Pardon Pat Perritt for being excited. Let the freshman who hit the first game-winning shot of his SU career to top the No. 4 team in the nation off the hook. The questions were being directed at him just minutes after he lifted SU to its third-straight win and a .500 record, and, well, he can’t be perfect through the fourth quarter and the postgame interviews.

Perritt scored the 12th and deciding goal with 48 seconds remaining to lift SU to a 12-11 win over in-state rival Cornell, along with two other fourth-quarter goals. In the huddle before the game-winner, Perritt instructed his teammates to hold for one last shot, and when he received the ball, he had a flashback … but he couldn’t quite remember the opponent.

‘I had a flashback to the Army game when I missed it,’ Perritt said, actually referencing his failed game-winning attempt in a 9-8 loss to Hobart on March 28. ‘I told myself if I ever get the last shot, I wasn’t going to miss it. I wanted the ball.’

That’s Perritt’s personality. Two of his teammates, Steve Panarelli and John Carrozza, both made the same exact observation about the freshman’s personality.

‘He always wants to be the guy to take that last shot,’ Carrozza said. ‘Most times he’s going to make that shot.’

Carrozza was in the defensive huddle when Perritt was proclaiming his plans to the offense, but the sophomore laughed when he heard about it.

‘I can definitely see him saying that,’ Carrozza said.

Perritt’s often heard hollering around the field, whether it’s at his teammates or himself. He’s fiery, always sprinting, pointing in more directions than a weathervane in a tornado. Even his goals are seldom methodical. They rarely are the result of a possession-oriented offense. Rather, it’s Perritt darting into the play and firing a shot at a helpless goaltender.

Tuesday was no different. All three of his fourth-quarter goals were unassisted, products of a dodge toward the net and a whip at the goal. But they were also important for the freshman, whose been uncharacteristically quiet recently after being held scoreless in the fourth quarter against Loyola on April 1, the entire game against Princeton last Saturday and the first three quarters on Tuesday.

In fact, 129 minutes and 45 seconds elapsed from Perritt’s last goal against Loyola with 4 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter to his first goal on Tuesday, with 9:28 in the fourth quarter.

‘Last game I didn’t stick any goals, but I wasn’t upset with my play,’ Perritt said. ‘Lacrosse isn’t a sport like basketball where one guy can step up every game. Someone else has to step up, and that’s what’s been happening.’

On Tuesday, as Carrozza put it, ‘Patty Perritt stepped up really big in the second half.’ But it wasn’t just a matter of increased opportunities. He’s been making a concerted effort recently to work on his overhand shot.

Perritt said everyone from assistant coach Kevin Donahue to his brother to SU head coach John Desko have been instructing Perritt to shoot overhand. When it was time to fire the game-winner with 48 seconds remaining, he didn’t even present himself the choice.

‘I knew if I shot an underhand shot, I was getting in trouble, so I’m not going to take that underhand shot,’ Perritt said. ‘I knew the overhand shot is more successful, but sometimes you get into a bad habit. I think I broke that habit.’