WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was a situation Syracuse was all too familiar with.

Not losing to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament round of 16 in overtime, but conceding a game-winning goal off a set piece.

It happened in all three regular-season losses for SU and it happened again Sunday when Georgetown’s Jared Rist scored on a near-post header in the first period of sudden-death overtime. Both GU goals on the day were scored off corner kicks, and the ninth-seeded Orange’s (16-4-1) 2-1 loss at Shaw Field to the eighth-seeded Hoyas (14-4-1) not only put a final touch on Syracuse’s season, but also on an area of struggle that plagued SU in each of its four losses this year.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of Achilles’ heels for Syracuse this season,” Georgetown head coach Brian Wiese said. “If you look at all three games they’ve lost, they’re all from set pieces served in.

“That was the same today.”

First it was a Brandon Aubrey header off a free kick that sent Syracuse to a 1-0 defeat against Notre Dame on Sept. 13. Then Louisville’s Jerry Ramirez and Ricardo Velazco each put one home off of free kicks to seal two separate Cardinals wins against SU later in the season.

For nearly the first 80 minutes of Sunday’s game, it looked as if the set-piece struggles would subside for SU. The Orange dominated the box, as goalkeeper Alex Bono repeatedly elevated to punch away balls and no Hoya could match defender Skylar Thomas in the air.

“I thought we did an outstanding job of limiting their spaces,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “We worked so hard to make them as predictable as they can be.”

But the Hoyas finally broke through when Tyler Rudy’s corner found the head of defender Keegan Rosenberry and then the back-right corner of the net in the 80th minute. The Georgetown students erupted in celebration as Rosenberry and the rest of the Hoyas were mauled behind the goal.

When Rist’s 94th-minute header found the back of the net, Bono sunk to his knees as the entire Georgetown bench emptied onto the field around the senior midfielder.

“It’s one of those things where it’s just details. Spaces don’t score, men score,” Bono said. “We’ve got to take responsibility for our guys coming in and mark them, and we didn’t do that unfortunately and that’s where they capitalized.”

Wiese said the Hoyas hadn’t been that successful on set pieces all year, but that Rudy was sending in the best corner kicks he had all season.

Shots from live play weren’t getting past Bono — who Wiese said is comfortably one of the best keepers in the nation — and the Hoyas head coach had a hunch that his team was going to have to win a different way.

Unfortunately for Syracuse’s record-breaking season, Georgetown found that way.

Said Wiese: “It doesn’t matter how good your goalkeeper is, if the serves are good it’s going to cause problems.”

Published on November 30, 2014 at 6:03 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman