After Syracuse’s crushing 3-2 overtime loss to South Florida on Saturday increased the team’s winless streak to eight games, Nick Roydhouse emerged from the locker room beaten physically and mentally. In between being tackled, shoved and prodded by the Bulls, Roydhouse tried to will his team to a win.

When USF scored the game-tying goal with just under two minutes left in regulation, Roydhouse gathered his teammates to get them to regroup and kick up their intensity. In the end, though, all the Orange earned was another loss.

‘I’m just trying to do the right thing as captain to try to get everybody, have their heads in the right mindset,’ Roydhouse said. ‘Obviously, I’m not doing a good enough job at this stage because we’re not winning any games.’

A season that started hopeful is on the verge of being another lost cause, if it’s not already there. For the third season in a row, the Big East tournament is a pipe dream. With four games remaining in Syracuse’s (2-9-1, 0-4-1 Big East) season, it would take a miracle for the Orange to play itself back into contention. And with the way SU’s games have been going lately, there’s little evidence that a miracle is in the cards.

If the Orange doesn’t win any of its remaining games, it’ll be winless in conference play for the second consecutive year under head coach Ian McIntyre.

Still, McIntyre hasn’t expressed any frustration at his team’s performance. Although his players’ collective effort hasn’t led to a win since Sept. 11, he said he’s still proud of their performance on the field in each game.

‘You can’t question the character and commitment of this group, and that’s what makes me very proud,’ McIntyre said. ‘I’ll never criticize my group based on results. Yes, as a coach, we’re in a results-oriented industry, but if my guys give me that amount of work, commitment, courage, passion, hunger, week in and week out, I have no complaints.’

SU is in last place in the Big East’s Red Division with just one point. The Orange would have to play its way into the top six teams in its division to earn a spot in the conference tournament. Syracuse is three points behind the current sixth-place team, DePaul.

SU and DePaul meet in the Orange’s regular-season finale Oct. 29.

The Syracuse players seemed to take Saturday’s loss harder than any other this season, and it’s not hard to see why. The Orange was less than two minutes away from taking a game from the No. 11 team in the country. It could’ve been a season-defining victory — and a career-defining victory for McIntyre — that could have boosted confidence and SU’s place in the Big East standings.

The hope that a postseason berth is possible, though, still exists. The Orange was in control of the Bulls for the entire first half and most of the second on Saturday, giving the team confidence that a win isn’t too far away.

But that’s been the case for the entire season.

‘Going forward, we’re going to build off this,’ SU goalkeeper Phil Boerger said. ‘I keep saying this, our record is not. It doesn’t portray how good we actually are. It’s just so unlucky. Every game, we’ve lost by a goal. It’s not just going our way right now.’

It hasn’t gone SU’s way all season. Any late-game lead has been vanquished because of poor communication and untimely mistakes leading to defensive breakdowns.

Now, the character of the team will be truly tested. McIntyre said his team needs to use its loss to the Bulls as a form of motivation to get better, if only for the final four games of the season.

He said his team has a choice to make: find a way to improve and notch a few victories, or continue to play the way it has been and fold the rest of the season.

‘The easy thing in any sport, or any time in life when things go wrong, is you can either lash out or you can step back, kind of circle the wagons and become stronger for it,’ McIntyre said. ‘We have a real choice to make. I’ve got a good group of guys. And it’s about how we become better.

‘And we will be better.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on October 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman