Hiltz’s overtime goal completes Syracuse’s 13-12 comeback win over Harvard

For the first 30 minutes of the NCAA Tournament opening game Sunday in the JMA Wireless Dome, it looked like Harvard University was once again goalie Jimmy McCool and No. 6 seed Syracuse’s kryptonite.

The Crimson seemingly had easy open shots and the Orange’s offense couldn’t find a way to respond with a dozen of the team’s season-high 20 turnovers already. Harvard headed to the locker room at halftime leading 8-2.

Matching their largest first-half deficit of the season, the Orange started chipping away at the lead with three goals in the 3rd quarter and kept Harvard to only one score.

Still down five in the 4th quarter, the Orange offense showed up in force, scoring six straight goals and eventually taking the lead until Harvard’s Owen Gaffney tied it up with 6 seconds left in regulation.

It would take only 51 seconds of overtime before SU redshirt senior Owen Hiltz would find the back of the net for this team-leading 42nd of the season to seal the Orange’s 13-12 win.

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait gave credit to sophomore John Mullen for winning the opening faceoff in overtime — his 24th of the game.

“He is incredibly important,” Gait said. “To have Johnny go out and keep getting us the ball back and we got a couple goals off faceoffs. His focus after playing Harvard the first time was keeping the ball every time he won a faceoff to get us scoring opportunities. That made the difference.”

Gait’s team dug itself a hole in the first half. Harvard scored on its first three shots on net. The Crimson went up 7-1 in the second quarter before Luke Rhoa scored his second goal to narrow the lead to five. The junior led the Orange with five goals.

Despite being down, Gait kept preaching, “Play the next play.”

During the regular season meeting between these teams, Harvard upset Syracuse 15-14. McCool made just five saves during the game, marking his worst performance of the season.

Though he only made one save in the first half, the ACC Goalie of the Year’s confidence never wavered. McCool allowed just four goals in the second half and came up with key saves to hold off Harvard.

“Today, personally, didn’t go how I wanted,” McCool said. “I never felt like I didn’t have my confidence. The whole time I knew I was going to be ready to make a save if I needed it. It was huge to have the trust of the coaching … to stay in there and battle.”

Payton Anderson, Nick Caccamo and Joey Spallina all scored in the third quarter to make the score 9-5 going into the final frame and giving the Orange a little life.

Sam English scored the first goal for the Orange in the fourth quarter. Hiltz credited his fellow seniors for leading the turnaround in the locker room.

“We had Sam English and Caden Kol in the locker room take the whole team and they set us straight,” Hiltz said. “They told us, ‘Hey, we are good lacrosse players. We are a good team. This is what we live for.’ ”

Four of the goals during Syracuse’s run in the fourth quarter came during extra-man opportunities. Harvard head coach Gerry Byrne knew that giving the eighth-best team in the country in converting man-up goals was a recipe for disaster.

“When a team is desperate to come back, you don’t make those kinds of mistakes (penalties),” Byrne said. “You make them score six-on-six. They were having trouble scoring on us true six-on-six. They scored on unsettled, off faceoffs, they scored off extra man. But in six-on-six, they had a tough day.”

The Orange briefly went up 12-11 with just over three minutes to go. Hiltz’s behind-the-back pass led to Michael Leo’s first goal of the game and the Orange’s first lead.

While it looked as if the Orange comeback was complete, Harvard had one last push in the final seconds. Logan Ip broke free and cleared the ball into the offensive zone. Owen Gaffney had enough room to shoot a bouncing ball past McCool, tying the game at 12 with just 6 seconds on the clock.

Even with the goal, Syracuse didn’t lose its confidence.

“These guys have never given up,” Gait said. “Even when we lost games, we tried to find ways to fight back and give us a chance. I think all those past games when we did lose and kept playing paid off today.”

After losing its last three games of the regular season, Syracuse is on a three-game winning streak. The Orange will face No. 3 Princeton on Saturday at Hofstra University.