BALTIMORE, MD-Sophomore midfielder Brian Carroll's second goal of the game with 1:29 remaining in overtime lifted No. 3 Virginia to a 14-13 win over Syracuse in the first game of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic Saturday afternoon at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium.

The Cavaliers improve to 4-0 overall this season, while the eighth-ranked Orange falls to 2-1.

The win Virginia's fifth in a row over the Orange in a series that has been remarkably even in virtually all respects throughout the years. It stood to reason today's game would be so close. In the previous 19 meetings dating back to the 1994 national semifinals the teams averaged 14 goals apiece, so perhaps overtime should not have been surprising.

The game featured nine ties and five leads changes, including four ties and a pair of lead changes in the fourth quarter alone as the teams traded goals throughout.

"It was a very exciting lacrosse game with a lot of the characteristics that seemed to distinguish this game over the years," said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. "I thought at times we many too many mistakes to win this game, so I wasn't completely happy with how we played. But I thought both teams played really hard the whole time and we are really happy to get the win."

The Orange opened the scoring with goals from Kenny Nims and Greg Niewieroski in the first 10 minutes, the Cavaliers responded. Max Pomper notched his first goal of the season late in the first quarter and Carroll tallied his fifth extra-man goal of the year for the game's first tie at two early in the second quarter.

Mike Leveille, Syracuse's leading scorer, broke the tie with an unassisted goal a short time later before the Cavaliers strung together goals by Rhamel Bratton and Danny Glading to take their first lead midway through the second quarter.

When Brendan Loftus scored 32 seconds before halftime to knot the game at 4-all, it did not look like the contest was going to play like many of the high-scoring affairs of years past.

"I thought Adam (Ghitelman) bailed us out a little bit in the first half on a couple of opportunities," Starsia said.

As they had to open the game, the Orange jumped ahead early in the second half behind unassisted goals by Matt Abbott and Steven Brooks 13 second apart.

Five minutes passed with no scoring before things picked up with a flurry of scoring reminiscent of past match-ups. Jack Riley scored on a nice rip from 10 yards out to pull Virginia within one at 6-5 at the 7:10 mark. Leveille scored his second of the day a minute later as Syracuse's lead grew to two once more.

Virginia junior Danny Glading scored consecutive goals 22 seconds apart for the game's fourth tie; this time at seven.

Niewieroski capitalized on an errant pass by putting a shot past a surprised Ghitelman as Syracuse recaptured the lead at 8-7.

Once again Virginia responded behind goals from Garrett Billings and Ben Rubeor to close the quarter as the Cavaliers took a 9-8 lead into the final 15 minutes. Rubeor missed the first three games of the season and finished with a goal and two assists in his first appearance of the year.

"I felt like we were making too many mistakes in the second half," said Starsia. "I felt the game was getting away from us in the second half and I wasn't happy about that. But that's when I thought we showed a little gumption-when we were down a couple times."

Virginia's lead was short-lived as Kenny Nims' extra-man goal 21 seconds into the fourth quarter tied the score at nine and started a three-goal run by his team. Brooks notched his second of the game and Nims got another to give Syracuse its fourth two-goal lead of the game; Virginia never lead by more than one.

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2008-03-01