coluccini said. ‘All the players’ clears and rides, goals and saves, they don’t mean anything.

The loss leaves Syracuse (3-6) on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament. Teams have to finish at least .500 to be eligible for a tournament berth, and SU now has to win all its remaining games. Cornell improved to 9-0 on the year.

‘We can’t practice all week thinking about Cornell,’ Syracuse head coach John Desko said. ‘We’ve got to move ahead and just try to win every game we can to keep us in the playoff hunt.’

SU never held a lead against the Big Red and trailed, 15-12, with less than four minutes to go, but a three-goal burst tied the game up with 28 seconds remaining.

Cornell and Syracuse called consecutive timeouts with eight seconds left on the clock, and Big Red standout Max Seibald demanded the ball in his huddle. In the Orange huddle, Desko anticipated that play and ordered his players to force the right-hander to his left.

When play resumed Seibald drove down to the edge of the crease, and he slipped a right-handed shot past Coluccini for the deciding goal. Coluccini exchanged angry words with the referees, believing Seibald had entered the crease.

‘It goes both ways, what (the referee) saw and what I saw,’ Coluccini said. ‘What he saw counts, and what I saw doesn’t count.’

Syracuse had tied the game, 15-15, 24 seconds before that when midfielder Steven Brooks blasted a 10-yard shot into the goal. Cornell forced Brooks to his weaker right side, but he buried a ferocious right-handed goal into the cage anyway. Brooks celebrated by raising both his arms, while fellow midfielder Pat Perritt lifted him up in the air.

The last-second drama overshadowed a comeback by Syracuse, after it trailed by as many as six goals, 8-2, midway through the second quarter. SU allowed the game’s first six goals. The Orange defense repeatedly gave Cornell open looks on goal right on the crease. The Big Red fired 27 shots in the first half to 21 for Syracuse.

Meanwhile, the Orange slumbered on offense and committed 16 first-half turnovers.

‘We gave ourselves a little too tough of a mountain to climb there,’ Desko said.

SU’s charge began with a four-goal spurt in the span of 2:12 late in the second quarter. Syracuse entered halftime trailing, 8-6, and its offense exploded in the second half.

Jon Jerome and Danny Brennan repeatedly won faceoffs to control possession for the Orange, with the pair finishing 24-of-34 for the game. SU’s midfielders and attackmen took advantage, with Brooks notching a hat trick and Perritt and Greg Rommel tallying two scores apiece.

‘Our offense started clicking,’ Perritt said. ‘We were playing the type of lacrosse that we wanted to play. It’s the reason why we all came here – it’s to play an up-and-down type of lacrosse game.’

Syracuse also did a better job of limiting Cornell’s runs in the second half, swapping goals time and again with the Big Red. The Orange allowed Cornell to score two unanswered goals only twice, due to Coluccini making one sparkling block after another.

But Coluccini took no consolation from his career night in the cage.

‘It was such a key game,’ Coluccini said. ‘We tried so hard, and to come short at the end, it’s really hard to calm yourself.’

Published on April 10, 2007 at 12:00 pm