Siena midfielder Uros Antic corralled a centering pass and fired a shot toward net. Syracuse defender Spencer Kopko slid to the ground to block it with his leg, but the ball bounced right back to Antic, who directed a shot past a diving Pat Castle and into the top right corner of the net.

Antic opened his arms in celebration and ran to the corner flag as he and his teammates dove into a pile. Two players rolled on the ground, hugging.

It may have been an exhibition game, but Siena had just taken a 2-1 lead with only four minutes left.

“To concede such an early goal, we responded well,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said, “Played some good stuff in the first half, but just obviously disappointed to concede a late goal.”

SU lost the friendly, 2-1, to the Saints on Saturday afternoon at Le Moyne’s Ted Grant Field. The Orange’s only goal came from the foot of forward Chris Nanco on a penalty kick in the first half. SU takes on Herkimer County Community College in a home exhibition on April 18.

Pushing the pace

Noah Rhynhart flicked a ball bouncing behind him about 10 minutes into the second half with his heel. The ball arced to about shoulder height and dropped in front of forward Kenny Lassiter. While the ball was placed a bit too far, Lassiter blasted a shot at the charging Siena goalie.

The ball caromed away, but it was one of several plays Rhynhart used to spark SU off the bench.

“(He) was very direct, very positive, and that was good,” McIntrye said of Rhynhart. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

Rhynhart played a secondary role to Nanco, who controlled the offense in the first half. After scoring the first goal of the game, Siena did not have meaningful possession of the ball until 15 minutes were left in the first half.

Down 1-0 about 10 minutes into the first half, SU was awarded a penalty kick, and Nanco buried the shot in the bottom left corner of the net as the goalie dove the opposite direction, tying the game at one goal apiece.

“We’ve lost a lot of goals with Emil (Ekblom) and (Alex) Halis not being back with us in the fall,” McIntyre said. “So there’s some unanswered questions and Chris has directness and I thought he was lively today, but he ran out of steam a little bit toward the end.”

Big shoes to fill

In net instead of Alex Bono was Castle, a freshman with no collegiate game experience.

Just two minutes into the game, Siena earned a free kick from about 30 yards out. The Syracuse wall blocked the free kick, but the ball landed in front of a Siena player who curved a shot into the top corner of the net. Castle dove to his left, but couldn’t stop the well-placed shot.

“It’s invaluable time for Pat as a freshman goalkeeper to move from our No. 3 to our No. 1,” McIntyre said. “I thought he did very well … claimed a lot of crosses.”

Castle made at least five saves, but his best performance came during corners and crosses into the box.

His best save of the day came on a Saints corner kick. A Siena player placed the ball into the far outside corner of the box and headed it on net, but Castle jumped to his left, grabbing the ball out of the air.

Set up

On Saturday, SU had at least four corner kicks and a few more free kicks, but did not take advantage of its set pieces. Some corner kicks fluttered over the cluster of players near the net and rolled out of bounds, others were headed away but none found their way into the net.

The wind was one reason SU did not convert its free kicks. Whether it was at players’ backs or they were kicking into the wind, it changed the way each had to approach the free kicks. If the wind was at a player’s back, he would try to put it up a little more to put pressure on the goalie, but if a player is kicking into the wind, he would drive the ball more.

“We haven’t worked a lot on set pieces this spring. Just kind of throwing some things out there,” McIntyre said. “The wind didn’t help you put a ball in the air. It was going to blow around a lot. Ultimately our final delivery into the box probably could have been a little bit better.”

Published on April 11, 2015 at 6:56 pm