Ian McIntyre will gladly take a tie with the No. 11 team in the country. With the way his team’s been playing — losing five in a row going into this past weekend — a tie was at least a step in the right direction to reverse SU’s downward spiral.

‘Today was an outstanding performance and a well-deserved point against an outstanding team,’ McIntyre said. ‘They finished up national runners-up last year and top-10 team in the country. I’m very proud of all of our players because to go on the road to get points is difficult.’

Syracuse (2-7-1, 0-2-1 Big East) played to a scoreless tie with Louisville (7-3-1, 0-2-1) in two overtimes Saturday, bringing a renewed feeling of confidence to a team that had been reeling. It was another strong defensive performance by a unit that has been the Orange’s anchor for the entire season, highlighted by a seven-save performance by goalkeeper Phil Boerger.

Despite not getting a win, McIntyre said getting a point on the road against one of the nation’s best teams was plenty satisfying. The Cardinals were the Big East champions last season and lost 1-0 to Akron in the national championship game.

On Saturday, the Orange held with the national runner-up for all 110 minutes.

‘We talked about if we kept playing the way we’ve been playing, and if we keep working and committing, the results would take care of themselves,’ McIntyre said. ‘And tonight was a good result. We’re in the middle of a very tough stretch.’

Even though it was another lackluster offensive performance from the goals standpoint, McIntyre said he was happy with his offense’s effort. SU was as aggressive as it has been all season, taking a total of 23 shots in the game. Louisville goalkeeper Andre Boudreaux, though, only had to make three saves.

Still, Syracuse created plenty of scoring opportunities.

In the 68th minute, SU forward Dan Summers nearly scored with a header, but Boudreaux came up with the save to maintain the tie. About 11 minutes later, freshman defender Chris Makowski took a shot that deflected off the crossbar.

‘We had some good opportunities. We created some chances,’ McIntyre said. ‘There were times where we had to roll our sleeves up and dig deep. To come away with our first clean sheet and a point is very satisfying for the guys.’

The Cardinals came close to scoring in the final seconds of the first overtime. Defender Greg Cochrane sent a cross to forward Buck Tufty, but Tufty’s header missed wide of the goal.

The Orange then nearly gave away the lead in the final two minutes of the second overtime, but Boerger came up with two clutch saves to keep SU from walking off the field on the short end of the scoreboard once again.

McIntyre said despite his team’s recent string of losses, he’s been proud of his team’s overall effort. Other than Syracuse’s loss to Binghamton, which the coach said his team gave away, every match has been a strong performance.

And for McIntyre that was no different on Saturday, when the Orange played up to the level of the one of the best teams in the country.

‘Tonight, we played against the Big East champs and a team that feels that they have the opportunity to compete for a national title again this year,’ McIntyre said. ‘… A lot of teams will struggle to come to Louisville and get results this season.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

 

Published on October 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman