Kyle Hall thought the momentum favored the Orange. Heading into overtime against Rutgers Saturday night, the Syracuse men’s soccer senior forward thought the Orange had an advantage after a late goal had tied the game with 1:07 remaining.

Instead, SU failed to score in overtime for the fifth time this season and dropped the game to the Scarlet Knights on a goal in the 99th minute of play.

‘I thought we had the momentum going into the overtime that we could pull off this win,’ Hall said after the 3-2 loss. ‘I don’t know, I guess you win some and you lose some, and I guess our record in overtime isn’t too good right now.’

SU has played five overtime games this season, four at home, and has yet to emerge victorious. The Orange is 0-2-3 in extra play this season, a total of 79:14 extra minutes of soccer, and both of its losses came in Big East play.

This trend carried over from last season, where the Orange played six overtime games and went 0-2-4, including 0-2 in Big East play. The last time Syracuse scored a goal (and subsequently won) in overtime was Oct. 10, 2006, against Hartwick. In its last 25 overtime games, SU is 4-8-13.

Both the players and the coaches dismissed the notion of the team being tired in the extra frame leading to an inability to win overtime games. Hall said the team runs a lot and has the endurance – a sentiment SU head coach Dean Foti agrees with.Hall and fellow forward Spencer Schomaker said a lack of mental focus may be what haunts their team in overtime.

In Saturday’s loss to Rutgers, that was evident when Rutgers midfielder Sam Archer had a clean look at the top of the box and beat SU goalkeeper Rob Cavicchia with 1:09 left in the first overtime.

‘You just have to stay focused,’ Schomaker said. ‘In a normal game, if you make one mistake it might not matter that much, but in overtime if you make one mistake, boom. The other team, they counter it and they put one in the back of the net and it’s game over. You have to stay on the top of your mental focus.’

Foti, though, said it all comes down to execution, which his team has had no luck doing in overtime. Syracuse has fired 11 shots in overtime, but only two of which were on goal.

Meanwhile, SU’s opponents have fired 14 shots in extra frames, but nine of those shots have been on net.

The Orange simply has not had as many legitimate scoring opportunities as its opponents. And the chances it does get are not converted.

‘You have to make plays in front of your own goal and you have to make plays in front of the other team’s goal,’ Foti said. ‘We came close a couple times scoring in overtime (against Rutgers) and Pete (Rowley) just touches a ball that got driven in there and that’s a goal. It’s that close. It comes down to a game of inches at times.’

While the Orange has lost only two of the overtime games, both of the losses came in Big East play. With its two losses in extra time to Connecticut and Rutgers, SU missed an opportunity to get two points or more. Teams get one point per tie, three for a win and none for a loss.

Had SU tied both of those games, it would be in fifth place of the Big East Red Division with nine points. Instead, it sits in seventh place with seven points – a point behind Rutgers and Villanova, which is critical considering only six teams make the Big East Tournament from each division.

If the team finds itself in overtime again this season, execution will be the key, Foti said.

‘It (overtime) has to do with how goals are scored and how you prevent goals, and it doesn’t matter when in a game,’ Foti said. ‘You gotta make plays. You can call it a mental lapse, you can call it making a play. I call it them (the opposing team) making a play.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on October 13, 2008 at 12:00 pm