Head coach Ian McIntyre paced up and down the sideline. The entire Syracuse bench was on its feet as just seconds remained. The final whistle emptied the bench, and players formed a few separate huddles around the SU players on the field.

Notre Dame players sat motionless on the grass as the biggest group swarmed Syracuse forward Ben Polk.

“When I heard there were 10 seconds left on the clock, the relief was insane and then the euphoria was crazy,” Polk said. “It’s pretty surreal right now.”

With his third goal in two games, Polk lifted No. 13 Syracuse (13-5-3, 3-4-1 Atlantic Coast) over No. 9 Notre Dame (11-4-5, 4-2-2), 1-0, to win the ACC tournament.

 

A team that was unranked in the first five in-season coaches’ polls this season, winless in four games against ranked opponents during the regular season and a No. 7 seed coming into the conference tournament was able to take down the No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds en route to the first ACC title in team history. Syracuse was the lowest seed to ever win an ACC men’s soccer championship.

With its first conference title since 1985, the Orange earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It will find out its seed during the selection show on Monday at 1 p.m. The first round begins on Nov. 19

“If you had said at the beginning of the year that we could,” McIntyre said before pausing, seemingly in disbelief. “… We set our goals to get into the ACC championship, but after that you have tough competition.

“You’re part of history now. Your name appears on the trophy moving forward so I couldn’t be more pleased.”

On a windy day in South Bend, Indiana, Syracuse came out firing. Within the first 20 minutes, SU had already amassed eight corner kicks, which were all fought off by the Irish. The Orange finished the half with nine shots, including an Oyvind Alseth header that would have found the back of the net, if not for Notre Dame defender Patrick Berneski, who knocked it away at the goal line.

Notre Dame’s best chance came when Irish midfielder Patrick Hodan juked past Orange midfielder Juuso Pasanen inside the box and clanged a shot off the left post.

“We talked about not coming here and sitting back and trying to absorb pressure,” McIntyre said. “… We took the game to them, we were excellent in the first half.”

Just more than a minute into the next half, Julian Buescher intercepted a pass 25 yards away from the net. He sent a through ball to Polk making a run into the box and the forward tapped it to the left — just wide of a charging keeper and into the net.

When Notre Dame’s Connor Klekota got a similar chance about 15 minutes later, SU goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert charged and stuck out his right knee for the hockey-like kick save.

“We scored maybe a little bit too early,” Polk said. “Then we kind of had to absorb a lot of pressure.”

With about 10 minutes left, the Orange began to pack it in. Notre Dame threatened, but each chance was sent away by SU’s defense.

In the Orange locker room after the game were Skylar Thomas, Jordan Murrell and Matt Stith — a trio of players from last year’s roster that made the trip to watch the team play.

Syracuse lost nearly 70 percent of its scoring from 2014 and its entire back line. The Orange had to replace Hermann Trophy finalist goalie Alex Bono with two freshmen in net.

But on Sunday, the Orange did something last year’s team, ranked No. 1 at one point, could not.

“It’s been a real roller coaster, but what a wonderful way to finish,” McIntyre said.

Published on November 15, 2015 at 3:12 pm

Contact Jon: [email protected] | @jmettus