CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- With one shot from the right wing, Tucker Dordevic drained the enthusiasm and optimism right out of Klöckner Stadium. Dordevic’s game-winning goal with 12 seconds left lifted No. 13 Syracuse past No. 9 Virginia and spoiled a huge rally from the Cavaliers.
The Orange left Charlottesville with February’s 12-goal loss to Albany feeling more and more like a distant memory, while Virginia continued to seek its first regular season ACC victory since 2014.
“We’ve come along a lot since Albany,” Syracuse coach John Desko said. “Against Albany we had the ball for one minute and 15 seconds in the third quarter. You can’t play against a strong offensive team like Albany and just play defense. We turned that around a little bit on faceoffs today.”
The Orange won 16-of-27 faceoffs.
A crowd of 2,981 showed up to support the proud UVa program that had fallen on relatively hard times, but gotten off to a 4-0 start in coach Lars Tiffany’s second season. They left with a sense the rebuild might still be a work in progress, but Tiffany looked for reasons to stay positive.
“It really is fun to be part of this rivalry,” Tiffany said. “It stings to lose, but it puts a smile on your face to be out here.”
It was Virginia that actually got off to a quick start. The Cavaliers took advantage of an extra man opportunity when Ian Laviano scored off an assist from Dox Aitken to give Virginia a 3-1 lead with 6:33 left in the first quarter.
But UVa began to struggle, particularly getting ground balls at the faceoff X, when midfielder Ryan Conrad left the game with a knee injury in the first. From there the Orange scored six goals, two each from Dordevic and Brett Kennedy, to close out the first half. A pair of second quarter scores out of the stick of Aitken helped keep Virginia close, but Syracuse still enjoyed a 7-5 lead at halftime.
“Syracuse was able to get us out of our rhythm the first three quarters,” Aitken said. “The bench kind of went quiet for a bit and I'm not sure we responded to it the way we should.”
Dordevic, a rookie from Oregon, finished with a game-high four goals as the Orange extended the lead to 9-5 heading into the final 15 minutes. Even when Virginia managed to get a good look in the third quarter, senior goalie Dom Madonna (10 saves) was there to come up with the big save.
Mike D’Amario scored three-straight goals for the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter as his team rallied to make it close and Jared Conners scored to tie the game with 1:41 left.
But the Orange got the shot it needed to win, with Dordevic beating fellow freshman Alex Rode, who finished with 15 saves.
Dramatic win for @CuseMLAX. Tucker Dordevic's fourth goal of the game comes with 13 seconds left and lifts the Orange past Virginia 12-11. pic.twitter.com/JWwN8rzx2k
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) March 4, 2018
“It's always fun to beat them,” Dordevic said. “I don't think they have won an ACC game in a while and it's fun to keep that going.”