Ted Cribley stood with his hands on his head in disbelief.

He had just taken a shot in the 86th minute from about 10 yards out. As the ball approached the net, it hooked back to the left where it should’ve been out of the reach of Marquette goalkeeper David Check. But Check took a few quick steps to his left and brought the ball into his chest and low to the ground to maintain a 2-2 tie.

It was just one of the many Syracuse opportunities that Check foiled on Saturday.

‘When the ball comes to you and you get opportunities, and the keeper comes up with a great save, it’s frustrating,’ said Cribley, an SU midfielder who finished with four shots on the night. ‘You feel as if you deserve it, and you don’t get it. It’s just one of those things. If the keeper makes a really good save, you can’t do anything about it.’

Cribley’s reaction displayed the frustration every other Orange (2-5, 0-1 Big East) scorer was feeling all night. SU’s offense was the most aggressive it has been all season, but no matter how many opportunities it created, it couldn’t find a way to beat Check in the Big East opener for both teams. The junior made a career-best 12 saves, helping to lead Marquette (3-4-1, 1-0) to a 3-2 win over Syracuse on Saturday night in front of 1,327 at SU Soccer Stadium.

SU was left to explain how 25 shots didn’t result in more than two goals. But every reasonable explanation led back to Check in goal. Despite the loss and the frustration that came with so many squandered opportunities, head coach Ian McIntyre still said this was the best his team has played all season.

‘We were good tonight,’ McIntyre said. ‘We were real good and so was Marquette. It was a lot of positives. That’s the best our team’s played in a while. … Their goalkeeper is probably man of the match.’

Although at the start, it didn’t look like Check was going to be much of a force in goal.

In the 22nd minute, junior Mark Brode took a shot from about 15 yards out. Check jumped straight up with his arms extended, and the ball caught his fingertips. But it fell behind him to roll into the net and give the Orange an early 1-0 lead.

‘After the first blunder by the goalie on my goal, I didn’t think he was going to be too good,’ Brode said. ‘But he ended up coming up with a lot of big saves. It’s a bittersweet loss.’

A loss in which Brode and the aggressive Orange offense did exactly what McIntyre asked of them during the week in practice.

In the back of his mind during the game, Brode said he could hear McIntyre yelling in practice Thursday to take better shots from the outside rather than wait for passes at the middle of the field. So Brode did what McIntyre wanted and took four solid shots in the game.

On any other night when he wasn’t going up against Check, more than one of those shots might have led to goals.

SU scored its second goal in the 52nd minute when Lars Muller received a corner kick from Nick Roydhouse and managed to sneak it past Check.

Syracuse kept pushing for its third goal, but its effort was to no avail against the Marquette goalie. And the frustration only built up as the game wore on.

‘If you have 25 shots, you should score more than two goals,’ Cribley said. ‘It’s as simple as that. That’s when it really stings, when you deserve to win and you don’t.’

As well as Check played, Syracuse goalkeeper Phil Boerger was nearly just as good. The senior finished the game with a career-high nine saves on 20 Golden Eagle shots. He didn’t give up Marquette’s third goal wasn’t until the 88th minute when Eric Pothast sent a header to James Nortey, who managed to put it past Boerger for the game-winning score.

At the end, all Syracuse could do was look at the positives. Looking back on the missed chances and the empty shots was too discouraging.

Still, Cribley was left to wonder what could’ve been if one of his opportunities, or any that the SU scorers had, led to a goal.’If we had gotten that third, there’s no coming back for them,’ Cribley said. ‘But that’s the thing, we need to learn to finish these games.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on September 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman