Men's Soccer

Syracuse fails to score on 20 shots, ties Pittsburgh 0-0

Chase Gaewski | Photo Editor

Ian McIntyre cringes while addressing members of the media after his team's 0-0 tie with Pittsburgh.

On more than one occasion, Stefanos Stamoulacatos had the chance to finally capitalize on a shot and put the game in Syracuse’s win column.

And on more than one occasion, the shot instead left Stamoulacatos slapping his hands together and yelling in frustration, or running his hands through his hair, wondering when his luck would change.

But it never did. Not for Stamoulacatos, not for the Orange and not for Pittsburgh, either.

“If the ball doesn’t want to go into the net, it doesn’t want to go in the net,” SU forward Alex Halis said.

Syracuse missed out on opportunity after opportunity and Pittsburgh’s scrappiness matched the Orange’s misfortune, resulting in a 0-0 tie on Saturday night. SU (8-4-1, 2-4-1 Atlantic Coast) outshot the Panthers (0-6-4, 0-5-2) by a 20-to-1 margin, but at the end of the night both teams walked away with one point each in the standings and the crowd of 1,067 left SU Soccer Stadium disappointed.



Pittsburgh, which has yet to win a match this season, celebrated after the final horn like it had. The Orange, on the other hand, wasn’t as satisfied.

“It could be better, certainly,”  SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “We were close tonight, a few times…We showed some character to at least get a point out of it. But I think, through the run of play, we created enough chances to win this one tonight.”

With the Panthers man-marking SU’s leading scorer Emil Ekblom — who had netted five goals combined in his previous two games — the Orange had numbers around the middle of the field, an advantage that allowed Syracuse to utilize the entire width of the field.

SU’s agility was evident and its one-two passes around midfield were quick and crisp, but passes into the attacking third couldn’t be strung. The chemistry was sharp, but not complete.

“We were together. We were cohesive. We played quick,” said midfielder Nick Perea, who logged four shot attempts. “And when we move the ball quickly, we do great things.”

By halftime, Syracuse held a 7-0 shot advantage. The beginning of the second half was “dead,” as McIntyre described it, as the Orange mustered just one shot in the frame’s first 20 minutes.

But during the back end of the second half, the intensity picked up. The fans became excited, and the quality of the Orange attack improved with it.

With less than eight minutes remaining in regulation, Stamoulacatos ripped a shot from the top of the box. Pittsburgh goalkeeper Dan Lynd elevated, stuck out one hand and deflected the ball over the net for one of his 11 crucial saves of the night.

“Their keeper came up huge,” Perea said. “He was saving left and right. Up. Down. It was amazing.”

The match’s first 90 minutes concluded with the scoreboard displaying a fruitless ‘15’ in Syracuse’s shot column.

And more shots were on the way. With the Pittsburgh attack incapable of producing any semblance of opportunity, it became a battle of SU’s attack against the Panthers’ defense.

Two and a half minutes into overtime, Stamoulacatos corralled a pass, made a defender miss and fired SU’s only shot in the first 10 minutes of the extra period. But Lynd was there.

In the second 10 minutes of overtime, Syracuse threw more pressure at the Panthers and Pittsburgh handled it. The Orange drew its seventh corner of the match and couldn’t capitalize. Lynd dove to his left to save a Perea shot from within the box.

Stamoulacatos again found himself a chance to salvage Syracuse’s attack from leaving empty-handed.

Two minutes remained before the Orange and Panthers would have to call it even. Stamoulacatos sprinted ahead to collect a slow pass, then dodged two Pitt defenders around the top of the box and lined up his seventh shot of the game.

Wide right.

“We got our chances,” Halis said. “We tried, we tried, and unfortunately we didn’t get one. It’s pretty frustrating.”





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