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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Owen Hiltz doesn’t have much time left in his college career. He’s well aware of that. At this point in the season, he’s playing for one thing; spending more time with his teammates.

It sounds simple, but the goal was echoed by redshirt sophomore Jimmy McCool. Hiltz is in the twilight of his time at Syracuse. McCool might not have even reached his apex, yet both are desperate for SU’s season to continue.

The Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals had the potential to squash those hopes. Three straight losses to close the regular season put the Orange’s place in the NCAA Tournament in question. They’d gone from a perennial Final Four team to one that was spiraling out of control.

That changed Friday.

No. 4 Seed Syracuse (10-5, 2-2 ACC) broke out of its funk by downing No. 1 Seed Notre Dame (8-4, 3-1 ACC) 14-12 to make its first ACC Championship game since 2016. The Orange never trailed and reeked of a team full of desperation, sporting a sense of urgency that was lacking the past three weeks. Hiltz and McCool were a big reason why. Hiltz poured in a season-high five goals, while McCool registered a career-high 20 saves. Not even a 30-plus minute weather delay in the second half could deny Syracuse from all but sealing its place in the NCAA Tournament.

“Every guy on this team loves each other, and we’re gonna do anything to spend more time with each other. It was our one goal,” McCool said. “Nothing’s promised and we gotta fight for every second, each other.”

Gary Gait isn’t one to sound alarm bells, though he had a more serious tone in his voice before SU’s trip to Charlotte. The Orange’s pinnacle of the season — a 14-9 win over then-No. 5 Notre Dame on April 5 — was followed by defeats to No. 1 Cornell, then-No. 12 Duke and then-No. 8 North Carolina.

The pressure on Syracuse to get back into the win column was immense. Gait told his team to play with nothing to lose, and they responded.

Syracuse jumped out to a 3-0 lead within five minutes. Notre Dame did score four goals to make it 4-4 early in the second quarter. However, four goals across a 1:35 stretch put the Orange back in front.

Syracuse was playing Make It, Take It lacrosse with John Mullen dominating at the faceoff X. He won 12 of his first 13 faceoffs and finished 21-of-26, leaving ND’s Will Lynch with a measley 7-of-21 outing.

Hiltz got the run started, curling from the X off a feed from Michael Leo. Mullen scored six seconds later on the ensuing faceoff, while Payton Anderson and Sam English added two more. From that point, Syracuse never relinquished its advantage.

“I thought they played great. It was a great team win and effort,” Gait said postgame. “They never gave up, they kept responding. Sure they made mistakes, but both teams did. We did what they needed to do to get through, get the win.”

Syracuse’s skid has been defined by elongated droughts. Its talented offense has often been nullified by stagnant ball movement and poor shooting. The Orange’s four-goal spurt in two minutes last week against UNC showed their potential, but the question was whether they could stay consistent.

The Orange looked the part through the first half. Each time Notre Dame threatened, SU responded. With Finn Thomson fully healthy, Syracuse implemented him at the X. Thomson wasn’t available last time against Notre Dame, meaning Anderson played that role, while Joey Spallina spent time in front of goal off the ball.

The Orange repeated that strategy Friday. Spallina didn’t score four goals like the last meeting, but he dished out a team-high four assists, while being guarded by Shawn Lyght, one of the best defenders in the country.

One of Spallina’s four assists came when he set up Greg Elijah-Brown at the far post during a man-up possession to make it 9-7 with 10:21 remaining in the third quarter. At that point, Syracuse’s offense was getting the better of a defense that surrendered just 8.55 goals per game, the fifth-best mark in the country.

That’s when a problem Syracuse couldn’t control arose; Mother Nature.

With severe weather in the area, the game was delayed for nearly an hour. The time away from the field threatened to quell any momentum Syracuse had built.

Gait didn’t overcomplicate things during the delay. He went over what went well in the first half and relaxed, but not too much.

“I trust these guys. We always do what we think is right, trying to (get them prepared),” Gait said. “The other teams got to deal with the (delay) as well.”

Once the two teams returned to the field for warmups at 7:13 p.m. and for a 7:23 p.m. faceoff, Gait said his team locked back in.

Though initially, Syracuse looked unfocused. The Orange didn’t touch the ball for two minutes. Once they did, McCool turned the ball over following a save. At that point, Notre Dame cut the deficit to one, and threatened to knot things up, but Will Angrick coughed possession up on a man-up chance. Hiltz punished Notre Dame when he beat Thomas Ricciardelli, restoring SU’s multi-goal advantage.

Notre Dame was two-men up when McCool thwarted another shot from Devon McLane, part of a 4-for-6 effort by SU’s man-down defense. Leo then fed Finn Thomson, pushing Syracuse’s lead back to three.

There wasn’t anything complicated about Syracuse’s formula. Find the open man and get them the ball.

“Our ball movement was on point,” Hiltz said. “(There was) no selfish play today, we had a lot of hockey assists that don’t get credited. For us, that’s like an assist and fun to watch.”

With Mullen’s dominance, the Orange didn’t have to worry much about a prolonged Notre Dame run. All they needed to do was execute drawn-out possessions to close out a win.

Syracuse still nursed a three-goal lead when English found Hiltz from five yards out for an easy low-to-high finish for his fourth goal of the game. After just three goals in the past two games, Hiltz came up big when Syracuse needed him most.

With 1:57 remaining, Hiltz put in the dagger. Chris Kavanagh made it a three-goal game, but Mullen won the ensuing faceoff before Gait called timeout.

Hiltz was double teamed along the right wing, while Ricciardelli vacated his goal. As soon as the whistle blew, Hiltz fired into the empty net. The tally was his easiest goal of the night and punctuated SU’s result.

Despite the occasion, there were no nerves from Syracuse. For the first time in three weeks, it looked like a cohesive unit across the board. What that means for the rest of the season is to be determined.

Is this the win that reignites Syracuse’s championship hopes? Or is it just false hope?

For now, the Orange just care they’re living to fight another day.

Published on May 2, 2025 at 8:37 pm
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