ONEONTA, N.Y. – The Syracuse men’s soccer team had an unusual way to celebrate its 3-0 victory over Florida Gulf Coast Sunday afternoon – helping fix the divits in the field.

Immediately after the win, the team helped replace the grass back in the divits made during the game.

The field, along with other elements, created some adversity that the Orange had to overcome in its Mayor’s Cup clinching victory over FGC.

‘I think both teams struggled early on to figure out if this was going to be a real sloppy day or if this was going to get better as the day went on,’ said Syracuse head coach Dean Foti. ‘We (Foti and FGC coach Bob Butehorn) were hoping it would dry out as the day went on, and I think it did, but there were some really sloppy parts of it.’

With the rain from Saturday night and the continuous use of the field over the past few days, it was no surprise the field was sloppy.

Syracuse’s game against FGC was the fifth game in three days on Elmore Field at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. The field took a continuous beating over the weekend and with the rainfall last night, created slippery conditions for the players.

About 15 minutes into the game, Foti was on the sideline fixing parts of the field he could. Senior forward Spencer Schomaker took some spills as players could not get a grip of the field. It was soft in many locations, which made footwork challenging for the squads.

‘It affected the game tremendously,’ said senior midfielder Pete Rowley. ‘Anytime you play on a field like that you get tired, it’s like running on sand. That’s a credit to our team because we probably used 17 or 18 guys today, and we just subbed people in. You have to be that much better with the ball, and that’s what we were able to do today.’

While the field helped create sloppiness on both ends of the field, the time of the game may have also factored into some sloppiness.

The game began at 11 a.m., which is the earliest start time for the Orange this season and its only game in the morning. Schomaker and Rowley could not remember a time that the Orange had to play this early in their time at Syracuse.

The team woke up at 6:30 a.m. and had breakfast at 7 a.m., far different from the normal wake-up procedure for night games.

‘That might have done it,’ Schomaker said. ‘This is the first time I’ve played a morning game in four of five years, but at the same time, it could have been we were a little tired. We picked it up at the end and definitely our maturity showed.’

The referees did not seem to make things easier for Syracuse and FGC. There were constant whistles for offside calls and plenty of whistle blowing that each squad seemed to think was going in the other team’s direction.

Seventeen seconds into the second half, junior forward Tom Perevegyencev shot a ball off the top cross bar that careened to Schomaker, who headed it toward the goal where it was stopped by a hand of an FGC defender. Schomaker thought he had the goal, but instead, the Orange had to settle for a penalty kick, which Rowley did not convert.

Rowley was hit later in the game with a yellow card for arguing a possession call that went against the Orange, and one FGC player was ejected. Several times, Foti and assistant coach Jaro Zawislan yelled at the referees about a play that did not go in SU’s favor. Even Kyle Hall, who is often calm and collective on the field, seemed agitated by one of the calls.

Foti thinks his team got too caught up with worrying about the refs and it became a distraction to his players. He said his team needs to focus more on just playing soccer.

In the end, though, the coach will take the victory considering the circumstances.

‘Playing in these environments where maybe things aren’t going your way, you have to be able to survive,’ Foti said. ‘You have to be able to function. I thought we did OK with it today.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm