As starting lineups were announced during Tuesday afternoon’s Syracuse men’s soccer game, players weren’t standing where they usually do. Instead of traditionally lining up in the midfield circle, often with kids from local youth teams at their sides, the Orange and Mustangs stood under the overhangs of their benches. There was no national anthem, the game started five minutes ahead of schedule and there were less than a dozen fans in attendance. 

Nothing was usual about the Orange’s Tuesday match against SUNY Morrisville.

As heavy rainfall soaked SU Soccer Stadium turning grass into mud, Syracuse (6-4-4, 1-3-2 Atlantic Coast) poured in 11 goals in an 11-0 win over Division III SUNY Morrisville (2-11-2, 1-6-1 NEAC). After five goals in the first half and six more in the second, Syracuse was barely celebrating scores by game’s end. Even when Ryan Raposo and Massimo Ferrin netted hat tricks, SU took the ball back to the center circle to restart play as its goal song, “Hot” by Young Thug, played on repeat the entire afternoon. 

“It’s nice to play against a live opponent,” Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre said. “We got out of it exactly what we were looking for. We’re very appreciative for them coming down.”

A game that originally wasn’t on the schedule, Syracuse tuned itself up ahead of the final home stretch of the season that features two ACC opponents: North Carolina State and Boston College. 

When Syracuse’s game against Albany on Oct. 1 was canceled due to lightning, the Orange had a hole in their schedule, room for one more regular-season game of their 16 total. They could have opted to not fill the spot, instead hosting a practice on Tuesday that would have been an eight-on-eight or nine-on-nine scrimmage, McIntyre said. 

“It’s a difficult time to lose a game,” McIntyre said. “Everyone is playing games and has got conference games, and it was nice to have a local team with ties to the region.”

McIntyre wanted to get the Orange a game, but couldn’t find another Division I school with an opening. So he called Morrisville, a Division III school about 30 miles from the SU campus. It took less than five minutes, at 3:59 p.m., one minute before the game was scheduled to begin, for Luther Archimede to beat Morrisville keeper Tyler Card.

Less than four days after Syracuse’s defense was torn open in a 7-4 loss to ACC powerhouse Clemson, the Orange were able to showcase their attacking talent, albeit against a Division III team that had lost its last five games before Tuesday.

“The way you respect your opponent is to give them your best shot, and we did that,” McIntyre said. “It’s a lot better to do work with a soccer ball. From a training perspective, it was very good today, it’s making sure you’re respecting your opponent.”

The Orange stifled Morrsiville’s non-existent attack, holding the Mustangs to just one shot, a long-range prayer from 30 yards that sailed well over the head of Orange backup goalkeeper Jake Leahy. Leahy made his third start of the season, but first since Christian Miesch won the starting goalkeeper job back in September.

The Mustangs completed just seven passes inside the Orange’s half on Tuesday. Syracuse’s superior talent passed around, through and over the Mustangs repeatedly. 

Simon Triantafillou came sliding in for a back-post finish, missed just wide and kept sliding about five more yards on the soaked grass. Both areas in front of each goal turned from its usual green to brown mud. 

“The weather certainly made it interesting,” McIntyre said. “But still a good afternoon.”

The Orange’s dominant lead provided opportunities for two SU players to get their first game action of the season. Both Mickey Watson, a transfer from Loyola, and Nikolas Steiner, a redshirt sophomore from Baltimore, saw their first game action of the season.

Steiner played as a right wing-back and tallied his first career point with an assist on the Orange’s fifth goal five minutes before halftime. The Mustangs offered little resistance once Raposo ran in behind the defense and finished with a ground shot to the far-post. 

“We could have taken today off or practiced, but to get out on the pitch and get an actual game in,” Watson said. “I think especially coming off the Clemson game, we needed this one.”

SU poured in shot-after-shot, 32 in total, as SU’s back three spent the entire afternoon trotting around inside Morrisville’s half. Occasionally they’d play a few passes to one another, but rarely were they challenged.  

Once the Orange got their second, the third, fourth and fifth scores came in quick succession. Ferrin converted a penalty after he was taken down in the box, Archimede cleaned up a penalty area scrum with a far post tap-in and Severin Soerlie nabbed his second goal just before halftime.

The second half was merely a formality, as the minutes ticked down off the soaked scoreboard, occasionally adding one tally for the Orange. Each player sauntered back into the locker room, as if a practice had just ended. 

Typically, the Orange huddle up post-match on the field for a team talk. But Tuesday wasn’t a typical game. 

Published on October 22, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo