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Deandre Kerr gathered the ball near the top of the box with a defender behind him. The Syracuse bench yelled “He can’t guard you,” and they were right.

Kerr used his speed to get by one defender who fell to the ground trying to catch up with him. Now, he was one-on-one with a St. Francis center-back, and he created space with a step-over move. Kerr settled the ball with his right foot and shot with his left. Syracuse had missed seven shots already, but this one finally went in, the Orange’s only goal of the afternoon.

In Syracuse’s (2-7-4, 0-6-3 Atlantic Coast) final nonconference matchup of the season, it defeated St. Francis (0-3) 1-0 on a season-high 18 shots. Of those shots, only a third were on goal. Kerr scored the Orange’s lone goal after scoring their only goal last week against North Carolina State.

Before Kerr’s goal, most of the missed shots came off crosses and corners. The Orange were able to get those seven shots off goal due to their fast tempo, head coach Ian McIntyre said. Because SU played with the wind behind them in the first half and maintained possession for most of the period, McIntyre wanted to move the ball quicker and “keep the tempo.”

“Rather than to kind of reward them physically, try to keep pushing,” McIntyre said. “I thought they were close to breaking a couple times, some of that was good play from their goalkeeper and some sloppy finishing from us.”

Those sloppy finishes showed the most 20 minutes into the first half. Forward Manel Busquets, who had three shots in the game, was able to create space in the box and get a shot off that hit the crossbar. Defender Noah Singelmann gathered the rebound and fired another strike, but SFU goalie Jonas Dieseler punched the ball out of bounds.

“You create so many chances, you don’t take them,” McIntyre said. “We’re getting close. On another day, we score a couple of goals.”

A multitude of Syracuse’s chances came off its 14 corner kicks compared to St. Francis’ one. Kerr, Busquets and midfielder Hilli Goldhar took most of the corners for the Orange, but their passes were too short or went untouched and out-of-bounds.

Twenty minutes into the second half, Syracuse had a chance to put the game away with a corner, its first of the half after having 12 in the first 45 minutes. Kerr positioned himself on the right edge of the box, and the ball came toward him after flying over the heads of all other players. But the ball was too high, even for Kerr, as he extended his leg but couldn’t make contact with the ball.

With four minutes left in the game, Kerr had another opportunity to score, this time from a cross. Kerr positioned himself on the left edge of the box and let the pass bounce off his chest. He shot too high for the Orange’s 17th missed shot of the afternoon.

Even missed shots in the second half could have helped the Orange build a cushion. McIntyre said that one of Syracuse’s strengths during the game was ball movement. Since the Orange’s defenders moved the ball around in the back half and Kerr and Busquets used their speed to keep SFU’s defense on its toes, they were able to control the game, McIntyre said.

After Kerr’s miss, St. Francis started to play press defense on Syracuse, and its ball movement came into play. The Orange were able to move the ball around the field and keep it away from the SFU, only allowing it one final opportunity to score. But all the Orange needed to win was Kerr’s first-half goal, as goalie Russell Shealy made the save to end the game.

“One was enough, a clean sheet,” McIntyre said. “You always get a little bit worried at the end of the game. They had to throw a few numbers forward, but I’m just pleased for our guys.”

Published on March 30, 2021 at 9:03 pm

Contact Anish: [email protected] | @anish_vasu