Ian McIntyre has been waiting two seasons for Syracuse to break out offensively. The few glimpses of hope never amounted to anything more than an unlucky, inopportune loss.

If Syracuse continued to play well with maximum effort, McIntyre said, good things will happen. He said that repeatedly.

And on Saturday night against Cincinnati, good things finally happened.

‘We’re excited, relieved. But I thought we were of good value tonight,’ McIntyre said. ‘I thought we played very well. And today, we kicked on and got that second, then the third, then the fourth goal. That was good tonight, some quality finishes.’

The Orange (3-10-1, 1-5-1 Big East) finally got the breakout game it’s been expecting, scoring four second-half goals to beat the Bearcats 4-2 at SU Soccer Stadium in front of a crowd of 713 on senior night. The win was the first conference victory Syracuse has gotten under McIntyre in 16 conference matches, and it was the first time SU scored four goals in a game since 2007.

For the first time all season, Syracuse got a lead and managed to hold onto it long enough to get a win over the Bearcats (5-10-1, 1-6).

‘I’m so happy just to get a win like this,’ said forward Louis Clark, who scored two goals. ‘It’s been coming all year. I think everyone would agree we’ve been unlucky in some games. We should have more points than we have. … Tonight, we just found the back of the net, and it’s been coming all year.’

The entire first half was a battle for possession, as neither team could hold onto the ball for any extended period of time. SU struggled to get open looks against a quick Bearcats defense that smothered the Orange scorers at every opportunity.

Syracuse appeared to have a scoring chance in the 18th minute, as Clark took a pass off a give-and-go and delivered a ball to senior midfielder Nick Roydhouse on the left side of the goal. The crowd began to cheer for what looked to be a goal, but Roydhouse’s shot from a seemingly perfect angle just missed and hit the outside of the net.

About eight minutes later, Clark sent midfielder Ted Cribley a cross from the right sideline, but Cincinnati goalkeeper Taylor Hafling managed to get a hand on it and pushed out one of his defenders to clear it. The missed opportunities were the same old story as the Orange went to the half playing well, but with no goals to show for it.

That all changed quickly in the second half.

Less than two minutes into the stanza, Clark found the ball loose in front of the goal and managed to score through a scrum of Cincinnati defenders.

‘To be honest, I just got lucky it fell to me,’ Clark said.

But like it did in its last home game — when SU blew a lead against South Florida — the Orange took its foot off the pedal after taking the lead. Nine minutes later, Bearcats forward Cole DeNormandie took a shot that hit the crossbar and fell into the left side of the net behind SU goalkeeper Phil Boerger.

It looked as if Syracuse would fall victim to another late-game collapse.

But in the 70th minute, SU freshman defender Skylar Thomas headed the ball to Muller in front of the goal, and Muller kicked it right past Hafling to give the Orange a 2-1 lead.

Throughout the season, McIntyre has been imploring his team not to relax once it gets a lead. Too often, SU has relinquished leads because of a lack of intensity, not pushing to continue to score.

So when freshman Grant Chong found the ball loose in front of the net, took a quick shot and got it past Hafling for SU’s third goal, Syracuse had the unfamiliar feeling of having some breathing room.

‘The whole season we’ve been up and can’t get the final goals to solidify a win,’ Chong said. ‘This game, we finally did. We finally had a lead, and we kept on building upon that. We didn’t give up.’

Clark scored once more in the 77th minute, when he took the ball up the right side of the field, got in front of the net and chipped it over Hafling to essentially seal the win for the Orange. Cincinnati scored one minute after that, but it didn’t matter.

Syracuse had already had its breakout offensive performance. The one that it’s been waiting for all season.

‘I’ve been saying all year long that we’re a decent team, and one day, we’ll find a way to win one of these,’ McIntyre said. ‘And I thought tonight, on senior night, we were very good.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on October 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman