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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Nearly two hours before the game, fans were already lining up outside of Jordan Field, hoping to catch a glimpse of the big, bad Syracuse team rolling into town. It was snowing, but the sub-freezing temperatures did nothing to deter the crowd.

Several fans succeeded. One of them, a kid donning a “Maine Lacrosse” beanie, boasted to his friends that he snagged pictures with Gary Gait and Joey Spallina. If you take his word for it, he even got the star Syracuse attack to sign his copy of this week’s USA Lacrosse Magazine, which Spallina graced the cover of.

Attendees donning orange posed for pregame pictures, as SU players practiced on the field behind them. If Jordan — with bleachers that only seat 1,000 — wasn’t at capacity, it was awfully close to it before the game. Hundreds of Harvard fans were relegated to standing room, watching from behind the net.

This is what comes with the territory of being the nation’s No. 1 team. There’s a target on your back, and it’s a bit counterintuitive — the only way to get rid of it is to lose. Every opponent is your Super Bowl, and likewise, you’ve become your opponent’s Super Bowl each and every game. It’s a title that’s renewed on a weekly basis, and if you miss the deadline? Tough luck.

Success brings the inevitable weight of expectation, the kind Syracuse hasn’t had to grapple with since 2020. It’s a blessing and a curse, especially in a year where the sport’s elite have been practically indistinguishable. It’s why, when the clock struck midnight on No. 14 Harvard’s (3-0, Ivy) 13-12 upset over No. 1 Syracuse (3-1, Atlantic Coast) Saturday, the Crimson stormed the field in jubilation, mobbing goalie Graham Stevens as he stood in net.

“This has become quite an experience for Boston lacrosse fans,” Harvard head coach Gerry Byrne said postgame. “I just think they felt like they knew they could play with them.”

It was the first blemish on SU’s record. It was the first game the Orange defense — which Gait praised at his media availability Wednesday — allowed double-digit goals. And with the defeat, Syracuse has officially gone 23 years without an outdoor win in the month of February.

Harvard players mob goalie Graham Stevens after the Crimson downed No. 1 Syracuse Saturday. The defeat was SU’s first of the season. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer

But there’s indisputably a silver lining. That loss, as devastating as it may seem right now, liberated SU from the pressure of being the nation’s preeminent team to beat.

“I think our guys came in with obviously, a healthy respect, playing the number one team in the country,” Byrne said. “I think they came in with confidence and humility blending together.”

Go back to that fan donning that “Maine Lacrosse” beanie. The kid’s father, sitting to his right, conversed with a friend before the game. He told him about the pictures his son got with Spallina and Gait, and mentioned he hoped to get one with SU’s star faceoff man, John Mullen, as well.

He didn’t, though. Mullen — unsurprisingly, with his mysterious demeanor — wasn’t the most approachable guy. The way the kid’s father described it, he looked like “he was ready to rip somebody’s head off.”

But on the opening faceoff, Mullen didn’t appear ready to rip anyone’s head off, let alone Harvard faceoff specialist Owen Umansky. He dominated Umansky last year, finishing 52-for-59 across their two matchups. Mullen promptly lost the game’s first possession on a faceoff violation.

Drew Angelo subbed in on SU’s next faceoff. He lost that one, too. Mullen didn’t win a faceoff until the game’s fourth clash, and he finished the game 13-of-24 — a fine performance, but far from the standard he’s set for himself over the past year and a half.

“He battled. He won some ground balls off the faceoff,” Gait said postgame. “But it was a much closer battle in that area today.”

Mullen wasn’t the only one who battled Saturday. It was a physical game on both sides, and the referees were calling it as such. Crimson fans were less than enthused at that reality.

“Who hired these guys?” a Harvard fan exclaimed after another first-quarter penalty.

The answer would be the Ivy League, presumably.

“That’s your fourth weak call!” another cried out after a second-quarter Harvard penalty. “Where in Syracuse are you from?”

If the referee was a closet SU fan — highly doubtful, but for argument’s sake — his efforts weren’t accomplishing anything. After Harvard erased Syracuse’s 4-1 first-quarter lead with three straight scores, SU’s man-up opportunity went wasted in the second quarter.

Jordan Field has a listed bleacher capacity of 1,000 fans, but Harvard fans showed out in force to watch the Crimson secure a 13-12 upset victory over the Orange. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer

That Crimson run stretched to five, and the Orange went into the half staring at a 6-4 deficit. The halftime entertainment was a five-minute scrimmage featuring a local youth lacrosse program. Both sides — the Orange and White teams — couldn’t find the net, and as the children struggled to sustain long possessions, they almost appeared to be doing their best impression of SU’s dormant second-quarter offense.

Gait knew his team was dysfunctional in that second quarter. At the half, he told his players to get back to playing their game and executing. He refocused them, and for a good stretch, his message was received loud and clear.

Syracuse opened the back half with three goals. Harvard stormed back with four goals, but the Orange battled back just as hard with a five-goal run in the fourth quarter. SU was up 12-10 at that point, and it appeared as if it was finally ready to close out its third ranked victory, keeping the proverbial target on its back for at least one more week.

“It’s just the way the game of lacrosse is,” Gait said postgame. “It’s a game of runs.”

Yet Gait also knew this game would come down to who made the last play — just as it did last May, and as it did last February. With 50 seconds left, Nathan Cobery made that play for the Crimson, capping off their three-goal run by pushing the ball past Jimmy McCool to give Harvard a 13-12 lead.

SU won the ensuing faceoff, and with 44 seconds left, Gait called a rapid timeout to reconvene. When the timeout ended, he didn’t know the next possession would lead to a rushed Spallina shot, stuffed by Stevens, just four seconds after resuming play.

But it did, and Gait had to live with it. The play was for Spallina, and if Spallina thinks he has a shot, there’s no one else Gait would trust more to take it.

“We were looking to run, move and find the openings when they came,” Gait said postgame. “He thought he had the shot there, so he took it.”

There it went. Syracuse’s undefeated season — and its reign atop the lacrosse world — died at the hands of Stevens’ stick. Postgame, as the Orange congregated near the sideline, Michael Leo stood alone, one leg crossed over the other, resting his forearm on his stick.

Then he picked it up, began walking and joined the rest of his teammates. This is just the first stop on a six-leg cross-country tour, after all. There’s a lot of work to do before SU reaches its final destination.

Published on February 21, 2026 at 3:33 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO