PRINCETON, N.J. — Until Mike MacDonald tore the game open, it seemed to belong to Syracuse.

But with one minute remaining in the third quarter MacDonald ended any semblance of control on the game for either team. His two goals in the space of 42 seconds took what was once a game marked by periods of chaos, but controlled on the scoreboard by the Orange, and turned it into a tense, nonsensical chaos.

“He was terrific on the left wing though, I mean, he can really ping it from there,” SU head coach John Desko said. “He didn’t have a lot of room to shoot and he can really score on a flat shot.”

With the first quarter winding down and SU leading 3-1, MacDonald sprinted free of Sean Young through the gut of the SU defense, only to be leveled by David Hamlin. But it was too late, he’d already whipped the ball into the net.

On Tuesday, Desko warned about Princeton’s Canadian sharpshooter and second-leading scorer, MacDonald. Along with midfielder and leading scorer Tom Schreiber, the Orange kept Princeton’s biggest weapons quiet for most of the game.

“Obviouly we had to shut down No. 22 (Tom Schreiber), he’s one of their best players,” long-stick midfielder Matt Harris. “And I think the coaches this week did a really good job of kind of showing us their schemes and letting us know where they were going to be and I think it translated with the full week of practice onto the field today.”

But with the score tied and a minute left in the third, MacDonald dusted Young on the right goal line and finished over goalie Dominic Lamolinara to give the Tigers all the momentum. He doubled the Princeton lead just seconds later, finishing a quick diagonal feed from Ryan Ambler to the left goal line.

Ultimately, though, SU fought back to reduce MacDonald’s outburst to a mere footnote.

“I think it was just the way the game was going and I thought we played him fairly well, and it was just the way the game was going,” Desko said.

Published on April 6, 2013 at 11:58 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_