BALTIMORE – Syracuse had scored its third goal in 39 seconds on Saturday and Loyola now clung to an 11-10 lead with 22 seconds left.

Loyola head coach Charley Toomey had a flashback to Friday, which in essence was a flashback to six years ago – the last time Loyola had defeated Syracuse.

Loyola brought in Jason Born, the Greyhound who was in net during Loyola’s 14-13 overtime victory in 2001, to speak to the current squad.

Born and his teammates overcame a 13-9 deficit to force overtime against top-ranked Syracuse. Six years later, Toomey worried his team might squander its own seemingly insurmountable lead.

‘We watched the last minute and a half of the (2001) game in our video room,’ Toomey said. ‘And here I am in that huddle going ‘Holy cow!’ we won a game being down by two with 30 seconds. We might lose a game being up by two with 30 seconds.’

Born, though, had inspired Loyola’s current goalie Alex Peaty. The sophomore goalie was not going to allow Syracuse to complete the back.

His spectacular save of SU attackman Kenny Nims’ point-blank shot as time expired preserved the 11-10 score for No. 10 Loyola as SU suffered its fourth loss of the season in Baltimore on Saturday.

‘We go over that play in practice all the time,’ Peaty said. ‘I was prepared and when it came time to make the save, I was ready.’

The play Syracuse head coach John Desko drew up with seven seconds left and SU having a man-up situation intended for Nims to slip inside the Greyhounds defense, where he would receive a pass from Dan Hardy.

When Nims found himself wide open on the crease, Desko admitted he thought the shot would rattle the back of the net.

‘With the way the momentum was going when I drew up the play on the sidelines we really thought we were going to have an option on the same side of the ball,’ Desko said. ‘(Dan Hardy) made a great look to Kenny on the inside and (Peaty) made a great save.’

Instead, Peaty used his goaltending skills to put himself in perfect position to make a game-deciding save.

Peaty did not simply exercise his goalie instincts to make the stop. He also used some logic, as Peaty realized the winding down game clock would affect Nims’ shot selection.

‘I knew he didn’t have much time to get his hands down,’ Peaty said. ‘His defenders were clamping on his stick so he had to get rid of the ball. He just wanted to get rid of it because he didn’t know how much time was on the clock. I went stick on stick and came up with the save.’

While Nims collapsed in disappointment, the entire Loyola team rushed to the other side and mobbed the Greyhounds’ savior.

After the game, Loyola players and coaches celebrated the triumph.

The lone player not basking in the glory was Peaty, who slumped against a wall outside the locker room while answering questions from reporters.

Peaty subsists as the one player who never gets satisfied. The goaltender even considered his own performance not up to par with what he would have liked.

The star of the game described the victory as ‘the wrong way to win.’ He showed disappointment for letting the Orange back into the game. He recalled the team had to pull out a similar win against then-No. 1 Duke earlier in the year, and Peaty wondered how the team could remedy this problem.

Peaty’s performance was not the most impressive against Syracuse this season. The Orange has run into streaking goalies all-season. Adam Fullerton of Army and Jesse Schwartzman of Johns Hopkins put together more complete games than Peaty. However, Peaty’s last-second snag handed Syracuse its most devastating moment of the season.

With upcoming games against No. 1 Cornell, No. 5 Albany and No. 7 Princeton, Desko acknowledged the Orange will be playing with its ‘backs against the wall’ for the rest of the season. On the other side of the field, the Greyhounds picked up its fifth-straight win as the team looks to make its first playoff appearance since 2001.

As for Peaty, he now has his own legendary Syracuse lacrosse story that one can expect will be retold for many years to come.

‘(The Syracuse game) means a lot to people around here, not just to the team,’ Peaty said. ‘It means a lot to the alumni, a lot to the coaches, a lot to everyone who has ever played here. Everyone involved with the whole program.’

Published on April 1, 2007 at 12:00 pm