A single file line of Syracuse players stretched from the just a few yards beside the SU bench to around the penalty box. One by one, Kenny Lassiter, Johannes Pieles and Oyvind Alseth, among others, sprinted toward to the sideline. Lassiter leapt in the arms of a teammate and rose above his celebrating teammates.

The junior forward snuck a hard grounder into the bottom right corner of the net to put No. 6 Syracuse (3-0) ahead of Colgate (2-1) 2-0. He had eased himself to midfield, then played a give-and-go, keep-away game with Pieles for 40 yards. Lassiter’s score came amid SU’s three-goal parade in its dominant 3-0 win over Colgate Thursday night at SU Soccer Stadium.

“When we can move the ball and get wide guys involved and get crosses in the box, we will cause teams problems,” Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre said.

The ball had slipped from Lassiter’s foot a number of times on the night before he scored. Pieles nonchalantly lollygagged on a pass and whiffed early in the game. In the first 45 minutes SU generated only five shots, two of which came from Nanco. McIntyre said he was disappointed with the first half.

Liam Callahan attributed the field’s choppier-than-usual condition as for why he mishandled one ball. He had shaken-off a Colgate defender in a one-on-one near the sideline by SU’s bench and, when he went to hit the ball, it bounced up a little high, causing him to lose control of it. He knelt over in frustration.

“It still looked like we were in classroom mode,” McIntyre said. “Some of us were still in some kind of math session rather than a hotly contested Division I contest.

“But give our guys credit for responding in the second half,” he added.

The response started with players up front, who combined with SU midfielders for a potent dynamic Thursday night, McIntyre said.

Nanco’s penalty kick stemmed when a ball came from above. A Colgate defender muffed it and Nanco, with a light shove, “tussled” the player in an attempt to win possession. Raiders defenders had been aggressive all night — this was no different, earning the Orange a penalty kick.

“I was literally just trying to win a corner or something like that,” Nanco said. “I felt him pushing on my back in the box (and) I kind of just went down.”

On the kick, which came in the 23rd minute, Nanco wiped his face and took a breath before slotting the hard shot into the bottom right of the goal. He leaned his body to the left to fake the goalie and give his ball just the space it needed past the diving goalie and the post.

The rest of the first half was relatively quiet. Shots were at a premium and good looks were even more scarce. Nanco, who scored a goal in each half, tallied two of SU’s five shots in the opening 45 minutes of play. SU commanded possession but did not get many looks.

That changed early in the second half. Liam Callahan found a ball that had fiddled out of a scurry around midfield in the 56th minute. He had already drawn out where Lassiter was so that when the ball found him, he instantly booted it up the field and pushed the tempo.

That set up the two-man game between Pieles, who has scored or assisted on four of SU’s eight goals this year, and Lassiter from about 40 yards out. Pieles had split the middle, dribbled past a defender and dished it to Lassiter. Pieles nailed the timing, rifling a diagonal pass to Lassiter in stride from about 15 yards out.

Pieles showed mobility, balance and razor-sharp focus to convert on the breakaway. The play happened so fast — roughly five seconds from midfield to the net — that Liam Callahan said he doesn’t remember how the play developed.

“I’m not even sure who scored it, to be honest with you,” Callahan said. “It was very fast.”

With five minutes left and the match all but over, Nanco scooped up a ball near the net and put it in the high right corner. John-Austin Ricks dribbled as Nanco ran to the first post for a cross from Ricks. Nanco was right there for the ball, which deflected off a Colgate defender a few yards outside of the goal.

“Until that third one went in,” McIntyre said, “they were still knocking on the door.”

Published on September 1, 2016 at 11:30 pm

Contact Matthew: [email protected] | @MatthewGut21