FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s easy for Pat Perritt to play the numbers game at Syracuse. Sharing the midfield with two All-Americans makes it that way.

When Perritt steps on the field he knows two things are for certain: he won’t normally draw the longpole defender – that goes to Dan Hardy. He probably won’t draw the most athletic defender either – he’ll be chasing Matt Abbott.

And when things align that way, he knows something else will happen too: he’ll get his shots.

‘Fortunately I play with two All-Americans on my midfield,’ Perritt said. ‘The other team putting so much focus on them kind of opens things up for me. They’re hesitant to slide for me because they know Dan and Matt will be open.’

Perritt ran away with his matchup Saturday, punishing the Duke defense to the tune of a career-high four goals, helping lift Syracuse to a convincing 17-7 win over the Blue Devils in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament at Gillette Stadium. Syracuse will advance to the championship game Monday, which will be Perritt’s final career game.

‘Patty killed it today,’ midfielder Jovan Miller said. ‘He had the best game I’ve ever seen him play. His game really depends on his opportunities and he got a lot of good opportunities today and capitalized.’

With the game still in the early stages, Perritt began to exploit the Duke defense. Locked in a 2-2 tie, the midfielder scanned the field for an open look. Since the usual suspects were double, even triple teamed near the crease, Perritt took it himself, firing a bullet from 10 yards out to beat Blue Devil Rob Schroeder low and inside.

Syracuse would go on 14-5 surge after the tiebreaking goal – but Perritt wasn’t finished yet.

Despite the early goal, he didn’t receive any more attention from Duke’s defense aside from the Blue Devil’s Justin Turri, who’d been guarding him the entire game. So, at the 7:28 mark of the second quarter, Perritt went at it again with the same shot – a mid range-bullet, with barely any pressure from the defense.

‘He was just feelin’ it today,’ Hardy said. ‘They weren’t sliding to him, they had a (short pole defender) on him and he was just taking his guy hard to the goal every time.’

Ignorance on Duke’s part continued to be bliss for Perritt as he took to the cage two more times, still without an extra defender or a second slide to stop him. And with each goal, the next seemed that much more effortless. Normally conservative with his shots – four total in the tournament leading up to Saturday – Perritt rode the hot hand, taking six shots on goal.

‘I had a good day shooting,’ Perrit said ‘Their goalie takes up a lot of space in the cage and I just wasn’t trying to shoot the ball too hard. Coach said during the week to just try and place the ball … that’s what I tried to do and it worked.’

With 26 seconds remaining in the third and Syracuse ahead by eights goals, Perritt put a cap on the win by diverting from his usual catch-and-shoot routine.

Just like his first goal had made a statement, so did the last. Already busted up from the pain of a five-goal third quarter, Perritt sent the Duke defense reeling into the fourth. Less than 30 seconds after a goal from Kenny Nims, Perritt took the ball hard to the net, laying out full extension against two defenders, to drill his fourth goal of the game.

After sitting most of the fourth quarter, Perritt joined his team on the field after the game on the outskirts of the huddle. Walking back to the locker room he shared a passing glance with head coach John Desko and a high-five from assistant Roy Simmons III.

He had just played the game of his career, double teamed or not, on the biggest stage in lacrosse. Something he won’t soon forget.

‘It meant a lot,’ Perritt said. ‘It was a big game for us and on this stage it’s nice to come out and be able to play like that.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on May 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm