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With a violent thwack of his stick, Dominic Pietramala — the player Syracuse simply had no antidote for Saturday — rifled a shot into the net. The goal stretched North Carolina’s lead to five with 4:57 left. Game over, right?

Just over a minute later, UNC’s Brevin Wilson stepped into a searing shot of his own, hammering it home at the 3:01 mark. A dagger. Fans in the JMA Wireless Dome didn’t need another sign. The aisles flooded as Orange supporters headed for the exits.

But, tied for its second-worst deficit of the season, SU didn’t vanish. Somehow, it came alive — and came achingly close to pulling off the impossible.

No. 11 Syracuse (9–5, 2–2 Atlantic Coast) unleashed four goals in the final two-and-a-half minutes, setting the stage for a dramatic finish. With momentum surging, the Orange appeared poised to pull within one with 37 seconds left — but the goal was waved off, and No. 8 North Carolina (10-3, 3-1 Atlantic Coast) escaped with a 14-12 win Saturday. The loss marks SU’s third straight and drops it to the No. 4 seed in the ACC Tournament, where it’ll play No. 1 seed Notre Dame. A victory would’ve locked up the top seed.

“We didn’t get it done today,” Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said postgame. “Too many mistakes, and that’s what happens unfortunately. The ACC is the best conference in college lacrosse. I don’t think you can ever say you’re supposed to win a game. You got to execute and actually do it.”

The execution was there in the final moments for Syracuse. But what preceded it cost it dearly. Allowing Pietramala to run wild with six goals. Losing the ground ball battle 36-29. Botching 7-of-17 clears. It was a recipe for disaster — and the final dish the Orange served up was a burnt mess when they needed a five-star meal. Not even a flawless dessert in the final minutes could save them.

“It was all coached, and it was a series of simple mistakes,” Gait said.

However, those final two-and-a-half minutes were a tapestry of everything the Orange desired. They “played free,” Gait said. SU moved the ball artfully — like passing was a disease with no vaccine available for UNC. John Mullen locked in at the faceoff X, winning two faceoffs against UNC’s Brady Wambach, who Gait called the best faceoff man in the NCAA. Syracuse’s offense moved fluidly and finished clinically.

Syracuse’s belated — and ultimately solely cosmetic — run started with a gritty faceoff win. Luke Rhoa, who never needs an invitation to pull the trigger, fired a hopeful long-range shot that fell off the mark. Joey Spallina, who finished with five assists and no goals, dumped a ball to Sam English on the doorstep. The sixth-year senior converted. Yet, SU was still down five with 2:24 on the clock.

After the Tar Heels won the ensuing faceoff and tried to kill time, SU forced a turnover and embarked on offense. Helped by a UNC penalty, the Orange cashed in on the man-up opportunity as Greg Elijah-Brown touched one home from close.

The game clock approached one minute, and North Carolina once again claimed the faceoff, but Syracuse didn’t let go of the rope. It won back the ball, and English powered his shot past goalie Michael Gianforcaro after shaking his defender.

Still, a three-goal Tar Heel cushion with 49 seconds left seemed insurmountable. The Orange proved UNC wasn’t quite home and dry. A faceoff violation gave them possession. Twelve seconds later, Owen Hiltz found paydirt to draw within two.

“They just played free, went to the net and made plays,” Gait said of SU’s late run. “They weren’t thinking about what they needed to do, they just were reacting.”

With the momentum squarely behind him, Mullen easily scooped up the faceoff and raced downhill. He found Finn Thomson in front of the cage, and the attack tipped his shot home as he tiptoed on the crease line, trying not to enter the circle.

Suddenly, with 32 seconds left, and Mullen and the Orange playing incandescently, a sure-fire Tar Heel win looked in serious doubt.

But wait.

Thomson landed in the crease after cashing in. After review, the goal was chalked off. Syracuse’s air escaped from its balloon, and the Tar Heels escaped with a win.

“I thought the team didn’t give up,” Gait said. “But it’s tough to keep having to say, ‘We didn’t give up.’”

Unlike its last few games, Syracuse didn’t fall behind off the bat, but UNC separated itself in the second quarter, going on a 4-0 run to create a 6-4 halftime lead. Three of those goals came from Pietramala. The 6-foot attack bulldozed through SU’s backline on multiple occasions, finishing with 20 shots, but also showed his finesse, pirouetting on the goal line extended before tucking his shot past SU goalie Jimmy McCool, who held his own with 16 saves.

Postgame, North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi said Pietramala, who now has 43 goals, and UNC’s other sensational sophomore attack Owen Duffy had been injured and limited in practice the past three weeks. Yet, in the week before Saturday’s game, both were available more, Breschi said.

“(Pietramala’s) such a smart lacrosse player, and he just puts himself in a great position,” Breschi said. “And then teams are going to slide, and he’s able to move the ball, snap it when he needs to.”

The attack splintered Syracuse’s defense, and his blast to make it 13-8 was ultimately the game-winner. A two-minute Orange frisson of attacking artistry couldn’t rewrite the script.

Instead, Syracuse is left grappling with the same question that’s dogged it for weeks: how to bottle that furious final burst and uncork it for a full 60 minutes. How to play with that kind of rhythm, that kind of abandon, before desperation sets in.

Gait didn’t have the answers Saturday. And now, with the postseason looming, he has six days to find them — or risk watching Syracuse’s season, once so full of hope, slip quietly out the door like the fans in the Dome.

Published on April 26, 2025 at 7:41 pm
Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal