Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre celebrated the first-ever undefeated nonconference record of his coaching career by watching “Iron Man 3” with his team on its bus ride from Albany to Syracuse. 

 

The Orange (9-5-1, 2-5-1 Atlantic Coast) earned its first win in its last four games, defeating Albany (3-9-3, 1-2-1 America East) 2-0 at Bob Ford Field in Albany, N.Y. The victory capped a 7-0 record against non-ACC opponents this season. 

 

“To win every game (against nonconference opponents), that’s a difficult accomplishment,” McIntyre said. “You certainly can’t be much better than being perfect.”

 

With the clean sheet, SU goalkeeper Alex Bono earned his ACC-leading seventh shutout of the season, and the 17th of his career. 

 

Syracuse controlled the tempo for the majority of the match, with even its defense coming forward and playing a factor in the offensive pressure. Forwards Emil Ekblom and Alex Halis, along with defender Oyvind Alseth, were active early on, and defenders Jordan Murrell and Brandon Albert contributed to the attack throughout the game.  

 

“Getting Jordan forward and Oyvind forward, I thought they both really imposed themselves on Albany,” McIntyre said.

 

In the second half, SU finally capitalized. In the 49th minute, Alseth sent a corner kick into the box that was directed in off the head of Juuso Pasanen into the far right corner of the net. It was Pasanen’s second goal of the season, and his first since Sept. 25 against Massachusetts. 

 

“We came out creating chances and had a very high tempo to start the second half,” McIntyre said. “To get that goal early in the second half allowed us to maybe relax a little bit more and play and move the ball and create chances.”

 

Nearly 10 minutes later, Ekblom cut inside the box and bent a shot into the bottom left corner of the net. The goal was Ekblom’s ninth of the season, and his sixth in SU’s last five games.

 

“I thought in the second half we were very good. We asked for the guys to have a little bit of a reaction in the second half,” McIntyre said. “They worked very hard to close the ball down, to pressure Albany, to win the balls back in good areas, and scored two good goals.”

 

McIntyre said he was very pleased with his team’s performance, and told his team after the game how proud he was of them. The coach said the win was especially important with a tough three-game stretch against ACC opponents Maryland, Clemson and Wake Forest to end the regular season. 

 

“I’m pleased with how we’ve remained focused and how we found ways to win these games,” McIntyre said. “I’m proud of the guys. I congratulated them. We’ll enjoy this one tonight and then we’ll get back to campus and start preparing for Maryland.”

Published on October 23, 2013 at 1:04 am

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu