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Everything was seemingly falling into place for Syracuse on Saturday. Versus then-No. 8 Stanford, it finally found offensive production alongside its airtight defense. SU led 2-1 in the game’s waning moments.

That was until it broke down. The Orange allowed two goals in the final 10 minutes to lose 3-2, wasting a chance to snag a signature win.

Despite the loss, Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre — still searching for his program-best 142nd win — said his team took a lot from the defeat into its battle with No. 19 Duke on Friday.

The next step was to come away with a result. But SU didn’t even come close to the Blue Devils.

Syracuse (2-4-2, 0-2-0 ACC) fell 2-0 to No. 19 Duke (3-0-3, 1-0-1 ACC), extending its winless streak to four games. Duke’s Jose Ortega doomed SU early with a seventh-minute goal, and despite eight shots and improved defense from the Orange, their offensive woes persisted, leading to the defeat.

“We knew it’d be a challenge,” McIntyre said postgame. “We didn’t do enough in the game to put Duke on the back foot. Disappointed not to come away with anything in the game.”

For much of the season, SU hasn’t been playing complete soccer. While its defense locked down opponents, including allowing seven shots in a three-game stretch against Yale, Duquesne and New Haven, its offense faltered. SU scored three goals in its first six contests.

And even when Syracuse scored multiple times in a game for the first time all campaign versus the Cardinal, its backline didn’t hold. Simply put, when one side was strong, the other floundered.

But with some momentum after sticking with Stanford, the Orange couldn’t fix their issues versus Duke.

Syracuse was pinned in its own half to start. The Blue Devils entered on a slide — averaging 1.40 goals per game, leading to three straight ties — giving SU a chance to counter.

But its typically firm defense let it down. In the seventh minute, Max Simpson caught the unit sleeping. He threaded a pass through Syracuse’s Garrett Holman and Giona Leibold to Ortega. The forward took one dribble, then slotted the ball in the only available opening.

With SU goalie Tomas Hut out of position on the right side of the goal, Ortega slingshotted it off the left post and into the net to put Duke ahead 1-0.

The Orange were demoralized by their offensive struggles. An already weak group was forced to work harder.

“It’s been the story of our season so far. We’ve conceded five goals in the last two ACC games. You can’t go on the road and give a team of the quality of Duke an early lead,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre was right. The deficit proved too much to handle.

Syracuse trailed Duke just 5-4 in shots at halftime. But the Blue Devils maintained control. Whenever SU had opportunities, McIntyre said Syracuse was too timid and didn’t make Duke goalie Eryk Dymora work enough.

Bright Nutornutsi had a chance to equalize in the 11th minute, but his attempt left weakly to the right of the net. Twenty-six minutes later, Carlos Zambrano tapped a ball directly to Dymora.

Meanwhile, SU’s backline of Chimere Omeze, Tim Brdaric, Ernest Mensah Jr. and Holman settled in, holding Duke scoreless for 71 minutes. Holman went one-on-one with Julius Suber in the 20th minute to kill a serious threat, then Syracuse negated three corners later in the first half.

“We got stretched a couple of times, but we were pushing numbers forward,” McIntyre said. “Threw a lot at (Duke). They did a good job of defending.”

The defensive rebound helped the Orange enter halftime down one. But that wouldn’t matter without their offense awake.

Syracuse established itself in Duke’s half to open the back 45, but to no avail. It didn’t even get a shot off on its early chances despite commanding most of the half’s first 10 minutes.

A Zambrano corner — just SU’s second of two in the game — was fisted away by Dymora in the 60th minute. Nutornutsi tried to blast a spinning ball at the net a few minutes later, but his shot was blocked.

SU was fortunate Duke didn’t capitalize initially. Aridon Racaj was in a prime position to make it 2-0 when he was wide open on the other end of an Ortega cross in the 56th minute. But he dribbled the ball right to Hut. Eight minutes later, a Racaj deflection fell right to Simpson, who flicked the ball over the crossbar on a one-on-one with Hut.

The Orange’s backline worked past the hiccups briefly. But their attack remained nonexistent, nixing any hope they had of winning. Nutornutsi, again creating space offensively, rifled another shot above the crossbar before Dymora cut down Tim Noeding on a one-on-one in front of the box.

With 13 shots already, Duke couldn’t be contained for long. The Blue Devils put the game away with 12 minutes left.

Simpson again acted as the table setter. This time, Úlfur Björnsson was the finisher, one-touching Simpson’s long pass past a sprawling Hut to double the lead.

That was it for Syracuse. Twelve minutes later, it was official — SU had lost again.

Despite entering with something to hang its hat on versus Stanford, Syracuse took a step back at Duke. The Orange’s defeat was yet another setback in a second straight disappointing season.

“We didn’t really get going,” McIntyre said. “Ultimately we needed that goal. We huffed and puffed but didn’t quite get there.”

Published on September 19, 2025 at 10:29 pm
Contact Noah: njnussba@syr.edu | @Noahnuss99