The drought of the championship weekend is over!
The Syracuse Orange returns in the Final Four after their 19-18 victory, in instant class, on the Princeton Tigers in one of the wildest games in the butt that you will never see on Saturday afternoon in Hofstra in the quarterfinals of the NCAA.
In a real tribute to the peak of two of the most historic programs in sport, playing mutually for the 11th time in the NCAA tournament, the game had 10 links, five head changes, 37 goals, 93 shots, 68 balls on the ground and countless moments inducing the cries.
The best of those who belonged Joey Spallina And Owen HiltzWho led the day to the day with eight and five points each, and connected for the winning goal with 3:50 to play.
Spallina, who was spectacular during the day, attacking Princeton’s defense, attracted enough slide to release Hiltz in the middle of the field for one of his patented finishes and to the stay session by passing Princeton of Princeton Ryan Croddick.
Which was followed by a few massive backups of the clutch of Jimmy McCool To preserve the advance and send the orange to the 28th Final Four in the history of the program and their first since 2013 after a drought of 10 seasons (no tournament in 2020).
This game was balls on the wall throughout, with wild races and momentum swords that transformed it into an instant classic, even according to the standards of Syracuse and Princeton in the NCAA tournament.
The tigers were the first to take momentum, scoring four goals in the first five minutes and opening an advance of 5-2 in the middle of the first quarter. But the orange did not wait long to get back, scoring four consecutive goals to close the quarter with an advance of 6-5 which pointed out that we were in a wild ride of an afternoon.
The first of this four -goals race was a magnificent bond between Hiltz and Finn Thomsonwhich found itself for a pass of shovel in reverse and a goal of shovel in reverse. This brilliant teamwork was followed by a trio of goals off the Dodge of Spallina, Sammy English And Payton Anderson.
Princeton opened the second quarter with two goals at the first minute, but Joey Spallina absolutely resumed his match with Colin Mulshine By beating it from the Dodge for three consecutive goals to give Cuse an advance of 9-7 halfway from the second.
The second quarter ended with chaos. After two other Princeton goals and a man counting by man per Trey DeereAb seemed to go towards halftime with an advance of 10-9. But the Tigers scored twice in the last 16 seconds to take an advance of 11-10, aggravated by the fact that Jimmy McCool committed a penalty of two minutes while he was jumping to try to take a loose ball which he had authorized. He established direct contact with COLTER MACKESYThe head, and the tigers had a man to come after Mackesy scored with a second and a half on the clock.
But Johnny MullenWho did not have a good day overall, had a huge game when he won the confrontation directly with himself with less than two seconds on the clock to make sure that the second half would start with possession despite the two-minute penalty.
It turned out to be massive, because not only would Princeton not mark at all on this penalty to start the third quarter, but ‘Cuse was the biggest of the day with six consecutive goals to take a 16-11 advance at the end of the third. The last two goals of this race came directly from a fantastic physical defense which caused Princeton reversals and led to “Cuse Tallies”.
At that time, it seemed that orange took control with an advance of five goals and a little more than 15 minutes to play after what had been an incredibly tight and German affair.
But, of course, these roller coaster had many more twists and turns, turns and (unfortunately) falls for us than that. Princeton scored a goal with only three seconds to play in the third for a rather harmless count at the time which turned out to be the kick of their fourth quarter.
The Tigers resumed the match for a period, scoring four additional goals in the first five minutes of the fourth to make a 5-0 race and a match equally at 16-16 with 10:02 on the counter.
The race ended on a goal by Tyler McCarthyWho managed to perform a game of choice with Spallina and finished bottom of the wing to give “a lead of a 17-16 about a minute after the tigers attached it.
But Princeton has not finished. Jimmy McCool has abandoned a gentle goal for Sean Cameron Less than a minute later when the Tigers equaled it to 17-17. After some empty and back and forth possessions, Nate Kabiri I gave them the advantage over what seemed to be an exhausting potential goal with a second on the left on the stopwatch with 4:54 to play.
“Cuse would have the last word. Michael Leo obtained his third in the match on a long distance shot only 33 seconds later to equalize it for the 10th and last time. 31 seconds after that, Spallina and Hiltz connected for the winning goal of the match to do it 19-18.
After the second of the two crucial judgments of McCool, the Orange was able to clean the ball and see the match for its biggest victory in May since 2013.
“Cuse will face the winner of the tomorrow’s match between Maryland and Georgetown next Saturday in Foxborough.
