ITHACA, N.Y. — From Joel White’s point of view, there was never any doubt.
With 33 seconds to play and the score knotted at seven, White scooped up the loose ball in Cornell territory. He spun past three Cornell players, dished the ball off to Kevin Drew and left his teammate with simple directions: Get the ball to an attack.
Drew did just that. After Cornell goalie A.J. Fiore made a point-blank save on a Cody Jamieson shot with 10 seconds to play, the ball squirted out to Chris Daniello. The senior captain picked up the ball on the right side, and with one second to go, zipped a shot past Fiore.
Let the comparisons from last year’s championship game begin.
As the entire team piled on top of Daniello, Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni pleaded with the referees at the other end of the field. Fiore just stood there, looking around. Cornell players took a knee.
But for White, the celebration was far from premature. After all, from his ‘perfect view’ there was no question. No need for instant replay. No reason to doubt Daniello’s shot beat the final horn.
‘I knew the whole time it was a goal,’ said White, a smile plastered on his face. ‘I watched it right in to the net, and as I kept going, I looked right up to the clock and saw there was still one second left. There was no doubt.’
And with that, No. 2 Syracuse burst any hopes of a No. 9 Cornell upset, as it scored a last- second goal to secure an 8-7 win at Schoellkoepf Field in front of 7,235. The biggest lead for any team was two goals. Cornell gave Syracuse all it could handle. But the Orange kept hanging around.
Despite a career-best 20 saves from Cornell freshman Fiore, losing freshman midfielder JoJo Marasco with an injury in the first quarter and trailing for nearly the entire game, the Orange found a way to break the hearts of Cornell — just as it did in last year’s national championship.
‘We had to fight through some difficulties tonight,’ said SU goalie John Galloway. ‘We just needed to make some adjustments, but you have to give credit to Cornell.’
And most of that credit goes to Fiore.
The freshman goalie used his feet, shins, stick and chest to deny the Orange. SU fired off 40 shots, compared with just 20 from the Big Red. It was just another example of a goalie having a career night when the Orange came to town.
‘It was just one of those games where we ran into another hot goalie,’ said SU head coach John Desko. ‘We outshot them and a lot were on cage. You can’t tell guys not to shoot those.’
Cornell knew it could punch a ticket to the postseason with a win against Syracuse, and it showed. A win on Tuesday night would make its season. It has been no secret that Syracuse gets every team’s best shot, and this was a perfect example. Cornell looked poised to do it for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.
‘I said to them when I walked in the locker room, my heart bleeds for you because they put so much into it,’ Tambroni said. ‘When you are that close to winning, that one is going to sting for a long time.’
A sting courtesy of Daniello.
As his teammates hooted, hollered and skipped into the locker room, Daniello was as calm as ever. His 5-foot-7 frame had cameras surrounding it from every angle, but the expression on his face never changed.
That was until he was asked if he thought his goal beat the horn.
‘I saw the referee cross the crease and raise his hands, so I just went along with it,’ said Daniello, breaking out into a chuckle. ‘I had a good feeling about it and just went along with it.’
For Daniello, there were hints of uncertainty in his voice. Tambroni said it was unfortunate there was no instant replay. But for White, it was as clear as day.
‘I am telling you, I had no doubts,’ White said. ‘As the ball hit the net I panned through and I saw the clock still had one second on it. You can never count us out.’
restern@syr.edu
