For the second straight game, the Syracuse University men’s soccer team was on its way to a shutout victory. Goalkeeper Robert Cavicchia was stopping all Colgate shots that came in between the crossbars, and his defenders were keeping the Red Raiders from getting too comfortable inside the Orange’s zone Monday night.

The offense provided cushion with a first-half goal that seemed to be enough.

Unfortunately for the Orange, one perfect shot put an end to that.

A beautifully placed kick in the upper right corner in the 71st minute tied the game and prevented Syracuse from shutting out its second straight opponent as Syracuse tied Colgate, 1-1, in front of 785 fans at the SU Soccer Stadium. The Orange had chances late to win the game, but instead, had to settle for the tie.

‘It was pretty crushing,’ said junior defender Pete Hill. ‘They were taking it to us for a little bit. It was kind of a point where they had to play in the second half. Our goal is to win every game in a shutout and when you don’t get that, it’s obviously frustrating.’

With Syracuse (1-0-1) carrying a 1-0 lead for most of the second half, Colgate (1-0-1) gradually put the pressure on with nine shots in that frame. Finally, in the 71st minute, the Raiders connected for its only goal.

Colgate midfielder Chris Ross received a pass at the top of the box and kicked one past a diving Cavicchia into the upper-right corner. Syracuse head coach Dean Foti said if a player is to beat Cavicchia that is the spot he has to do it.

While the SU defense had not been scored upon all season to that point, Colgate kept pushing the envelope and eventually found a scoring opportunity.

‘The guy was coming down the field, and we were kind of dropped back a little bit,’ Hill said. ‘Our back four works on closing down fast, and it wasn’t closed down that fast and the kid got the ball. Rob did his best, but sometimes you have to tip your hat off to a guy who can make a shot like that.’

After the goal, the defense steadied and kept Colgate from any serious scoring opportunities. SU’s offense had chances to win the game and could not capitalize.

With 33.5 seconds left, Colgate midfielder Alex Gardner received a yellow card for delay of game. SU received a golden opportunity and almost won the game in dramatic fashion.

Pete Rowley headed a ball toward the goal with 20 seconds left, and the ball seemed destined for the back of the net, but a Colgate defender blocked the ball with his body. The ball then careened to SU’s Hansen Woodruff, but he was not able to get a clean shot off because it ‘off-footed him,’ said senior forward Spencer Schomaker.

In the second overtime, Woodruff had a chance to head a ball into the net, but the ball sailed over the crossbar. That was the last true scoring opportunity Syracuse had to win the game. Foti said it was nice to see that his team had chances to win at the end of regulation and overtime.

Schomaker agreed, but added that SU needs to capitalize.

‘The opportunities are there, we just need to put them away,’ Schomaker, who had three shots, said. ‘We had some chances and we could have had better chances at that. We had a lot of half-chances and stuff like that but we still need to work on that final third and just putting them away. We have multiple chances, we just need to finish them.’

SU got on the board in the first half when forward Tom Perevegyencev scored his team-leading third goal of the season in the 34th minute. Woodruff made an excellent pass to Perevegyencev down the field and he beat the defender, and then drew out the goalkeeper before shooting the ball cross field into the left corner for the 1-0 lead.

For the night, Syracuse outshot Colgate, 19-17. But there’s one lapse SU would like back.

‘You can’t give guys free looks at the goal,’ Foti said. ‘When you evaluate your team, you try and see how many good looks at the goal did (the opponent) get. I think we’re doing a decent job in limiting the opponent to not getting many of those, but obviously tonight they capitalized on one.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on September 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm