Chris Nanco knew that Niagara would be tired.

Coming out to start the second half, he saw an energized Syracuse team that had subbed many of its starters and a Niagara team that had yet to record a shot on goal. Nanco knew that the Orange would be able to spread out the Purple Eagles’ defense and find its gaps more easily.

Just four minutes into the second half, Nanco dribbled the ball in from the left side of the goal and snuck it between the legs of Niagara goalie Joel Gerberich to stretch SU’s lead to 2-0.

“I just used my speed since I knew their center backs weren’t the fastest players in the world,” Nanco said. “… With our pace, we’re going to outwork teams. Teams are going to eventually get tired on us.”

Syracuse got off 19 shots in the second 45 minutes after tallying just six in the first half of its 3-0, season-opening win over Niagara on Friday afternoon at SU Soccer Stadium in front of a crowd of 1,217 fans. Leading 1-0 at halftime, head coach Ian McIntyre told his team to push the attack in the second half, and it kept the Orange in possession of the ball and led to a multitude of scoring opportunities.

“It was an excellent second half,” McIntyre said. “We were just looking to break that second goal. It was important. It just kind of broke the game open. We created chances.”

Syracuse started out the game slowly on offense, not registering a shot for the first 15 minutes.

When the Orange found its first real chance, it converted. In the 23rd minute, Jordan Murrell created a nice set piece when he zipped a cross-field pass to fellow defender Louis Cross, who headed it into the back of the net for his first collegiate goal.

“It was hysteria really,” said Cross, an Akron transfer. “… It really lifted the team, we regrouped focus, and allowed us to get that second and third (goals).”

Cross said the team made a conscious effort to up the tempo as the game progressed. And the pace of the play echoed the sentiment.

Fourteen minutes into the second half, Murrell missed a shot on goal and it bounced back out to Emil Ekblom, who blasted it off the goalie’s diving body. Six minutes later, Ekblom was robbed again on a header off a pass from Nanco. And just seconds following that, Julian Buescher was robbed on a kick that corralled off a Niagara player standing in front of the goal.

Not every shot was hitting the net for Syracuse in the second half, but its scoring opportunities were plentiful.

“A couple hit a crossbar or post and a couple scrambled away,”McIntyre said. “Maybe on another day we could have had a couple more. But it’s tough for me as a coach to grumble.”

Syracuse scored its third goal when Niagara’s Brennan Koslow sent the ball in his own goal off a corner kick from SU’s Oyvind Alseth.

By that time though, the game was already out of reach. The Orange may have only been up by two, but it had taken command of the game by controlling the tempo.

McIntyre conceded that the ball movement is still a work in progress and looked far from perfect in opening game. But as a whole, he was impressed with his team on the offensive side of the ball.

“We’re not the finished article,”McIntyre said. “We have a lot of games to work that out.

“There were large stretches where we looked very good.”

Published on August 29, 2014 at 6:27 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3