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Syracuse goalie Dom Madonna converted the Carrier Dome back into a football stadium Saturday, rearing back and firing a 48-yard clearing pass to Ryan Simmons for a breakaway goal in triple overtime to lift the Orange to an 11-10 victory over Army.

Madonna also made two crucial saves on Black Knights sniper David Symmes — who scored the game-winner for Army when these two teams met in the Carrier Dome last year — in the first two overtime periods to keep Syracuse’s comeback in play.

“It wasn’t enough that we asked Dom to make all those great saves, he had to get the winning assist too,” Orange coach John Desko said afterward on ACC Network Extra.

The Orange (2-1), who were blown out by Albany in the Dome last week and dropped to No. 18 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Top 20, appeared headed for a similar fate as the No. 11 Black Knights scored six unanswered goals to take a commanding 6-1 lead at halftime. Syracuse went scoreless for 24 minutes and again struggled to win faceoffs.

“It was a little bit of a gut check. It didn’t look like we could beat anybody in the first half,” Desko said. “We challenged our guys to go out and dodge someone to score.”

The Orange came to life in the third quarter, pelting Army with 12 shots and finding the back of the net with six different scorers to pull within one.

Brendan Bomberry tied the game at 9 midway through the fourth quarter on a “SportsCenter”-worthy between-the-legs shot with his back to the goal.

A man-up goal by Nate Solomon with 5:57 remaining briefly gave Syracuse the 10-9 lead, but Army’s Connor DeWitt answered just 46 seconds later to tie it at 10.

Orange defenseman Brett Kennedy, a redshirt freshman who started in place of the injured Tyson Bomberry, knocked down a pass on the Black Knights final possession to preserve the tie and send the game to overtime.

Faceoff wins were few and far between for Syracuse—Army’s John Ragno was 14-for-21 and the Black Knights snared 17 of 26 faceoffs overall — all three overtime draws went the Orange’s way.

The possessions did not immediately lead to goals, however, as each team committed a turnover and each goalie made saves in the first two of the three extra frames. Syracuse’s Madonna and Army’s AJ Barretto finished with seven saves apiece. Both sides also had potential game-winners deflected by defenders. The Orange also killed off a 30-second pushing penalty in double overtime.

Syracuse’s Grant Murphy came up with a contested ground ball off the faceoff on the defensive side of the field to start the third overtime. The Black Knights locked off all outlets as the Orange tried to clear the ball. It went back to Madonna, who saw Simmons slip between two Army defenders nearly 50 yards away and hit him in stride with an over-the-shoulder pass. Within a few steps, Simmons was in front of the goal and bounced a shot past Barretto for the game-winner.

“We’re young in places out there, so we’re trying to find ourselves,” Desko said. “To be able to come back against a very good Army team, we grew up a lot today.”

NIKE/US LACROSSE
DIVISION I TOP 20 SCOREBOARD

No. 17 Penn 10, No. 1 Duke 9
No. 3 Albany 18, Drexel 5
No. 5 Notre Dame 11, Richmond 7
No. 7 Villanova 7, No. 16 Hofstra 2
No. 8 Yale 15, Michigan 11
No. 9 Virginia 18, No. 20 Princeton 15
No. 10 Loyola 19, Lafayette 5
No. 18 Syracuse 11, No. 11 Army 10 (3OT)
No. 12 Rutgers 12, Fairfield 7
Robert Morris 12, No. 14 Penn State 9
Bucknell 13, No. 19 Colgate 10

MORE SCORES

Brown 18, Stony Brook 11
Bryant 15, Hartford 10
Canisius 14, Furman 13
Cornell 15, Hobart 8
Delaware 15, Monmouth 11
Georgetown 12, Towson 10
Harvard 16, UMass 11
Lehigh 15, Holy Cross 4
Marquette 13, Detroit Mercy 6
Navy 10, Boston University 8
Providence 4, Saint Joseph’s 3
St. John’s 16, High Point 11
Vermont 10, Quinnipiac 5
VMI 11, NJIT 9

DIVISION II

No. 19 LIU Post 9, No. 5 Adelphi 8
No. 15 Colorado Mesa 13, No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne 12

DIVISION III

No. 12 Gettysburg 11, No. 3 Salisbury 10 (2OT)
No. 7 Cabrini 16, No. 19 Lynchburg 15
No. 5 RIT 9, No. 14 Bates 7