Tony Asante weaved through Colgate defenders on the endline and delivered a perfectly placed pass directly toward the head of Ted Cribley.

Cribley headed the ball past goalie Grant Reed, giving Syracuse a two-goal lead less than two minutes into the second half.

Players and fans celebrated the Orange’s goal. Little did they know, the barrage was just beginning.

Four minutes later, the two-goal lead had ballooned to five, and Syracuse (3-1) cruised to a 6-0 win over Colgate (1-2-1) in front of 826 at Syracuse University Soccer Stadium. Asante and Jordan Vale ignited an offensive onslaught to break the game open before Syracuse notched a sixth goal late in the game to finish the thrashing of the Raiders. The Orange matched its win total from a season ago when the Orange went 3-12-1.

“It was great when we scored those four goals,” Cribley said. “It was just pandemonium. It was fantastic. The reaction of the crowd shows it all.”

After a strong first half in which SU built a 1-0 lead, the Orange needed a spark to bust the game open.

In its previous match against Niagara, SU surrendered an early second-half goal that proved to be the difference. On Monday, Syracuse made sure it didn’t repeat the same mistake and exploded out of the break.

SU head coach Ian McIntyre said he was pleased with his team’s first-half performance and was confident the constant pressure and aggressive play would translate to goals in the second half.

Syracuse embarked on a torrid run after scoring its first second-half goal quickly.

“I think we dominated in every aspect of the game in the first half,” Cribley said. “We didn’t think one goal was enough for the effort that we’d made. The second half was the performance of a lifetime.”

After Cribley’s first career goal, Vale pushed the lead to 3-0 off a rebound from a Stefanos Stamoulacatos free kick. Jordan Murrell faked the kick and Stamoulacatos’ shot ricocheted off the post. Vale was there for the put-back.

Less than two minutes later, Asante had just the goalie to beat. He delivered a lob that found its way past Reed’s outstretched arm and into the net.

In the first half, Asante had a similar opportunity, but the ball hit the crossbar.

This time, he didn’t miss his chance.

Vale converted on his second goal a mere 34 seconds after Asante’s strike, unleashing a cannon from over 30 yards that increased Syracuse’s advantage to five.

Before Vale had the chance for a hat trick, McIntyre took him out of the game to let him rest while he gave role players some time on the field.

“(Jordan) was aggravated with the coach because I brought him off,” McIntyre said. “He was going for three.”

While he considers Vale’s second goal a thing of beauty, McIntyre was also impressed with the freshman’s first goal, a scrappy play where he followed up a miss.

The goals were Vale’s second and third of the season, and sent Syracuse to the easy victory.

“The first one was a bit greedy I guess,” Vale said. “I think Louis Clark could have scored, but I wanted to score, so I came in running and had a go. For my second goal, I thought, ‘why not have a shot?’ I hit it sweetly and scored.”

Syracuse scored in the 18th minute when Cribley drew two defenders and played a through ball to Lars Muller. Muller was wide open and beat the keeper with a scorching shot toward the left side of the net.

Freshman Ben Ramin notched SU’s sixth and final goal when he fired a shot from way outside the box that made its way past Colgate’s third-string goalie to cap a dominant night.

Syracuse has appeared to turn the page after a tumultuous 2011 campaign. But Cribley and his teammates aren’t satisfied yet.

“We’ve got really good team chemistry,” Cribley said. “I think we’ve just gelled together. The first two wins really helped because now people come into the game confident.

“We don’t want to just match three wins. We want to go to tournaments.”

Published on September 4, 2012 at 3:28 am

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass