Men's soccer winless in last 7

When it rains, it pours, especially if you’re the Syracuse University men’s soccer team. After a poor first half, Syracuse (2-8-1, 0-3-1) was unable to come back and eventually fell to intrastate and Big East rival No. 21 St. John’s (8-3-2, 2-2-0) Wednesday night at SU Stadium, 2-1

“We were soft,” sophomore Ryan Tessler said. “They were just beating us everywhere.”

In a game that featured slick conditions and constant rain, SU could not do anything offensively, only getting three shots off after 45 minutes. Overall, Syracuse’s offensive cohesiveness was suspect in the first half. Passes weren’t connecting and players seemed lost on offense.

“We panicked a little bit in the first half,” senior captain Nick Roydhouse said. “We didn’t get the ball under control and we tried to force some things.”

On defense in the first half, Syracuse was constantly on their heels trying to stop an offensive onslaught by the Red Storm. St. John’s was able to get off nine shots on senior goalkeeper Phil Boerger. A cross from redshirt sophomore Adrian L’Esperance was put in by junior Andre Vargas in the 36th minute to put the Red Storm ahead 1-0 going into halftime.

“Going into a game like that, we knew St. Johns was going to come out 100 mph right away,” Boerger said. “We didn’t play well enough in the first half to deal with that.”

However, the second half featured a different Syracuse team. SU came out with more intensity and doubled the amount of shots they had in the first half. 

“When we stepped forward and imposed ourselves and matched them, then I felt we got ourselves back on top and really built up a head of steam that culminated in a goal,” Syracuse coach Ian McIntrye said. 

That goal came off a free kick by Roydhouse in the 80th minute. After a St. John’s penalty, the senior captain rocketed the equalizer past Red Storm sophomore goalkeeper Rafael Diaz, tying the game up at 1-1.  

“At that point I thought we were going to win the game,” McIntrye said.

Syracuse was unable to celebrate their goal for long, though, as the Red Storm responded with the eventual game-wining goal in 83rd minute. After three corner kicks, the Red Storm finally scored off a shot by L’Esperance, putting St. John’s up 2-1.

While The Orange was unable to come back and win, McIntrye was still impressed with his team’s ability to come alive in the second half after a poor first.

“We’ve should a tremendous amount of character this year in responding and coming back when we’ve been behind,” McIntrye said. “The next step is now going on and winning one of those games.”

Syracuse looks to win its first home game against a Big East opponent when the squad hosts No. 11 South Florida (7-2-2, 2-0-1) at the SU Soccer Stadium Saturday.