Film Review: How SU completed wild 4th-quarter comeback vs. Harvard
Nifty passes like Joey Spallina's cross-field dish to Trey Deere and Owen Hiltz's behind-the-back to Michael Leo set up many of Syracuse's fourth-quarter goals against Harvard Sunday. Angelina Grevi | Staff Photographer
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Owen Hiltz admitted he didn’t play his best on Sunday. Neither did many of his Syracuse teammates. The Orange were lazy and unenthusiastic to begin their NCAA Tournament first-round matchup with Harvard. They trailed 8-2 at halftime, had 12 turnovers and didn’t post an assist in the first half for the first time since April 2, 2022, against Notre Dame.
No one will remember SU’s porous start, though. They’ll only tell the tale of its spellbinding six-goal comeback. The Orange, in a flash, went from playing horrifically to flipping the game on their head through controlling the faceoff X and putting the Crimson on their heels in transition. They outscored Harvard 7-3 in the fourth quarter, including six unanswered goals that led to overtime, where Hiltz slotted home the game winner.
Syracuse has neared some improbable comebacks this year — its narrow loss to North Carolina to end the regular season comes to mind — but Sunday, it fully scaled the mountain.
“Even when we’ve lost games, we always try and find a way to fight back and give ourselves a chance,” Gait said. “And I think all those past games when we did lose, but we kept playing, paid off today.”
Here’s a breakdown of four plays that influenced No. 6 Syracuse’s (12-5, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) 13-12 victory over Harvard (10-5, 4-2 Ivy League) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday:
4th quarter, 10:00 — Back Door Man
Joey Spallina hits Trey Deere with a picturesque back-door feed here, which, at the time, brought SU within three. Other than swift ball movement to filter the ball to Spallina down low, there’s not much to note on this play besides Spallina and Deere’s Ontario Junior Lacrosse League connection paying dividends.
With Syracuse on a man-up opportunity, it swung the ball around the right flank before Greg Elijah-Brown dumped the ball toward the left side of the cage to Finn Thomson. Spallina darted from the other side of the goal-line extended and received a pass from Thomson on the move. While his feet tiptoed in the opposite direction, Spallina peered toward the cage to search for open teammates. Deere stood, uncontested, on the back-door side of Harvard goalie Graham Stevens. It’s as if Spallina knew he’d be there.
Harvard defender Jake Brownley charged at Spallina while the attack surveyed the field, like a quarterback in football dropping back while facing a blitz. Feeling the pressure, Spallina reared his body around and whipped a cross-crease pass to a wide-open Deere. Deere made sure to not encroach the goal mouth, precisely reaching his stick forward and flicking an easy shot past Stevens.
4th quarter, 9:49 — Mullen’s FO win sets up … Chuck Kuczynski?
The Orange’s fourth-quarter goals came in an avalanche. And it’s the speed at which they scored that made their comeback possible. Syracuse covered a lot of ground in a short period of time, mostly through the work of faceoff specialist John Mullen — who won 24-of-28 faceoffs against a weak Harvard faceoff unit. Mullen’s quick wins, and help he received from the wings, allowed SU’s offense to explode in transition. This play is the prime example of that.
Against Crimson faceoff man Matt Barraco, Mullen won the initial clamp but couldn’t instantly corral the ball as it sputtered around the turf. Charging in from the wing, though, was SU midfielder Sam English, who burned past Harvard defender Martin Nelson and arrived first to the ground ball. English showed off his toughness here; he scooped the ball before weathering a hit from Barraco that knocked the ball away, then re-collected it off the bounce with his momentum going toward Harvard’s cage.
It was messy, but it worked. English cradled the ball in his stick while sprinting downhill, eventually dumping the ball to Spallina on the left flank. Spallina saw red, his eyes glued to the cage, yet noticed traffic in front of Stevens and dished short to Thomson. On the other side of the field, Syracuse long pole defender Chuck Kuczynski was running down the alley. No Crimson player was looking at Kuczynski, which Thomson spotted.
Kuczynski cradled Thomson’s pass, stepped forward and fired a shot similar to an upper-cut punch, dipping his stick low to the ground before releasing the ball. It worked. He unleashed a seed past Stevens, igniting the Dome faithful into a frenzy as SU chopped its deficit to 11-9.
4th quarter, 8:49 — Rhoa step-down knots it at 11-11
Another Mullen faceoff victory preceded this one, too. But Syracuse was more clinical in how it set its offense up. Getting its two best midfield shot creators involved made for an almost-too-easy transition goal to tie the game at 11-11.
The Orange began with English possessing the ball just past midfield and fellow midfielders Luke Rhoa and Michael Leo near the midline on the left side. Harvard’s defense was already set. English charged forward before flipping backward to Rhoa, and Rhoa did the same for Leo. The three then ran ahead as English spaced himself out wide to the right and Rhoa posted up in the middle of the Crimson’s defensive midfield. Leo kept the ball along the left side.
As Leo made an initial dodge to the left against midfielder Finn Pokorny, Rhoa — while matched up with Harvard long-stick midfielder Sean Jordan — made a sudden out-cut and leaked into the backfield.
Rhoa’s slight movement completely lost Jordan.
Leo immediately turned to his right side and floated a pass for Rhoa, who didn’t have a defender within 10 yards of him upon receiving the feed. Rhoa, known for his electric, high-velocity finishes, took three steps forward before catapulting a lengthy shot in Stevens’ direction. It found nothing but twine and was the last tally of Rhoa’s four-goal outing.
4th quarter, 3:32 — Hiltz’s magical feed to Leo gives SU a (brief) 4th-quarter lead
With time winding down on a man-up chance and the game locked at 11-11, the Orange needed to take advantage of a Harvard cross-checking penalty and get a clean shot off. This possession featured plenty of mindless passing. But, oftentimes, all it took was one daring pass attempt to materialize a goal. That’s just what Hiltz did here.
The Orange were dishing the ball in a rectangular shape with players cutting in and out as they looked to carve out a scoring chance. The Crimson weren’t over-sliding to any particular player, however. They let SU work the ball around the yard and stayed with their assignment if they attempted to dodge or cut.
Harvard held strong for a while, but it didn’t see what it had coming courtesy of Hiltz. With nine seconds left on the man-up, Spallina sent a cross-field pass to Hiltz, who shuffled a few paces forward and acted as if he was going to wind up for a shot. As his eyes stared down Stevens in net, Hiltz slowed his momentum down and turned the head of his stick. He delivered a no-look, behind-the-back pass, easily hitting Leo on the right flank.
Hiltz’s fakeout caused the Crimson to slide upward, freeing up Leo for a point-blank opportunity. Leo rocketed a sidearm release past Stevens, who had no chance to react.
