RALEIGH, N.C. — Scott Shafer took his share of the blame. A delay of game negated a 43-yard field goal from Ryan Norton.

“I did a horrible job on that,” the head coach said.

But he was far from alone.

Syracuse committed eight penalties for 72 yards — and in actuality it was more, as penalty after penalty canceled out significant plays for the Orange (3-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in its 24-10 win against North Carolina State (3-3, 0-3).

From the game’s first possession, penalties haunted SU. Syracuse broke off a pair of runs for 10-plus yards in the first three plays. Two plays later, quarterback Terrel Hunt nearly gave the Orange a highlight-reel dash across midfield, only to have it be negated by a holding call against center Macky MacPherson.

“Macky was mad about the call,” Shafer said, “but I’m sure it was a good call.”

Later in the quarter, SU lined up to go for it on a fourth down, but a false start by guard Rob Trudo forced Syracuse to punt.

“We’ve got to get those out of our system,” Shafer said.

By the second half, they were, and the Orange was able to slide past the Wolfpack. But not before a handful of costly penalties nearly gift-wrapped N.C. State a score.

The Wolfpack was still unable to move the ball in the second quarter and was again lined up to punt. Wil Baumann’s kick traveled just about 15 yards. SU would have had excellent field position.

But linebacker Lewellyn Coker was hit with a roughing penalty. The Wolfpack had new life and pieced together an extended drive. Ultimately, it ended with a failed fourth-down conversion, but it should have cost Syracuse at least three points.

Said Shafer: “Both myself and the players got to clean up our act on some of those penalties.”

 

Published on October 12, 2013 at 10:01 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2