Notre Dame forward Jon Gallagher was on a breakaway, with only Syracuse goalie Alex Bono to beat in a scoreless game with 17 minutes left.

The 5-foot-9 Notre Dame freshman had five yards on SU’s Skylar Thomas, but was still 25 yards away from goal. The 6-foot-3 Thomas, in a sense of desperation, gave the smaller Gallagher a firm elbow after catching up, and dragged him down to prevent a clear chance.

Here’s a GIF of Thomas’ takedown of Gallagher:

The referee blew his whistle, crossed his arms in the air to signal for the clock to be stopped and showed Thomas his second yellow card of the game, resulting in his ejection. Thomas threw his hands up in disgust and jogged off the field to raucous applause from the home crowd, and was forced to spend the rest of the game in the locker room per NCAA rules.

His departure left No. 20 Syracuse (4-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) a man down and on the ensuing free kick, Brandon Aubrey scored on a header to put No. 4 Notre Dame ahead, 1-0. The Fighting Irish (3-1-1, 1-0 ACC) wouldn’t relinquish that lead Saturday night at SU Soccer Stadium in front of a record-shattering 2,442 fans.

“The shock, right?” head coach Ian McIntyre said regarding Thomas’ red card and the following sequence. “You get a man sent off and then you double that up with them scoring on the resulting restart. You lose your 6-foot-3 guy and we’re a pretty small team.”

While Thomas’ sending off and the UND goal put SU at a disadvantage, Alex Halis and the Orange attack pushed numbers forward to try and salvage an equalizer in the waning minutes.

Bono repeatedly came off his line to send the ball back into the attacking half and even completed two successful slide tackles outside his box to halt Notre Dame chances. But in the end, it was to no avail.

“At that point, no matter if we’re a man down or even, the other team’s going to bear down, park the bus and try and get the result,” Bono said. “Any balls that come through, I’ve got to be aggressive. If not, it’s a breakaway and they have a much better chance of scoring.”

It’s Thomas’ second red card in his last five non-exhibition games played, and Tuesday will be the second game he’s forced to watch from the stands due to suspension in 2014.

“Skylar’s a big part of our team, big part of our defense, and losing a player like him is tough,” Halis said. “But we’ve got to pick up our heads and keep going.”

Published on September 13, 2014 at 11:25 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman