Foxborough, Mass. -- The Syracuse University men's lacrosse team had about seven minutes of hope.
SU redshirt-senior attack Owen Hiltz ripped a scoop shot from high-to-low into the net 53 seconds into Saturday's NCAA semifinal against Maryland.
The strong contingent of Orange fans who made the trip to Foxborough roared as did those among the 31,524 fans at Gillette Stadium that did not want lacrosse's version of Thanos to flash its Infinity Gauntlet on Memorial Day again.
But Maryland is inevitable.
With 7:28 remaining in the first quarter, Maryland attack Eric Spanos ran unimpeded to the cage and tied the game 1-1.
Syracuse defenders were confused on the play as to who had to slide to pick up Spanos, resulting in the open highway to SU goalie Jimmy McCool.
No one plays the perfect game, but mistakes made against Maryland are compounded.
It's exactly what the Terps want. To make you think, overthink and overreact.
Maryland went on to dominate Syracuse 14-8 and advance to the national championship game for the fourth time in five years where it will face Cornell on Monday (1 p.m. ESPN)
Here's how the Terps did it:
Spanos' goal ignited an 8-0 run for the Terps that stretched from the 7:28 mark of the first period to the 3:44 mark of the second.
SU goalie Jimmy McCool did what he could to stymie the Terps, making 10 first-half saves, but Maryland out-shot SU 29-16 in the first half.
Maryland's offense move the ball with precision, utilized every second it could of the shot clock (often taking it under 10 seconds) and stopped going low, finding McCool's weak spot in the upper right corner of the net.
Maryland's defense stifled the Orange offense for a staggering 26:54 of game time.
Syracuse was demoralized, disorganized and done.
It was not crawling out of that hole.
"Coach Tillman and his team were outstanding today," Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said. "They executed like a team that has been to a dozen Final Fours in the last 14 years, 15 years. Lots of experience and the execution was outstanding. Unfortunately we came in and played the first half like it was the first time we'd been here (Final Four) in 12 years."
After recording eight points against Princeton the NCAA quarterfinals, SU attack Joey Spallina had a message for his haters.
"I guess I can't dodge anybody or beat anybody," he said in a postgame TV interview on ESPNU. "I don't know."
Not being able to dodge or beat anybody was precisely what happened on Saturday and in this case "anybody" was Maryland defenseman Will Schaller.
Schaller took Spallina's lunch money on Saturday, holding him to just one assist, and even that was recorded with three seconds remaining in the game on a garbage-time goal by Sam English.
Schaller denied Spallina the ball. When he did manage to get it, Schaller hit Spallina, got on his hands and denied him clean looks.
With SU's quarterback shutdown, its offense has no plan B, and was held to a season-low seven goals.
Syracuse's primary advantage is face-off specialist John Mullen, who set new single-season Syracuse records for face-off attempts (429) and ground balls (175), broke Bill Dirrigl's 36-year old program record for face-off wins (283) and led the country in that category.
Mullen is big, physical and has a over-clamp leading to a shovel flip and catch technique that is difficult to neutralize.
Maryland did it with Shea Keethler (9) and Jonah Carrier (5) combining for 14 wins to Mullen's nine.
"The big part of this game we were definitely putting a lot of time in, and (assistant coach) Tim O'Branski does a great job with those guys, our face-off guys and wings were awesome today," Maryland coach John Tillman said. "With that offense, if you are going to give up that many possessions, it's going to be hard. We'll take that (14-of-24 face-offs) any day of the week against a guy of his caliber. That is huge."
Syracuse defense coordinator John Odierna tried to pack the middle, flood the passing lanes and stifle Maryland's offense with a zone defense.
The strategy fell on its face.
ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra practically begged Odierna to get out of the formation on the television broadcast.
During a sideline interview with ESPN's Dana Boyle, Tillman easily found a way around the strategy.
"If they're gonna pack it in like that, it's going to allow us to control the game."
It's hard to fight fire with fire when you play Maryland, but a zone was not the answer.
One of the key ingredients to Maryland's success is how it embraces the middle Maryland trusts its short-stick midfielders to be physical, win one-on-one matchups and be as annoying as a horse fly to opposing midfielders trying to advance the ball.
Beyond Carter Rice, a recent draft pick of the California Redwoods of the Premiere Lacrosse League, Syracuse does not have the depth at that position to go mano y mano with Maryland.
If the Orange is going to beat Maryland going forward, look no further than this area of the field as priority to make dramatic improvement.
Syracuse made it back to the Final Four this season and that is something to hang its hat on.
On Saturday, Maryland showed just how far the gap is between the two programs that SU need to close if it wants to knock the Terps off its perch and play on Memorial Day again.
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