FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Syracuse won its 10th NCAA men’s lacrosse championship Monday, beating defending champion Johns Hopkins 13-10 behind three goals from Dan Hardy.
The crowd of 48,970 was the largest to see an NCAA championship outdoors in any sport — the BCS football championship game isn’t an NCAA event.
John Galloway stopped seven shots for the Orange, who won their first title since 2004 and improved to 3-2 against Hopkins in NCAA title games. Mike Leveille, who had five goals in the semifinal win over Virginia, was the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Paul Rabil scored a career-high six goals for Johns Hopkins, one off the title-game record. Blue Jays goalie Michael Gvozden stopped 20 shots.
Syracuse and Johns Hopkins are the two most successful teams in college lacrosse history — by wins and championships. Hopkins also was going for its 10th title since lacrosse became an NCAA sport in 1971; Syracuse’s 10 championships include the one it won in 1990 that was later vacated for using an ineligible player.
The crowd was mostly for Syracuse, with sections of orange filling the red and blue lower bowl that was built for the New England Patriots.
The Orange fans saw their team take a 9-7 lead that was trimmed to one goal when Stephen Peyser drew a double-team before flipping the ball back to Rabil, who scored with just more than four minutes left in the third quarter.
But Hardy completed his hat trick on the ensuing possession, and Syracuse added two goals 10 seconds apart to make it 13-8 before Hopkins managed to cut the lead.
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