SU went shorthanded early. With tactical shifts, it still stood a chance.
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Ian McIntyre knows his rights.
He didn’t witness the foul in the moment — how Gabriel Oksanen turned and swung his arm back while Reed Cash tugged his shirt, but he knows the foul isn’t indicative of Oksanen’s playstyle. McIntyre won’t go into detail, though; he hasn’t yet had the chance to review the evidence.
“I will plead the fifth and have a look at it later,” McIntyre said postgame. “But did it change the game? Absolutely.”
Oksanen’s 10th-minute red card put Syracuse (1-1-0, 0-0-0 Atlantic Coast) at a numerical disadvantage early in its 3-2 loss to New Hampshire (1-1-0, 0-0-0 America East) Sunday. It forced multiple tactical shifts from SU, which initially dominated the Wildcats’ half with its 3-5-2 formation. The Orange, despite taking a 2-1 lead midway through the second half, couldn’t fully recover from going a man down, leading to the Wildcats’ eventual comeback.
Immediately after Oksanen’s booking, McIntyre subbed in Chimere Omeze for Landon Darko. Darko, who has started both of SU’s games this season as a wide midfielder, spent the first nine minutes pushing forward with striker Jordan Grey.
Omeze, who started 19 games last year, functioned as a right back. His addition switched a midfielder to the backline, while Grey patrolled the top as SU’s sole striker.
“We like to press and get forwards up front on the balls,” McIntyre said. “That was our plan this year and plan going into this game. But when you’re a man down, you’ve got to pick and choose.”
On paper, the Orange were in a 4-4-1, but as the half progressed, they functioned more as a 5-3-1, with a midfielder dropping back to help the defense. The formation sacrificed some attacking output for defensive stability.
Still, the team kept McIntyre’s initial plan in mind. Sachiel Ming dropped if necessary but quickly went up top to fulfill his attacking responsibilities. When the Orange went 17 minutes without a shot after Oksanen’s penalty, Ming weaved his way through two UNH defenders and set up Nathan Scott.
On the right flank, Omeze went on a run, single-handedly carrying the ball from his own box to the opposing side.
“When you’ve got that athleticism of (Ming) and (Omeze), you want them to try to join going forward,” McIntyre said. “But look, it didn’t work.”
It’s hard to argue with McIntyre’s assessment, but the plan worked, just not for the entire game. When SU took a 2-1 lead in the 73rd minute, Grey’s the go-ahead goal stemmed from a Dario White cross, who pushed forward up the right wing from his initial midfield spot.
But fatigue eventually got the best of SU. The Orange spent the start of the second half pressing and defending. They didn’t record a shot on target until Kristjan Fortier’s converted penalty in the 71st. While the high press gave SU even numbers on the attack, it forced Syracuse’s defenders to rush back to prevent an unequal defensive pairing.
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The back-and-forth took its toll.
“We covered a lot of ground. We’ve got some depth. We rotated,” McIntyre said. “But look, we’re gonna be emotionally, physically, mentally banged up after. But I’d expect that.”
Just after Grey’s goal, UNH’s Cabot McLaren beat Garrett Holman in a foot race inside the box and fired a shot inches past goalkeeper Kyle Jansen’s right post. Minutes later, McLaren was left open at the top of the box. His strike from the edge of the box deflected off Holman and into the net to tie the game.
In the 82nd minute, when UNH’s Laurin Preuss received the ball around midfield, he beat Grey’s press with one touch and fired a shot before Kameron Kist could reach him. The rocket, taken from around three meters outside the box, sailed past Jansen’s outstretched hand and into the bottom right corner for the lead.
“When we went 1-1 we kept going to our second goal,” McIntyre said. “That’s the part where, maybe in hindsight, we should have dropped our line a little bit deeper.”
McIntyre has only won four games in his Syracuse career while down a man. But if you approached him about that, he’ll remind you stats don’t tell the whole story, and that a red card with five minutes remaining is disparate from one before the 10th minute of play.
Sometimes the numbers don’t work out.
