Crunch Season Ends with Game Seven Loss in Toronto 

The Syracuse Crunch fell to the Toronto Marlies on Monday night, 3-2 at Ricoh Coliseum in front of 4,753 fans.

Both teams came out looking for a fast start in the seventh and deciding game of this North Division Final series, and both teams got just that.

Toronto was the first team to get on the board when Brent Aubin deflected an Alex Foster shot past Kark Goehring on the Marlies’ first shot of the game at the 2:47 mark.

The Crunch had a quick answer when Derek MacKenize got the puck on his backhand in the slot and ripped a shot over the left shoulder of Scott Clemmensen to tie the game at 1-1 just 41 seconds later.

Toronto took the lead back before the period was halfway through when Aubin notched his second of the game. Aubin took a feed from Foster, skated down the middle and wristed a bullet over the shoulder of Goehring to give the Marlies a 2-1 lead.

Syracuse fell behind by two at the 7:20 mark of the third period. John Mitchell cashed in when he tipped in a Jiri Tlusty pass past Goehring to make it 3-1.

The Crunch would not go quietly into the night as Gilbert Brule fired a rocket past Clemmensen on a one-time pass from MacKenzie to make it 3-2 just two and a half minutes later.

The Crunch could not score on the power play and time ran out on the game and their season.

courtesy of syracusechiefs.com

The Le Moyne College men’s lacrosse team came up just short in its quest for a third straight Division II National Championship and fell to NYIT, 16-11, in front of 24,317 at Gillette Stadium. The Dolphins finished the 2008 campaign at 15-2 and were led by Nick Gatto’s three-goal performance. The Bears captured the program’s fourth Division II crown and wrapped u p the season at 13-1. Keith Henderson, the game’s Most Outstanding Player, netted five goals for NYIT.

The Dolphins raced out to a 5-2 lead after one quarter of play and held a 14-6 advantage in the shots category in the game’s first fifteen minutes. Five different Dolphins connected on first-quarter scores. Brian Welch sent in the game’s first goal at the 9:08 mark and Gatto, Jack Venditti and Alex Bily followed with a trio of goals to push Le Moyne’s lead to 4-1. After Henderson scored his first goal of the game, Brian Cost tallied with 31 seconds remaining to give the Dolphins their largest lead of the game.

Le Moyne’s seniors carried a majority of the scoring load in the final game of the group’s career. Gatto finished with three goals and McDonald and Bily each finished with two. Cost finished with three points, on a goal and two assists, and Donahue contributed two points of his own, with one goal and one assist.

A Dolphin defense, which had allowed a nation-best 3.27 goals per game coming into the game, allowed 16 goals for the first time since it allowed 20 scores against RIT in 1999. The team’s man-down unit entered the game with a .889 success rate but surrendered three goals to the Bears’ potent man-up attack. Goalkeeper Doug McIver finished with seven saves against NYIT’s high-powered offense.

Le Moyne’s senior class ends its time on the Heights with a 62-5 record that includes two National Championships and three Northeast-10 Conference Championships.

courtesy of Le Moyne College

National Champions Again! Syracuse Claims 10th NCAA Title with 13-10 Win Against Johns Hopkins

The Syracuse men's lacrosse team (16-2) claimed its record 10th NCAA title with a 13-10 victory against Johns Hopkins (11-6) on Saturday, May 26 in front of an NCAA Championship and outdoor title game record 48,970 fans at Gillette Stadium. Junior midfielder Dan Hardy (Tully, N.Y.) powered the Orange offense with a team-high three goals en route to all-tournament team recognition.

Head coach John Desko, in his 10th season at the helm of the Orange program, hoists the hardware for the fourth time in his career. He is tied for third all-time with four NCAA titles. Only Bill Tierney (Princeton) and Roy Simmons Jr. (Syracuse) have more. They each have six. Desko improved his record to 4-2 in national title tilts and 23-5 in the NCAA Tournament. He ranks first all-time with an .821 postseason winning percentage.

The victory was SU's 16th of the 2008 season, matching the program's all-time record for victories in a single campaign. The Orange fashioned a perfect 16-0 resume in 1922. Syracuse becomes just the second team in NCAA history to win the national championship after missing the playoffs the previous season. The 1983 edition of the Orange claimed the crown after finishing 6-4 in 1982 and failing to advance to the postseason. Fittingly, the NCAA honored the members of the 1983 team at halftime to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Orange's first championship.

Senior attackman Mike Leveille (Delmar, N.Y.) earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor after posting three points on one goal and two assists against the Blue Jays. He tallied 11 goals and eight assists in this year's tournament. The Tewaaraton Trophy finalist finished his career with a 57-game point streak, which is the fourth-longest in the Orange record books. He completed his Orange tenure having etched his name on several career scoring lists. He ranks ninth at SU in career goals (132), 12th in assists (83) and 12th in points (215). His 49 goals in 2008 is tied with Matt Riter for seventh on the school's single-season list.

Syracuse's 16-2 campaign after going 5-8 in 2007 is tied with Duke and Towson for the best one-year turnaround in NCAA history (+8.5).

 courtesy of Syracuse University

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