Sergio Salcido dodged down the left alley before spinning around, throwing the ball in Nick Mariano’s direction. Jamie Trimboli intercepted the pass. After a push from Duke’s Sean Cerrone, Trimboli corralled the pass and spun. He saw open space, wound up and fired.

“It was not for me, I don’t believe,” Trimboli said of Salcido’s feed.

“Luckily you thought it was,” SU head coach John Desko quipped.

In his first career start, Trimboli scored the Orange’s most important goal. In another one-goal game, No. 6 Syracuse (6-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) beat conference rival No. 11 Duke (7-3, 0-1), 12-11, in an overtime thriller. This marks SU’s sixth straight one-goal game, a program record. SU’s freshman midfielder avenged his three turnovers with the game-winner.

“It was a one-on-one battle that he won,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “Cerrone got his hands on him, did a nice job, just couldn’t take the ball away.”

The script for Syracuse through seven games has been close games with one-goal outcomes. Besides a 19-6 victory over a still-winless Siena team, each of SU’s games has been decided by one goal. Syracuse has managed to come out on top in all but one. (Army won on a game-winning goal with one second left last month.)

Each game, a player steps up to deliver a final blow. Against Albany, it was Nick Mariano. Against Virginia, it was Sergio Salcido. Against Johns Hopkins last week, it was Brendan Bomberry. Against Duke, it was Trimboli.

“Everyone steps up differently,” Trimboli said, “and it was me today.”

Evan Jenkins | Staff Photographer

In Syracuse’s first six games, Trimboli played on the second midfield line. He had a pair of goals and assists to his name, including the game-tying dish to Mariano against Johns Hopkins with 34 seconds remaining.

He’s progressively factored more into the offense and gotten more minutes. Meanwhile, on the starting midfield line, Matt Lane saw less time. Aside from a hat trick in a one-goal win over ACC rival Virginia, Lane had just one goal.

Seeing this, Desko decided to make the change. Rather than moving Mariano back to the midfield line — where he played all of last year — the 19-year head coach played Trimboli.

“He’s got a great first step which he gets separation from his defender,” Desko said. “He can go left-handed and shoot and right-handed and shoot, which makes him more dangerous.”

Trimboli’s opportunity wouldn’t have come if it weren’t for the defense. Duke’s offense ranks No. 9 in the country, pouring in close to 13 goals per game. With FOGO Kyle Rowe winning 14-of-18 against SU’s Ben Williams, Duke dominated possession.

The Blue Devils offense played on their heels for most of the game, Danowski said. Instead of attacking while man-up, Duke worked the ball around, looking for a shot. Syracuse held the Blue Devils empty-handed in man-up, an area in which Duke ranks second in the country.

When each team had an even six men on the field, Duke kept making mistakes, despite winning possession time. Quick passes were overthrown. Other times, SU’s defense forced ground balls and ran in transition. Duke’s 15 turnovers allowed Syracuse to string together a comeback despite Williams’ struggles at the X.

One-goal games seem to be an area in which Syracuse thrives. Whether it be a division rival or a one-win St. John’s team, SU plays down to the wire.

“We’re used to it by now,” Trimboli said. “Keep it going, keep moving forward.”

Save for the Army goal where a right-hander surprised the defense by going left, the defense buckles down and allows the offense to put away the game.

For four quarters, Trimboli had only three shots and three turnovers, including one turnover with less than four minutes left. As Lane had in the six games prior, Trimboli fell into the shadows of the midfield unit that sports an All-American and SU’s goals leader.

That was until the final shot of the game.

Published on March 25, 2017 at 3:58 pm

Contact Charlie: csdistur@syr.edu | @charliedisturco