On Tuesday, Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre said this is what athletes play for.

One game. A season of hard work determined by 90 minutes that will either start a path, or end one.

That’s the opportunity the Orange (10-7-1, 3-7-1 Atlantic Coast) had at No. 13 Wake Forest (9-4-5, 6-1-4) on Friday night. The Orange needed a win or tie to have a chance of sneaking into the ACC tournament. But a 4-1 loss to the Demon Deacons nixed SU’s postseason hopes.

In all likelihood, the Orange won’t receive an at-large NCAA tournament bid, and its last soccer of 2013 was played in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“We played against a very good team tonight,” McIntyre said. “It’s a sad scene here after losing 4-1, but I thought overall we were pretty good.”

At the start of the game, the Orange successfully limited the Demon Deacons’ chances.

McIntyre said that his team was the one getting quality shots, but that didn’t stop Ian Harkes and Sean Okoli from netting first-half goals in the 19th and 29th minutes, respectively. After Wake Forest rattled off six shots in the first half, the Orange was in a hole heading into the break.

“We were sitting at half time and were still confident,” McIntyre said. “We had limited their quality opportunities and gotten a handful ourselves, but nothing good enough to finish.”

And it was after halftime that Syracuse’s season started to wind down. In the 68th minute, Luca Gimenez gave the Demon Deacons a 3-0 lead off a through ball from Ross Tomaselli, and three minutes later Skylar Thomas received his second yellow card of the game leaving SU with 10 men.

Emil Ekblom scored his 10th goal of the season in the 77th, but Kovi Konowiecki’s first goal of the season bumped WFU’s lead to 4-1.

Just when the Orange gained some traction in the contest, the Demon Deacons put it back at out of reach. Then after 13 minutes of desperate soccer, SU’s season was bookended by the final whistle.

After the contest, McIntyre had one thing to say to his team.

“Thank you.”

On the bus he told them that if someone would have said two years ago that his team would lose in the Sweet 16 and then have its first ACC season come down to the last game, he would have been very satisfied with the future.

Now the results are tangible, and McIntyre said it’s only the beginning.

“We are setting a standard here at Syracuse,” he said. “Yes, we’re disappointed after tonight, but the fact that we are disappointed says something.”

Published on November 8, 2013 at 10:31 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse