Orange drops 5th straight in 2-1 setback
Fifty-four seconds into Tuesday’s game, Syracuse realized the Adelphi match was more than a breather. Perhaps the Orange was looking ahead to the three remaining Big East games that will ultimately determine its postseason fate.
‘Of course we wanted to win,’ senior forward Tom Perevegyencev said. ‘But (a win) wouldn’t really do anything for our postseason hopes. We just have to work really hard in practice this week and build our confidence back up.’
From the opening possession, Adelphi (9-2-4) was the aggressor, scoring the games first goal less than a minute into the contest. The Orange (2-13, 1-7 Big East) ultimately lost, 2-1, in front of a crowd of 698 at SU Soccer Stadium Tuesday night. It was SU’s 12th loss in its last 13 contests.
Head coach Dean Foti was not available for comment following the game.
Despite allowing the early goal, SU managed to control the tempo for most of the first half. But already leading, 1-0, the Panthers struck again just before halftime, scoring what would eventually be the game-winning goal with only 11 seconds left. The two-goal deficit proved to be too much for SU to overcome.
‘It’s happened to us a few times now and that’s probably the worst way to go into halftime,’ senior defenseman Brien Chamney said. ‘But we knew we had to keep playing.’
Adelphi freshman forward Issa Tall scored the game’s first goal off a cross by teammate James Diana. Tall then took advantage of an open look at the net, scoring the game’s second goal just before halftime. The two goals gave Tall 13 total scores for the season.
But instead of simply lying down, the Orange kept on the attack, hoping to get back in the game. Determined not to simply go through the motions in the second half, the Orange came out of the halftime intermission on the attack and fought its way back into the game.
‘Any goal can have the potential to be deflating,’ Chamney said. ‘But when it happened so early in the game, it’s almost like it didn’t matter. We were down, but still had (time) and we had to keep playing and keep going at them.’
‘If anyone just put their head down and stopped playing, it wouldn’t be beneficial to us, so we just had to pull up our socks and try to win the game.’
Just one minute into the second half, SU brought the game within in reach, as Perevegyencev found the back of the net from 10 yards out; fellow seniors Hansen Woodruff and Kenny Caceros assisted on the play.
The goal, scored off a set piece, served as the lone bright spot for the Orange in a game full of missed opportunities. It was Perevegyencev’s team-leading fifth goal of the season.
Off a free kick, Caceros played the ball to freshman midfielder Mark Brode, who then passed it back to Caceros. The senior midfielder then placed it inside the box for Woodruff, who passed it off to Perevegyencev for the easy goal. It was a play the Orange has practiced all season.
‘We’ve tried to do it against a lot of teams and it just didn’t work out,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘But today it worked out.’
Despite multiple opportunities to bring the game to a tie, the Orange was unable to capitalize. The inability to put those chances in the back of the net highlighted a season-long problem for the Orange.
Syracuse had its best chance to tie the score when sophomore Nick Olivetti got free in front of the Adelphi goal with 4:37 left in regulation. But his volley off a cross just missed the near post, and the opportunity was lost. It would prove to be SU’s final scoring chance of the game, as Adelphi slowed the pace of play for the remainder of the game.
Though the game did not hinder Syracuse’s chances of reaching its ultimate goal of making the Big East tournament, if may have set the Orange back heading into its final three games of the regular season. SU will need to win all three to have any chance of a tournament berth, though it has not been mathematically eliminated at this point.
Despite the loss, the players put the game into proper perspective. Winning every game is obviously important, but they knew that a non-conference win wouldn’t bring them any closer to their team goal of playing beyond the regular season.
‘We want to finish the season out with three big wins,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘We’re going to go out there and fight for these next three games.’
