EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Briefly, Julian Whigham laughed.

He’d just been asked if he heard a whistle when he scooped up a ball that had left the hands of Everett Golson at the Syracuse 18 and ran to the end zone for what would’ve been a touchdown. Though one official signaled toward the end zone, the ruling on the field was an incomplete pass. Golson had swatted at a snap he never caught in an attempt to spike the ball with about 15 seconds left in the first half.

After review, the ruling was overturned to a fumble recovered by Syracuse, but the play was dead at the 25 as the center referee had apparently blown his whistle.

“No, I didn’t hear a whistle,” Whigham said. “… so I just kept running, looking back to see what was going on, just went to the end zone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a touchdown.”

It deprived Syracuse of a chance to cut the Notre Dame lead to three or four points going into halftime. Instead, the Orange (2-2) went into the break without momentum against the No. 8 Fighting Irish (4-0) and trailing by 11. SU ultimately lost 31-15 to UND at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night.

After the game, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer didn’t blame the referees, but couldn’t resist a pun.

“I know those officials they try to pull it off, it’s just the luck of the Irish went their way again,” Shafer said.

The Orange never got within 11 points of the Irish for the rest of the game. SU closed the gap to 21-9 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame blocked Cole Murphy’s extra point.

With 5:09 left in the game, Terrel Hunt scored on a 7-yard run to make it 28-15, but he could only find Jarrod West two yards shy of the end zone on the ensuing two-point conversion attempt.

From the time Whigham seemed to bring the game to 14-9, the Orange was always at least two possessions out of the lead.

“I would’ve liked to see the whistle not get blown, and they figured out the play afterward,” SU defensive line coach Tim Daoust said. “And they would’ve too if they had to do it all over again, the officials. That should’ve been six for us, right? But it wasn’t.”

Published on September 28, 2014 at 10:21 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_