Syracuse has never lost a home-opener in the Ian McIntyre era. A tie was followed by seven wins. Winning and losing seasons have all begun the same on SU’s home turf, without a loss at home for the Orange to hang their heads on. “Season-openers are season-openers,” McIntyre said.  It’s inherent that it will be a good game, but history has also allowed the Orange to stay calm, McIntyre said.   

In Syracuse’s (2-1) 4-3 win over to Hofstra (0-3-1), SU had its strong moments. Ones that left Hofstra players with their hands on their knees, their bodies draped on the floor and their hands on their heads. The superiority of ACC soccer befell it. But the Orange displayed a variety of issues that plagued it a year ago. The defense failed to provide fortitude in front of its starting goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert. McIntyre and Syracuse players conceded the game was too exciting toward the end.

“From a coaching perspective,” McIntyre said, “not exactly how we would have written it.”

Hilpert said he thinks SU was the better team for all 90 minutes. For a large part of the game, that held true.

In the 14th minute, Hugo Delhommelle, who had played almost the entirety of the game in the inner third, fired a pass down the left sideline to Ryan Raposo. Raposo, upon receiving the ball, faked right and shot a right foot shot directly at the Hofstra goalkeeper on the left side of the goal. The save deflected off his leg to Severin Soerlie, who carefully yet not fluently tapped the ball into the middle of the net and ran to the right end line. He syphoned the crowd with the subtle fluttering of his right hand, stopped, hopped and threw up an “X” across his chest.

Later, Delhommelle fired a free kick to the head of Tajon Buchanan who effortlessly scored. After the play, Delhommelle turned to the sideline and saluted by sticking out his thumb and pinky fingers like a cell phone and turning them in a semi-circle. McIntyre yelled Delhommelle’s first name and stuck two thumbs up in his direction.

History shows that Syracuse produces no shortage of momentous glory in its early-season competition. Sunday had that: Buchanan had a career-high two goals, the Orange scored more goals than it had in any game last season and creative dances followed each one. But the errors SU displayed stood out. And the results began to show.

“It was probably not as boring as I hoped it would have been,” McIntyre said.

In the 22nd minute, John-Austin Ricks whiffed a header adjacent to the SU net and pulled the Hofstra attacker down as he fell to the ground. The resulting penalty awarded a penalty kick to the Pride, and Luke Brown easily sunk the shot. It wasn’t the last time Syracuse would swing and miss. Sondre Norheim missed two headers a few possessions later that gave the Pride two corner opportunities. Ricks missed a kick in the second half and the ball went through his legs by midfield.

Kamal Miller, who injured himself in the Portland game, didn’t suit up and the defense looked lost.

On a Hofstra free kick right over the middle of the field, Norheim, Djimon Johnson and Hilpert formed a triangle around a Hofstra offensive player. As the ball neared Hilpert, he leaped. Going into the game, Hilpert said that McIntyre warned the Orange of Hofstra’s game plan. The Pride were tall and they would use it to their advantage.

With that, the Hofstra player jumped higher and lifted the ball, narrowly dodging Hilbert’s head and bouncing into the goal. Hilpert shrugged and held both his hands up to the sideline. McIntyre mirrored his gesture, but then turned and slumped his shoulders. He located his corner of the SU bench and took a seat.

“We got punished for small mistakes,” Hilpert said.

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The moments continued to pile up, but a goal by freshman Hilli Goldhar brought the crowd back, forgetting all the sighs and annoyed yells of earlier. The freshman leaped and hollered. The clock dwindled down and approached an SU win, all they needed to do was hold firm.

“Just make sure we keep this,” Norheim thought to himself. But the Pride answered in the 86th minute with a goal from Luke Brown. The crowd went from buzzing to silent. Hilpert can’t pinpoint the exact emotion he felt, a lot was going through his mind. Though, most of it wasn’t good.

“Could’ve handled it better,” Norheim said.

With just over two minutes remaining a goal from Tajon Buchanan lifted SU out of the abyss. He celebrated with a backflip. The SU bench erupted. The crowd followed.

“When you’re a part of this team you know the game isn’t over until it’s over,” Hilpert said. “Until the clock makes that weird noise.”

The countdown at the end of the game and the “weird noise” from the clock was followed with smiles from SU and its fans. This time, Buchanan’s last goal left little time for the Orange to make another mistake.

Last season, SU lost all eight of its games by one goal. When it came down to the end, the Orange rarely prevailed. This season’s tide has already shifted. The Orange already had one late win under their belt and there was the preseason overtime winner over Villanova by Raposo. McIntyre said in those scenarios, ideally, the Orange prevail.

The wounds exposed by a last-minute win to a mid-level Colonial Athletic Association Conference Hofstra team remained prevalent. Three goals is too much, the players said. Not just to Hofstra, to anyone. But same as a win holds little weight, Hilpert said the mistakes are the same.

“The vibe just feels so different,” Hilpert said of the locker room. “It’s a new season.”

Published on September 2, 2018 at 8:16 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary