Robert Cavicchia found himself pretty much relegated to a spectator during the SU men’s soccer team’s game against DePaul Saturday night.

He saw five shots the entire night, only one of which was on goal. One shot. One save. It was like he didn’t even need to show up.

So when asked if he even broke a sweat Saturday, the senior joked that he did during warm-ups before saying he sweat a little during the game – but his first answer may have been the truth.

Behind a suffocating defensive effort, the SU earned its eighth shutout of the season by blanking DePaul, 1-0, Saturday night at SU Soccer Stadium. The Syracuse shutout may have been its finest defensive performance of the season.

‘Definitely an easier game for me because the guys in front of me did the right things,’ Cavicchia said. ‘That’s what we (the defensive unit) practice for all week and mainly for me, it was a lot of communication, keeping things safe in the back. I think it went well. I made one save that I had to make. That’s an awesome night.’

Syracuse held DePaul to five shots and only one shot on goal, both second lowest of the season.

SU previously held Florida Gulf Coast to zero shots, but holding DePaul to one shot on goal was more impressive considering DePaul made the NCAA Tournament last year and FGC is 3-8-1.

SU’s four defensemen Pete Hill, Karol Wasielewski, Brien Chamney and Justin Arena effectively neutralized any offense the Blue Demons had throughout the night. While DePaul doesn’t exactly light up the scoreboard (eight goals in 14 games), opportunities to do such were nonexistent. Losing Steffen Vroom, Big East Offensive Player of the Week, to injury in the first half didn’t help either.

DePaul had three shots in the first half, none of which were on goal. In the second half, the team had two shots, one of which went on goal with 36:32 remaining. Its second shot in the half came with about 30 seconds left in the game when DePaul went into a panic mode to try and notch the equalizer.

DePaul never caught the Orange in breakaway situations, and whenever the Blue Demons crossed into Orange territory, the possession was often quickly stopped or ended in a turnover.

This defensive effort was in stark contrast to the two previous games where Syracuse gave up seven goals in two losses to Rutgers and St. John’s. Against the Scarlet Knights, SU gave up a season-high 20 shots. There was pressure to turn in a big performance and the Orange certainly delivered.

‘We had a week off from the Rutgers game and we worked on pressuring and defending, and that’s pretty much our whole tactic for such a good defending team,’ Hill said. ‘We kind of let it slip game after game after game, and it was a chance for refreshing our memory on everything we were doing in the beginning of the year and getting back to defending like how we know to.’

The junior said the defense focused on having a man on the available options at all times, and just pressuring the ball and challenging their first touch. In the previous games, Hill said the team gave the opposing players too much room to navigate and attack the Orange.

Wasielewski, though, had a much simpler explanation. He simply said the Orange outworked its opponent, using patience and believing the team could win the game. In the second half especially, he said the defensive unit worked cohesively and the forwards and midfielders contributed to the action.

The hard work by the defense, though, seemed for naught until Tom Perevegyencev notched the game-winning goal in the 86th minute and gave the defensive unit something to show for on this cold night.

‘We’ve played so strong all year and (in) two games it slips on us,’ Cavicchia said. ‘Definitely, we had to get our act together and get it right tonight. There was a lot of pressure on us to get it right tonight, and we ended it well and we did it.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on October 20, 2008 at 12:00 pm