HAMILTON – Forty days ago, the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team walked off the field at perhaps the lowest point the program’s been in recent memory. It just lost to Hobart, falling to 1-4, and the schedule didn’t become any easier.

Perhaps it’s fitting the number is exactly 40 – a biblical number. The Orange has been playing with seemingly divine intervention ever since. It’s won close games, important games, rivalry games and trap games. And on Saturday, the regular season reclamation concluded with a season-ending win.

SU responded to a 3-2 first-quarter deficit with 14 goals – nine of which came in the second half – to give the No. 8 Orange a 17-8 win over Colgate in front of 1,092 fans mixed between Raider red and Syracuse orange. It was almost a microcosm of the regular season for SU (8-4) – started stormy and slow, ended bright and prosperous.

It was Syracuse’s seventh-consecutive win, completing an impressive rebounding effort. And therein laid the paradox of Saturday’s game: The matchup was a scheduling misnomer, a figurative calm before the storm, end-of-the-season date placed just a day before the NCAA tournament pairings are announced, and after Colgate (11-4) already completed its conference tournament.

But the actual game was the calm after the storm, a rainless window after a downpour. It was as if Mother Nature figured both teams are here, the game was scheduled, let’s just get it over with.

And the game took on that mood. The Orange toppled the Raiders in a game more glib than glitz. After a first-period in which the Orange allowed two goals in the final 30 seconds, there was an onslaught of SU goals. The Orange outscored the Raiders 9-1 in the second and third quarters.

It allowed SU to play more players than usual. SU head coach John Desko fielded 34 players – almost two-thirds of the entire team.

‘I think we played very well from both ends of the field, offensively and defensively and our faceoff guys, and it was a great opportunity for all our other guys who’ve been playing hard all year long to get in game situations,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘As far as I’m concerned, this couldn’t have worked out any better for Syracuse lacrosse today.’

The scoring was unbelievably balanced – 11 different players scored goals. Brett Bucktooth, Mike Leveille and Brian Crockett all recorded hat tricks. Bucktooth also had three assists, while Leveille had a pair. It was Bucktooth’s sixth consecutive hat trick and his six points to Leveille’s five points lifts the senior to 43 points on the season, one more than Leveille’s 42 points in the attackmen’s scoring race.

Also among the scorers were Chris Greenman, Brendan Loftus and Timothy Raschdorf, which fit the mold of players Desko mentioned as able to mount more playing time than usual.

‘I got a lot of minutes in and I felt real comfortable,’ Greenman said. ‘It’s always fun when they throw you in a close game, but it’s just as fun as when you’re out there with a lead.

‘Just the feelings we had, the emotions we had before the game, at halftime, after the game – the whole time, it was great. We just really felt it was Syracuse lacrosse.’

It’s that feeling which exuberates from the Orange as it capped off its regular season. After the nadir of SU’s season, a March 28 loss to Hobart that dropped the Orange to 1-4, it’s been a mad rush to improve.

The goal was always to win every game. But there were different benchmarks set – a one-game-at-a-time approach to bounce back to .500, beat tough rivals and earn a position where it can watch the NCAA tournament selection show wondering ‘where’ and ‘when,’ rather than ‘if.’

The win might have locked the Orange with a home date in the first round, which goes to the top eight teams in the 16-team field. Desko felt SU’s credentials were worthy before the game. But after knocking off a respectable Colgate squad, the resume is even more stuffed.

But SU will wait. The players aren’t about to become selective at this point season. They’ll watch and play whomever they’re assigned to. Considering where they’ve been and where they are, SU appreciates the process of letting fate play its course.

‘Ten years ago, they used to go undefeated all the time,’ Greenman said. ‘After we lost four games, people thought the program was declining a bit. But to get back to this, it’s just amazing.’

Published on May 6, 2006 at 12:00 pm