Spring Break
The Daily OrangePerritt's career-high day helps fuel Syracuse's offense past Duke, into championship
By Conor Orr
Posted: 5/23/09, 5:21 PM EST Section: Sports
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When Perritt steps on the field he knows two things are for certain: he won't normally draw the longpole defender - that goes to Dan Hardy. He probably won't draw the most athletic defender either - he'll be chasing Matt Abbott.
And when things align that way, he knows something else will happen too: he'll get his shots.
"Fortunately I play with two All-Americans on my midfield," Perritt said. "The other team putting so much focus on them kind of opens things up for me. They're hesitant to slide for me because they know Dan and Matt will be open."
Perritt ran away with his matchup Saturday, punishing the Duke defense to the tune of a career-high four goals, helping lift Syracuse to a convincing 17-7 win over the Blue Devils in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament at Gillette Stadium. Syracuse will advance to the championship game Monday, which will be Perritt's final career game.
"Patty killed it today," midfielder Jovan Miller said. "He had the best game I've ever seen him play. His game really depends on his opportunities and he got a lot of good opportunities today and capitalized."
With the game still in the early stages, Perritt began to exploit the Duke defense. Locked in a 2-2 tie, the midfielder scanned the field for an open look. Since the usual suspects were double, even triple teamed near the crease, Perritt took it himself, firing a bullet from 10 yards out to beat Blue Devil Rob Schroeder low and inside.
Syracuse would go on 14-5 surge after the tiebreaking goal - but Perritt wasn't finished yet.
Despite the early goal, he didn't receive any more attention from Duke's defense aside from the Blue Devil's Justin Turri, who'd been guarding him the entire game. So, at the 7:28 mark of the second quarter, Perritt went at it again with the same shot - a mid range-bullet, with barely any pressure from the defense.
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