Syracuse & Bryant in NCAA Lacrosse

Syracuse's Derek Maltz tries to get off a shot in front of Bryant's goal on Sunday.

(Dick Blume | dblume@syracuse.com)

By the end of the third quarter, the Syracuse men's lacrosse team started conceding faceoffs to Bryant's Kevin Massa.

He was winning the contested draws anyways, so the Orange finally just let him pick the ball up and take possession. In the end, the Bulldogs simply did not have enough to complement Massa to pull off the upset.

No. 1 seed SU overcame a 21-faceoff deficit to beat Bryant 12-7 Sunday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Carrier Dome. Despite a rough start, Syracuse stymied the Bulldogs offense that had the ball most of the game and used an efficient offensive performance to move on to the NCAA quarterfinals. The Orange will play Yale Saturday at Maryland's Byrd Stadium for a chance to get to the Final Four.

Early on, Bryant appeared poised to get the huge upset win. Colin Dunster scored twice in the first 39 seconds and the Bulldogs ran out to a 4-0 lead before SU even had its second possession of the game. The Orange finally won a faceoff on the fifth opportunity, though, and Luke Cometti got Syracuse on the board halfway through the first.

Massa continued to dominate the faceoff X, but the Orange defense shut down Bryant's multiple opportunities for much of the rest of the game. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 18 times and struggled to shake SU's defenders throughout the contest.

Syracuse managed to tie the game by halftime and took its first lead on a Cometti goal 2:06 into the third quarter. With limited opportunities, the Orange put 22 of its 30 shots on goal and turned the ball over only seven times.

SU built a 9-7 lead going into the fourth and blanked Bryant in the final period to hold on for the win.

Scoring: Bryant -- Colin Dunster 3-0, Peter McMahon 3-0, Shane Morrell 1-1, Alex Zomerfeld 0-2, Brian Schlansker 0-1. Syracuse -- Dylan Donahue 3-0, Kevin Rice 2-2, Luke Cometti 2-1, Billy Ward 1-1, JoJo Marasco 1-1, Ryan Barber 1-0, Scott Loy 1-0, Matt Walters 1-0.

Saves: Bryant 10 (Gunnar Waldt 10, Tom Carey 0), Syracuse 8 (Dominic Lamolinara). Shots: Syracuse 30-28. Faceoffs: Bryant 22-1. Ground balls: Bryant 35-23. Extra-man opps: Bryant 0-1, Syracuse 1-3.