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College Lacrosse: In College Park, a favorite holds on

Tom Flynn

The last of the Division I men’s lacrosse season in Maryland concluded Saturday in College Park as Byrd Stadium played host to the NCAA Lacrosse Championship Quarterfinals.

The second game of the afternoon was the far tighter of the two, as the opener saw Cornell (14-3) handle the #3-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes (13-4) , 16-6,  to advance to next week’s semifinals in Philadelphia.

In the nightcap another Ivy League team, Yale (12-5), proved that #1 Syracuse (15-3) may be beatable in the tournament, if not by them. The Orangemen managed to top the Bulldogs, 7-6, but it took a goal from redshirt freshman Dylan Donahue with just :13 left in the game to do it.

After falling behind 4-0, Yale put up a six-goal run against the Orangemen to take a 6-4 lead with 13 minutes left in the game. Syracuse responded like a top-seed and scored the next two goals to knot the game at 6-6 with 2:20 left on the game clock.

With Yale in possession, Syracuse goalie and Maryland native Dominic Lamolinara stuffed the Bulldogs’ attacker Conrad Oberbeck from point blank range with 1:20 left. The junior had nine saves, none more critical in the tournament than his stop against Oberbeck.

“I turned and kept my stick high. It was too close for the shooter for him to put it low, so I just kept my stick high and it went right into it,” said the goalie in the post-game news conference.

The Orangemen gained possession and following a timeout with just under a minute to go, worked the half-field set as midfielder JoJo Marasco found a Yale defense momentarily ball-watching and fed Donahue for the winning score.

Yale won the ensuing faceoff and following a shot by sophomore midfielder Harry Kucharczyk, called timeout with :04 left. After the break, Bulldogs’ Brandon Mangan looked to the crease for an opening off a Yale pick, but Lamolinara stepped out from goal and intercepted Mangan’s pass to seal the win.

Syracuse will travel to Philadelphia next weekend to face the winner of tomorrow’s Denver (13-4) and North Carolina (13-3) game. Maryland’s three teams in the 2013 tournament – Loyola, Towson, and Maryland – exited the field in the first-round of play last weekend.