As Tajon Buchanan approached the ball that bounced to his foot, he eyed the Boston College goalie who streaked further and further from the net. With a swing of his right foot, he lifted a ball that, in its slow descent, sent the Eagles into a panic. Defenders backpedaling picked up their speed. BC goalkeeper Antonio Chavez Borrelli, realizing he misjudged the angle the ball was falling — a shot that would have ended in the back-right corner of the net — turned sideways and started to sprint. As the ball drew closer, SU players stopped to watch.

The Orange, after dropping a game on the road to Clemson, were in a position to clinch an ACC home game with a win. The loss to the Tigers snapped a six-game unbeaten streak, a stretch that featured a three-game win streak, a second-half collapse at Louisville, a draw to North Carolina State and a seven-goal domination of St. Bonaventure. So when the ball reached the net, SU could have broken the game open and given itself a spark, and possibly a homestand in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. But Chavez Borrelli got his hand on it, and the two Ryan Raposo attempts that followed. Syracuse, who seemingly dominated in every aspect and made Boston College seem frantic, couldn’t break through.

No. 20 Syracuse’s (7-5-4, 1-4-3 Atlantic Coast) domination of possession wasn’t enough to top Boston College (4-7-4, 2-5-1) in a 0-0 draw. The Orange, in their regular-season finale, looked crisp with their passes and aggressive with their chances, but SU couldn’t find the goal that would give it the edge.

“Disappointed,” Hugo Delhommelle said of the outcome of the game. “Because, once again, I think we were the better team on the field.”

The Orange, often in their losses, have found themselves on the opposite side of a decision they feel they deserved. The realization goes as far back as SU’s 2-0 loss to Virginia Sept. 22, Syracuse’s second conference matchup of the season. Though the Orange displayed many positives they still saw Friday — Massimo Ferrin was the “best attacking player on the pitch,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said then, and he took five shots against the Eagles, along with crisp Syracuse passes and appearing to outmatch BC’s talent — the seemingly impenetrable force of the Orange’s ACC foes again was the cause of SU’s undoing. In Syracuse’s best three-game shot producing stretches of the season, the Orange didn’t get a single win.

Syracuse didn’t falter by any means, though. It recorded 13 shots in the first half. Delhommelle said when the Orange got on that roll, it didn’t want to stop. Boston College likes to slow the game down, he said, and SU’s only objective was to speed it up. Multiple SU players dove along the sideline simply to keep the ball in bounds and in play.

“If everything is going well,” Delhommelle said, ”we don’t want to stop it.”

Simultaneously, the Orange played a steady and aggressive game. Though its pursuits of the ball were seemingly erratic, the plays often were perfectly executed to an SU target. On one play, Simon Triantafillou eyed a ball headed to the right sideline.

“Get that Simon. Get that Simon!” McIntyre yelled. He did. He knocked the ball seemingly aimless toward the SU goal and slid past the out of bounds line. Instead of creating a Boston College chance, it landed perfectly by the foot of Hendrik Hilpert.

“They looked dangerous when the ball turned over,” McIntyre said. “(Just) making sure we’re not getting complacent and getting caught on the counter-attack.”

When the Eagles broke into the Orange’s third, they challenged Hilpert, but the same was rarely the case in the middle of the field. Syracuse midfielders, like Delhommelle and Ferrin, made slick moves that elicited “oohs” from the crowd and sent Boston College defenders away from the play. When BC got the ball, it rarely held it. In overtime, Simon Enstrom eyed a teammate from the right flank of the midfield. But his pass was right to the foot of Kamal Miller. “Good pass!” yelled a fan, and the crowd laughed. Enstrom doubled over, as the Orange proceeded to hold onto the ball for a long period after.

SU made its due on defense, where Miller stole the ball from an attacking BC player and stopped in his tracks, which sent the Eagles offensive player to the ground. Later in the game, he did it again.

“I love when our team attacks,” Miller said. “But attacking doesn’t mean anything if you can’t defend.”

The Eagles’ inability to break into SU’s third plagued it on offense and limited its chances, but the Orange didn’t capitalize. Though the Orange isn’t a “possession-based team” — Miller said after SU’s win over Wake Forest that the team “dominated” despite a lack of possession — Miller said the ball moved well (the Orange would make some 30 passes before looking to the goal, Miller said), though it could have been quicker.

At the end of the game, Syracuse players dropped to the ground and Boston College similarly dropped to their knees. To both teams, the game was in reach, whether “statistically (Syracuse was) dominant” or not.

“We will play worse than we did tonight and we will win soccer games,” McIntyre said. “We deserved a little more out of this game.”

Published on October 27, 2018 at 12:40 am

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary