Afterward, they shared the blame.

Syracuse defenseman Sol Bliss accepted responsibility for not sticking John Christmas tighter, and goaltender Jay Pfeifer acknowledged he should have nabbed what Christmas called ‘a pretty decent shot.’

That pretty decent shot capped the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team’s pretty poor second half and condemned it to a rare home loss, as the No. 1 Orangemen fell, 16-15, to No. 4 Virginia on Saturday. The loss, in front of 10,536 fans, was SU’s first in the Carrier Dome since March 17, 2001.

On the deciding goal, which came with 22 seconds remaining, Christmas sprinted diagonally from the corner until Bliss met him about 7 yards from the net. From there, Christmas backpedaled and surveyed his options.

‘The whole game I was going right to left because Sol’s got a bad knee,’ Christmas said. ‘So I thought if I went right to right he might sell. He did.’

That gave Christmas just enough room to sidearm a bouncer past Pfeifer.

‘I was trying to keep him away from the goal,’ Bliss said. ‘I should’ve got in his hands more. In that situation, I should’ve been sure Jay got a good look at the shot.’

Said Pfeifer: ‘It was fine defense. I should’ve saved the ball.’

Instead, Christmas’ goal, his fourth of the game, saved the Cavaliers from blowing a two-goal, fourth-quarter lead. An SU goal from Brian Crockett with 3:42 remaining and another from attacker Mike Springer — who led Syracuse with five goals — had knotted the score at 15 with 1:41 left.

Syracuse (1-1) played catch-up for most of the second half, thanks to Virginia’s 10-goal barrage that erased SU’s 8-6 halftime lead.

For the Orangemen, the third quarter proved most disastrous. During one 58-second stretch, UVa ran off three goals to tie the score at 9.

Two of those goals came from midfielder A.J. Shannon, whose speed and well-placed shot gave Syracuse fits. Shannon finished with four goals and two assists for a team-high six points.

‘He’s no secret,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘He really placed the ball well today. A couple of those goals were just inside the pipe by Jay’s ear. It’s tough to stop those.’

Syracuse failed to stop much else, as the Cavaliers scored four of the third quarter’s last five goals. The last, which gave Virginia a 13-10 lead, epitomized the Orangemen’s sloppiness.

With six seconds left, UVa defenseman Brett Hughes prepared to pass the ball from behind his own goal. Unable to see the other end of the field, he blindly heaved the ball 100 yards.

At the other end, UVa attacker Joe Yevoli took advantage of an SU defensive gaffe and popped open 10 yards in front of Pfeifer. Yevoli cradled Hughes’ toss, turned and dumped a shot past Pfeifer as the clock hit zero.

‘I heard coach yelling on the sideline, ‘Crash the goal! Crash the goal!’ ‘ Yevoli said. ‘I was trying to be a little more discrete about it. Then I just looked up and saw the ball coming right to me.’

Perhaps Syracuse could have fended off the third-quarter onslaught with a few timely faceoffs or turnovers. Instead, the Orangemen allowed the Cavaliers (2-0) to convert 8 of 8 clears and win 6 of 9 draws.

“That was pretty important for us,’ UVa head coach Dom Starsia said of his team winning 21 of 34 faceoffs.

A few Syracuse players could share the blame for that, too. Midfielder Chris Bickel takes SU’s faceoffs, but his wingmen are responsible for scooping up the ensuing ground balls. Saturday, Virginia collected 45 ground balls to Syracuse’s 31.

‘There’s a lot of lacrosse left,’ Desko said. ‘Fairfield’s coming in next Monday. Then we’ve got Johns Hopkins and Princeton here. How can you not get excited for teams like that? The thing for me is you want to get back out there and play again. You don’t want to have this sitting on your mind.’

Published on March 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm