For more than 20 minutes, Jay Pfeifer bailed out the most explosive offense in the nation. While the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team failed to score for more than a period, Pfeifer preserved a tenuous lead and eventually led the Orangemen to a 13-8 victory over Cornell last night at the Carrier Dome.

Must have been a pretty big stretch for Pfeifer, right?

Maybe not.

“It was very important, I guess,” the flaky Pfeifer said of his performance during SU’s dry spell. “I don’t really remember.”

Even though Pfeifer couldn’t recall his performance, it was memorable. Cornell outshot SU, 43-31, and dominated possession for much of the second and third quarter. But Pfeifer’s season-high 16 saves allowed the Orangemen to cling to the lead throughout.

With 11:08 remaining in the second period, SU midfielder Steve Vallone bounced a shot past Big Red goalie Brandon Ross to give SU a 6-2 lead, and the Orangemen cruising to an easy win seemed inevitable.

But SU wouldn’t score again until the 4:40 mark of the third quarter. By that time, Cornell had crept to within 6-5. The Big Red would have captured momentum — and the lead — had Pfeifer not made six saves in the second quarter and four in the third.

“It was pretty big,” SU head coach John Desko said. “If he didn’t have half a dozen saves in that one period, the score could have been a lot closer.”

Syracuse needed Pfeifer because its offense played as crisply as a wrinkled pair of boxers in the second and third quarters. The Orangemen’s high-powered offense looked lost after jumping out to a 6-2 lead.

“I don’t really think they were doing anything,” SU attackman Mike Powell said. “I think a lot of it was us. We turned the ball over there for almost two quarters, never really got a solid offensive run. When they’re scoring and we’re turning it over, that’s not really a good blend.”

To atone for the offense’s power outage, Pfeifer made 10 saves in the second and third quarters combined.

One in particular stood out. With 1:42 left in the half, Cornell executed a man-up play in which attackman Kevin Nee caught a pass from the slot directly in front of the cage and fired a shot in one motion. But, as he did all night, Pfeifer blocked the ball with his chest and calmly scooped it up.

“Our offense played well in generating shots,” Cornell attackman Andrew Collins said. “Jay Pfeifer played great stopping some of those shots in tight.”

“We just didn’t shoot the ball very well today, and that’s to the credit of Jay Pfeifer,” Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni said. “He did a great job. He just looked extremely composed and confident. It never felt like he was rattled.”

SU’s scoreless span wasn’t the only time Pfeifer made stops when SU needed it. The Orangemen committed 10 penalties, and Pfeifer played a large role in limiting Cornell to just two man-up goals.

“Jay saw the ball well today,” Desko said. “Cornell had a couple of opportunities to get back in the game. Jay really saw it, got his stick on it and not only made the saves but caught the ball and gave us possessions.”

The laid-back goalie had a simpler way of explaining his game.

Said Pfeifer: “I’m feelin’ great.”

Look who’s here

Last night’s game featured behind-the-back goals, full-field passes and diving saves.

But the night’s biggest ovation happened during a timeout.

With 3:42 left in the first half, public-address announcer Carl Eilenberg directed the 3,047-person crowd’s eyes to the press box, where SU men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim had just arrived to take in the game, one night removed from guiding SU to the national title.

Every fan in the Carrier Dome — both for Syracuse and Cornell — stood and applauded wildly as Boeheim smiled and waved from the press box. One fan ran up the stairs to get closer to Boeheim and yelled, “Coach, you’re the best. No. 1, Coach!”

Published on April 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm