JoJo Marasco pumped his fist and sprinted back toward midfield.

Syracuse’s captain cut the deficit to three heading into halftime with a left-handed laser that snuck by Albany goalie Blaze Riorden. After a nightmarish first half for Syracuse, the Orange was only down 8-5 heading into the break.

Marasco kept Syracuse alive all night, finishing with a career-high eight points on three goals and five assists in Syracuse’s (0-1) 16-15 season-opening loss against Albany at the Carrier Dome on Sunday. The captain scored the most points for an SU player since Kenny Nims’ eight in February 2009. Marasco dished out three assists in the fourth quarter, sparking an SU comeback that sent the game into overtime.

“I was running with a great line in Scott Loy and Luke Cometti, and those guys make it really easy for myself to make a great dodge, dodge hard and get a chance to feed those guys,” Marasco said. “They get open real well. I was able to take some good shots.”

In the first half, Syracuse was out of whack. Ty, Miles and Lyle Thompson toyed with the Orange as SU struggled to keep up with the Great Danes’ high-powered attack.

But then Marasco emerged. Syracuse needed a spark from somewhere, and Marasco provided it.

Head coach John Desko was confident his team could stage the comeback.

“I thought we could score if we had the ball,” Desko said. “They didn’t all come at once. We knew we were going to have to pick away at it. I thought the guys did that.”

Pick away Syracuse did, as Marasco fueled the comeback. He scored with 12 seconds to go in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 13-10 entering the final frame. But Marasco did everything he could to make sure his team battled back and made it a game.

Marasco connected with Cometti once and Dylan Donahue twice as Syracuse chiseled into the lead. Donahue’s third goal knotted the contest at 15. Marasco found him cutting toward the net and the redshirt freshman attack delivered.

But in overtime, Marasco couldn’t convert. He rifled shot after shot, but each time the ball just missed the net. The midfielder finished with 11 shots, leading all players. He pursued the game-winner in the first and second overtimes, but he never found it.

“The goalie stepped up big at the end,” Marasco said. “We had a whole bunch of looks, and it’s tough, but it just didn’t go our way there. It’s a tough thing. We’ve got to take it in stride and go forward with it.”

Published on February 18, 2013 at 1:41 am

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass