The Orange ousted top-seeded Johns Hopkins 15-9 Saturday before the largest crowd to ever watch an NCAA Division I semifinal. The 46,923 at M&T Bank Stadium witnessed a Syracuse team that wore the badge of underdog with haughty resolve and seized control of the contest with a confidence contrary to its No. 4 seeding.

In the week preceding the game, the usually flippant Orange turned somber and businesslike. There was a lacrosse game to be played on the weekend against a formidable opponent, and Brian Nee said Saturday that this "was no time to be fooling around." 4

The SU seniors kept preaching belief in team and system. And on Saturday, the orange-clad Orange converted a crowd that likely gave it little chance against college lacrosse's most dominating team the past two seasons.

SU crafted an 8-1 run over the last 18 minutes, 16 seconds of the game to turn a tight, testy affair into something of a blowout.

The Orange now meet Navy at 2:30 p.m. on Memorial Day for the national championship. SU, which won in 2000 and 2002, will seek its third title of the decade.

"This is right up there with the greatest wins we've ever had," SU midfielder Sean Lindsay said. "I'm just so proud of my teammates, just unbelievably proud of how hard we worked, the decisions we made out there. Just up and down the field, we played tremendous and I couldn't be more proud."

"We finally put it together," SU defender Dan DiPietro said. "Offense, defense, faceoffs. I think this is the first game all year we've actually done that."

It started at the faceoff X, where the Orange entrusted their fortunes to a 19-year-old freshman who had contested all of 70 faceoffs in his college career. Brennan took all but one draw (he knelt in the penalty box for that one) and won 16 out of 26 for the afternoon. This, against a team that had limited SU to just four faceoff wins the last time they met.

Brennan saidhe shook off the nerves that gripped him as he stared into the huge crowd. He had faced off in high school against Greg Peyser and had spent the last week dutifully studying Kyle Harrison and Lou Braun. He stuck with the techniques he's used all season. And each time he sprinted off the field after a draw, teammates congratulated his effort.

"He handled it great," said wing man Steve Panarelli, a Farmingdale High School teammate of Brennan's. "He handled it unbelievable."

So did the rest of the Orange.

SU (14-2) mined a career-high five goals from Syracuse native Kevin Dougherty and got four more from Nee, which tied his career high. The usual suspects - Lindsay, Steve Vallone and Mike Powell - each scored, but the contributions from SU's second midfield provided the offense with unexpected punch. Greg Rommel, Dougherty's teammate at Henninger High, scored twice. Brett Bucktooth (Lafayette) tossed in another SU goal.

After Nee made a hustling play to save a ball from scooting out of bounds, Rommel charged the Hopkins cage and fired a shot past goalie Scott Smith. That tied things at 8 with 3:16 left in the third quarter. SU then reeled off five straight goals, bookended by Dougherty's two dodging lasers from the left side.

Suddenly,the Orange owned a 13-8 advantage. And Hopkins (13-2) was looking less and less like the offensive juggernaut SU players saw two months ago.

The Blue Jays boast one of the nation's most feared offensive units. They average 12 goals a game and can beat teams in transition or in long, settled situations. On Saturday, they accomplished very little of either. Of Hopkins' nine goals, three came in extra-man situations.

"The bottom line," said Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala, "is they got the job done today and we didn't."

SU coach John Desko praised the work of his assistants, Roy Simmons III (defense) and Kevin Donahue (offense and faceoffs) for formulating an effective game plan against the Blue Jays. Simmons, in particular, has helped shape the Orange defense from young, unsuspecting gamblers into a tight, disciplined unit.

On Saturday, SU defenders used two zones, shut off a couple Hopkins players and switched slide packages. Goalie Jay Pfeifer made 13 saves.

"Every time they came out of a timeout or something, we threw something new at them," DiPietro said. "They just didn't know what to do. They didn't know what was coming at them."

Navy, with its waves of supporters here, will come at the Orange on Monday. The Orange defeated the No. 2 Midshipmen in a scrimmage last February, but Saturday afternoon few SU players were thinking about that game or the Memorial Day encounter.

SU players, so restrained emotionally on the field after Saturday's win, let loose afterward with celebratory yelps in the hallway leading to their locker room.

"It's a great feeling right now," Nee said. "But we've got one more left."

Syracuse 15, Johns Hopkins 9 Syracuse4254- 15 Johns Hopkins2331- 9 Syracuse- Kevin Dougherty 5-0, Brian Nee 4-0, Greg Rommel 2-0, Michael Powell 1-3, Steve Vallone 1-2, Brett Bucktooth 1-0, Sean Lindsay 1-0, Steve Lykudis 0-1. Saves: Jay Pfeifer 13. (Orangemen 14-2). Johns Hopkins- Matt Rewkowski 3-0, Conor Ford 2-0, Kyle Harrison 2-0, Jake Byrne 1-0, Greg Peyser 1-0, Kevin Boland 0-3, Benson Erwin 0-1, Peter LeSueur 0-1. Saves: Scott Smith 14. (Blue Jays 13-2). Shots- Syracuse 45, Johns Hopkins 37. Extra-man- Syracuse 3-6, Johns Hopkins 3-4. Penalties- Johns Hopkins 6-4:30, Syracuse 5-3:00. Ground balls- Syracuse 34, Johns Hopkins 32. Faceoffs- Syracuse 17, Johns Hopkins 10. Clears- Syracuse 16-21, Johns Hopkins 13-15.

© 2004 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.