Syracuse, N.Y. —Poll any athlete or coach that plays in a four-quarter sport which one ranks as the most important.

It’s the fourth-quarter, right?

The fourth and final quarter was certainly key for the Syracuse University lacrosse team in its 13-10 win over Johns Hopkins on Sunday afternoon at the JMA Wireless Dome, but we’ll come back to that.

It was the third quarter that had to change in the eyes of SU head coach Gary Gait.

Syracuse had been out-scored 15-3 by its last three opponents (Utah, Harvard and Maryland) out of halftime, so Gait tightened things up.

Gait felt his team was getting too loosey goosey during halftime.

Against Johns Hopkins, things were different.

The shoulder pads stayed on. The halftime break was brief. SU got back into shooting drills earlier on the dome turf and dialed in for the second half.

The new approach worked as Syracuse vacuumed up 16 ground balls to just four for Hopkins and out-shot the Blue Jays 17-6 in the third quarter.

Syracuse face-off specialist John Mullen recovered from a rough first half full of violations and losses at X (SU trailed there 9-4 at halftime) to win nine of 13 draws in the second half.

“It was one of our best third quarters of the year,” Gait said. “They focused on it and made sure they were mentally sharp and ready and came out and executed.”

Sunday’s game was a physical, back-and-forth affair we’ve come to expect from one of the oldest and best rivalries in college lacrosse.

Syracuse darted out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. Hopkins answered with a four-goal run to take a 4-3 lead. The Blue Jays led 6-5 at halftime.

The third quarter brought on one of two three-goal bursts that tilted the game in SU’s favor.

After Hopkins took an 8-6 lead with 4:19 remaining in the third, Tyler Cordes, Michael Leo and Joey Spallina scored to give Syracuse a 9-8 lead with 57 seconds remaining in the third.

Spallina’s score was executed using the ole' hidden ball trick as he and Sam English seemed to exchange the ball 30 yards away from the cage.

English charged towards the net, but Spallina still had the ball and fired into an open net from 33 yards away with JHU goalie Luke Staudt focused on English.

The play was so good it fooled the ESPNU broadcast crew of Jay Alter and Paul Carcaterra, who thought that English had scored.

“I was fortunate enough that Sam is a pretty good actor and Sam kind of sold it,” Spallina said.

“We always try stuff like that everyday,” Spallina said. “Coach Gait is for stuff like that so we’re able to score cool goals like that and get the crowd back into the game.”

With a much better third-quarter checked off, SU still had to battle in the fourth.

Hopkins tied the game at nine on a goal by Matt Collison early in the fourth and then again at ten on a Charlie Iler score in response to Owen Hiltz’s third of four goals on the day with 7:29 remaining.

That’s when the second three-goal blitz came for the Orange.

First, Luke Rhoa ripped home a bouncer with 6:49 to go.

Hiltz then charged in front of the net and fired a missile home for his fourth score of the day with 6:19 remaining.

Michael Leo then took a feed from English and scored low to give SU a three-goal cushion at 13-10 with 2:59 left on the clock.

The Blue Jays would not score again.

Syracuse goalie Jimmy McCool made four of his 12 saves in net for Syracuse after Leo’s goal to seal the three-goal cushion.

The Orange streamed onto the field after the win before 8,607 satisfied customers, the largest on-campus crowd in college lacrosse this season.

SU’s win over its old rival, which was a mix of a grind, overcoming a whistle-happy officiating crew and a little bit of flair with the hidden ball trick, improved its 2025 record to 5-2 and inched SU closer in the overall series, which now stands at 30-32-1 in favor of the Blue Jays.

It also gave No. 11 Syracuse an important win over a Top 10 team for its NCAA Tournament resume.

“It’s the way college lacrosse is these days,” Gait said. “Everybody’s good. There is talent everywhere and you have to step up and you have to make plays. The ones that do win games.

“We worked really hard on focusing on us and what we need to do and I thought the execution was awesome. A lot of fun today.”