Kevin Drew called it luck. One simple swing of the stick with an unintentional finish. But what resulted held no room for modesty – it changed the game for Syracuse.

After Albany midfielder Brendan Gleason won a faceoff, Gleason retreated toward his own net to dump the ball off to his goalie flanked out to the right. But before he could get the pass off, a charging Drew clipped his stick, forcing the ball to skip in to Albany’s net for an uncontested goal.

‘I just went hard for the ball,’ Drew said. ‘Their longstick picked it up and he was running toward the goal, and I just wrapped around and hit his stick and the ball went into the goal.’

The play – ruled an own goal for the Great Danes – left an Albany team in the midst of a 9-1 run dumbfounded. The Orange would resurrect itself in the following minutes, sneaking away with a 15-13 victory at the Carrier Dome Friday in front of 4,189 fans Friday. SU has won its last three contests.

‘They got pretty lucky with that goal to be honest with you,’ Albany head coach Scott Marr said. ‘Changed the momentum of the game. It definitely took the wind out of our sails, it’s kind of a demoralizing thing when that happens.’

Before the own goal, the No. 3 Orange (10-2) had fallen flat. A lethargic second half allowed a charging Albany team to fight all the way back from a 10-2 halftime deficit. Rudimentary slides and adjustments made by SU’s defense in the first half vanished as Albany’s Joe Resetarits, Corey Small and Brian Caufield pounded the Orange for six of the team’s eight third-quarter goals.

The No. 18 Great Danes (6-5) camped out on the offensive side of the field on the strength of seven third-quarter faceoff wins to SU’s three.

Solid possessions allowed the speedy Great Danes attack to score goal after goal while the Orange scrambled to return to its first-half pace. Albany outshot the Orange for the first time all game, ripping 13 shots at an overwhelmed John Galloway.

‘Albany came out and gave a great effort,’ head coach John Desko said. ‘They showed a lot of heart and got a few goals – they really turned it into a game.’

Panic for Syracuse climaxed with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter when Corey Small drilled a shot from 5 yards out in the face of charging longstick Joel White to make it 11-10.

Small began pumping his fists toward the frenzied contingent of Albany fans as the Great Danes were within one goal.

But just as swiftly as it had come back, the team was deflated just six seconds into the fourth quarter. After Drew clipped the ball into Albany’s net to extend the Orange’s lead to 12-10, the resurgent Orange began to flex its offensive muscle.

Less than a minute after the own goal, midfielder Dan Hardy wound up and ripped a shot past Albany goalkeeper John Carroll. Josh Amidon and Matt Abbott followed shortly after, all within the opening five minutes of the quarter. The one-goal advantage ballooned to five.

‘We showed great character coming back when they came back on us,’ attack Stephen Keogh said. ‘We just came into the fourth and got some good goals to come out with the win.’

A complete shift in momentum returned the Orange to first-half form. Shots that were rushed and wild in the third quarter gave way to a methodical and aggressive Orange attack that took complete advantage over a stunned Albany squad.

Afterward, the attention shifted to Drew in order to clarify what exactly had happened during his galvanizing stroke. But Drew merely disclosed the basics, following it with the qualifying statement: ‘It was kind of just this lucky little thing that just happened to go our way.’

But his coaches and teammates disagreed.

‘You could see it coming,’ Desko said. ‘Really, I said it was going to be a goal about five seconds before it happened.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on April 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm