Crown a tight fit for Orange

The defending national champions had fallen behind Cornell from the start in yesterday's NCAA title game at Gillette Stadium. As the fourth quarter began, the Orange trailed, 7-6, against a Big Red team that had won 39 straight times when leading after three quarters.

Cornell had controlled the tempo with the same aggressive defense and opportunistic offense it used to upset No. 1 seed Virginia in Saturday's semifinals.

With 5:31 remaining in regulation, the situation looked even worse for the Orange. Cornell had expanded its lead to 9-6, and Big Red fans among the crowd of 41,935 were starting to think about how to celebrate the school's first national championship in 21 seasons.

Syracuse coach John Desko, who had guided the Orange to four national championships in his 11-year tenure, called a timeout.

"We had to cover a lot of things," said Desko.

And, suddenly, Syracuse turned into Syracuse, a team that regards playing for the national championship as part of its heritage (yesterday was the Orange's 16th title-game appearance), a team that had won a record 10 NCAA lacrosse titles.

The Orange (16-2) scored four unanswered goals - one by senior attackman Kenny Nims with just 4 seconds left in regulation and the winner by junior attackman Cody Jamieson 2:40 into overtime - to gain a stunning 10-9 victory.

Even Desko, whose team became the first to win back-to-back lacrosse titles since Princeton pulled off a three-peat from 1996-98, seemed stunned at how Syracuse got its game face back on in such a short time.

"I'm a little bit at a loss for words," said Desko, who tried to set up different schemes in the final push, which began when Stephen Keogh put in a goal with 3:37 left to cut Cornell's lead to 9-7.

The margin shrank again when Jamieson, who missed most of the regular season because of academic problems, scored with 2:46 left to make it 9-8.

Cornell, which seemed so secure and confident, suddenly appeared tentative, less aggressive.

"We weren't attacking as much," said Cornell midfielder John Glynn, who had three goals and two assists. "We just got away from that offense that was successful for us in the first half. It bit us in the butt."

That it did. Syracuse midfielder Matt Abbott, a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's most outstanding player, started the process by taking the ball away from Cornell freshman Roy Lang with 1:30 remaining.

Abbott found Nims with a pass in front of the goal, and Nims turned it into a desperation shot past goalie Jake Myers.

Two hours earlier, Nims had given a pregame good-luck hug to Myers, who spent two years at Syracuse before transferring to Cornell.

For Cornell (13-4), the late goal brought back bad memories.

"Four seconds away," said Cornell senior midfielder and captain Max Seibald. "It's a number that haunts us. When we were sophomores, that was the number on the board when Duke scored on us [to win in the 2007 semifinals]. That makes it even tougher for us."

The toughest part for Cornell happened a few minutes later when Jamieson put in the winner, taking a pass from midfielder Dan Hardy.

"I really don't remember too much of it," said Jamieson. "I think it was an unsettled situation. Dan got the ball in a shooting situation and wound up. Dan is a guy you have to defend, so my guy slid up and Dan found me open in front of the crease and I just took the shot."

It was a shot he made, restoring order to the world of Syracuse lacrosse.

"To be honest, I never did think we were going to lose," said Nims. "Our guys never give up. This is our time of year. This is why we go to Syracuse. This is what we have been waiting for all year, and this is our time."

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.