FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Kenny Nims struggled to sift through the sea of television cameras, teammates and abandoned equipment.

His face, a smeared canvas of blood and eye black, welled with tears as he gripped the national championship trophy in his right hand and demanded to see his head coach.

‘Where’s Desko?’ Nims said. ‘I’m going to bring him the trophy. I’m going to bring it to him.’

Figuratively, it was a symbolic gesture from one in a group of All-American seniors to a head coach. Nims had brought him the trophy as a token of appreciation for the last four years. But literally, Nims had earned John Desko the trophy that day. Without a stunning play by Nims to cap an improbable comeback, the Orange’s fortunes would be different.

With four seconds remaining in regulation, Nims scored on a desperation pass from midfielder Matt Abbott, eliminating a three-goal deficit in a little more than three minutes and sending the game into overtime. The shot eventually propelled the Orange (16-2) to a thrilling 10-9 victory over Cornell (13-4) in the national championship game here Monday at Gillette Stadium in front of 41,935 fans. Cody Jamieson had the game-winner 1:40 into overtime.

It was the team’s second-consecutive championship and record-breaking 11th in program history.

‘It meant so much for him to bring me that trophy,’ Desko said. ‘He made a great play that put us in a position to win us the game. He’s the guy. If someone is going to make it happen, it’s him.’

Then, it was a scene of pure ecstasy, with the memory of late-game heroics still lingering in the stadium.

But just seven minutes beforehand, the Orange was running out of time, the feeling of desperation grew ever-apparent. With a little more than three minutes to play in regulation, the team trailed, 9-6. Nims, SU’s leading scorer, was in a vice-grip – locked down by the stingy Cornell defense and held scoreless. The Orange needed a shot in the arm.

As the Big Red fans grew louder, the Orange brought them back to their seats with a quick-strike goal at the 3:37 mark. Dan Hardy lofted the ball to attack Stephen Keogh, who spiked it between the posts and put the team within two.

Less than a minute later, it was Jamieson’s turn, bouncing a shot to the far right of Big Red goalie Jake Myers and into the net. Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni took a timeout as the stadium erupted. The Orange was down one with nearly two minutes to play, and Desko had to rally his team during the break.

‘We had to cover a lot of things,’ Desko said of the timeout. ‘First of all, we needed a goal, so we had to set up the offense.’

But Desko’s plan was foiled right away. The play, designed in typical Syracuse fashion with a pass from Nims to Keogh, failed. Nims’ first point of the night wouldn’t come yet, as the ball skipped past Keogh and out-of-bounds.

Still down one, the Cornell offense began to set up a stall in order to run out the remaining 26 seconds. But it didn’t happen. Midfielder Matt Abbott stripped Cornell’s Matt Moyer and charged down the field.

Abbott and Nims made eye contact as the two raced to the goal. Now there was 10 seconds remaining, and Abbott tossed it up to Nims, who forced it past the keeper to tie the game and send the Orange into a frenzy.

‘I wasn’t sure exactly how much time was left,’ Abbott said. ‘But I knew Kenny was down there somewhere. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, flipped it to him, and fortunately he scored in just the nick of time.’

Though the score was tied, the Big Red was deflated heading into the overtime period. A lead it had held the entire game was dismantled in three short minutes as the deafening roar from the Syracuse fan section echoed throughout the field.

The Big Red’s only possession of overtime was brief. Orange defender Sid Smith stripped Cornell’s Ryan Hurley of the ball and whipped the ball up-field. Seconds later Hardy found Jamieson who blasted one past the keeper. Syracuse’s materialized 100 seconds into overtime.

Collectively, the Orange exploded from the sidelines, rushing toward Jamieson. Nims, Abbott and the rest were lost in a blur of orange and white that piled in the corner of the stadium. Jamieson searched for Smith, his longtime friend, to give him a hug. Defender John Lade clenched his fists and screamed ‘champions’ toward the on looking crowd, and Nims grabbed the trophy, searching for his coach.

As the field cleared and the team filed into the locker room, Nims and Desko had a chance to speak again. Nims told his coach about his summer internship. Desko talked about getting together for a barbecue at his place before everyone took off for summer.

Together, standing there, the two represented one of the most outstanding classes in Desko’s tenure as head coach. They helped him pick up the pieces from a lost season in 2007, won him a national championship in 2008 and secured his legacy, defending the title in 2009.

The journey had come to an end for now, but Desko will always remember.

‘I recruited Kenny’s father and watched Kenny grow up. You know, these guys were a special group who were highly recruited; they were all family, so to speak. It’s a special time and it’s great for them to win a championship in their senior year.’

ctorr@syr.edu

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THE GOODCody Jamieson’s game-winning goal in over time

The JUCO-transfer wasn’t eligible until two games remaining in the regular season, but the post season was all his. He scored seven goals, including the game-winning goal in overtime to give Syracuse a 10-9 win and its 11th national title. It is SU’s first back-to-back pair of titles since the late 1980s.

THE BADCornell’s offense in the final five minutes of play

The Big red failed to score a goal in the final five minutes of the game, while Syracuse scored four, boosting the Orange to another national title.

THE UGLYSyracuse’s shooting percentage in the first half

The Orange shot 22 percent in the first half, mustering only four goals before the break.

BIG NUMBER4

The amount of goals scored by Syracuse in the final 6:17 of play. Four was also the number of seconds left on the clock in regulation when Kenny Nims scored the game-tying goal to send the matchup into overtime.

FAT LADY SINGSOvertime, 2:40

Cody Jamieson scores the game-winning goal off a pass from Dan Hardy, cementing Syracuse’s comeback from a three-goal deficit in the fourth quarter.

STORYTELLER

‘I’m a little bit at a loss for words. I can’t tell you how happy I am for our group. I’m excited they’ve won the school’s 11th national championship. It wasn’t easy. I feel like we played for about three minutes at the end and I still have to go back and watch the film to see what happened.’

John Desko SU head coachFive-time national championship winner

Published on June 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm