SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Cunningham suddenly found himself in the biggest test of his season on Sunday, on the road against a top attack on the nation’s top team needing a stop in the final seconds.

Notre Dame attack Brendan Gleason, who’d scored twice already, ran at Cunningham with 10 ticks left on the clock and spun in front of SU’s goal, looking for a shot to tie the game. The moment magnified for the redshirt sophomore defender because he had finally seemed to hold the edge in a seesawing third-defender timeshare trap in which he’d been stuck with a true freshman all season.

Cunningham gained the edge on Gleason and checked him in the back. The ball squirted loose and it remained at the bottom of a scrum until the final buzzer sounded on a Syracuse (7-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) win. The Glen Ridge, New Jersey, native had played his best on a day the defense most needed it. Notre Dame turned the ball over only 10 times and posted a 56.7 shots-on-goal percentage, respectively the second-lowest and third-highest totals for SU opponents this season. With the play, Cunningham shored up SU’s final defender spot and symbolically solidified himself there.

“Huge play,” said senior attack Nick Mariano. “The defense stepped up big when we needed them to.”

Yet perhaps the most important thing about the play for Cunningham was that he was in the game at all. SU head coach John Desko had rotated hyper-physical Cunningham, the starter entering the year, and quicker freshman Nick DiPietro all season long. Desko never committed to either one and said the team still didn’t know exactly what it wanted to do down low. In the second game of the season, after missing several slides that allowed at least two goals against then-No. 14 Albany, Cunningham watched DiPietro wrest away most of the defensive possessions from the same spot he’d been relegated to the season prior.

From the sideline, Cunningham thought about the conundrum: He knew he needed work on slides. Always had. Speed, particularly how quickly offenses swung the ball around the top, had overwhelmed at times last season and he got lost on some plays. He said more game experience was helping him adjust, but his limited playing time interrupted the progression.

“Last year, I was really hard on myself and it really affected my play,” Cunningham said on Feb. 2. “Now, I try to learn from the mistakes and play forward. Being able to move past it is the biggest adjustment.”

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Though Cunningham started every game, DiPietro subbed in toward the end of the first quarter or first half and played the bulk of the minutes — SU athletics does not keep a “minutes played” statistic — from there against the Great Danes, Army and Virginia. Desko praised DiPietro but never quite made the full switch. Meanwhile, Cunningham put into practice his promise to work through struggles.

“(Cunningham) is a good energy guy, especially this week,” Firman said the week after DiPietro subbed in for Cunningham against Albany. “For whatever reason, he’s been bringing a lot of energy to practice.”

Then, at St. John’s on March 11, Cunningham played most of the game and goalie Evan Molloy cited his quick reactions on a late rebound as a major factor in the Orange’s 9-8 win. He ate up a larger share of time the next week at then-No. 14 Johns Hopkins and enjoyed his best game of the season against then-No. 11 Duke. The Blue Devils forced the crease and that played into the 6-foot-2, 206-pound defender’s physical style. He bodied up attacks near the crease, caused a turnover and vacuumed up four groundballs, a season-high and a third of his yearly total.

In the week before Notre Dame, Syracuse practiced with two men on the crease in anticipation the Fighting Irish would try to exploit where the Blue Devils had exposed cracks. That style favors Cunningham, and on Sunday he deflected a pass inside within the first five minutes to force a turnover. In the third quarter, Cunningham found himself switched on attacks like Ryder Garnsey, the top team’s top threat, Cunningham stayed in his mark’s hands and forced Garnsey to defer.

He avoided picks and substitution. DiPietro mostly watched and Cunningham returned to the sidelines only for a breather and clap on the helmet from defensive coach Lelan Rogers. After the game, Desko said Syracuse had finally found itself in terms of personnel. He felt settled. Molloy, the goalie, and Firman, the team’s top defender, echoed their coach.

“Cunningham’s got some experience now,” Firman said. “… He even slides well.”

Published on April 2, 2017 at 10:25 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR