Colgate’s Ethan Kutler found the ball in a crease of space just inside the penalty box during the 70th minute of the match. The Raiders were already down 2-0 and Kutler, who led the Raiders in goals the last two seasons, wanted to halve Syracuse’s lead.

He turned toward goal, where he met Syracuse central defender Louis Cross. Cross bumped Kutler away from goal, and he had to settle for a sliding kick that sailed high. As Cross walked away satisfied, Kutler remained on the ground and turned to the referee, upset that a foul hadn’t been called. But when the referee turned away and left, so did Colgate’s chances of pulling off a comeback.

Even though it looked slow to start the game, No. 6 Syracuse (3-0) got off to a 1-0 lead, before turning it up during the second half. But SU’s physical brand of play and strong defense was enough to compensate for its lackluster start in a 3-0 victory over Colgate (2-1) on Thursday night at SU Soccer Stadium.

“I thought we were sloppy … it looked like we were still a lit bit heavy legged today,” McIntyre said.

Colgate’s best chance on goal came in the fifth minute of the game. A Syracuse foul led to a free kick on the left side of the field, about 35 yards out. The ball was played into the right side of the field to a Raider player who headed it back over the middle and found an open Tim Oberg. The latter shot it to his left, past an outstretched Hendrik Hilpert, but the ball ricocheted off the post and was eventually cleared.

As the game wore on, though, Syracuse’s defense started to flex its muscles. Colgate’s players were frequently getting knocked down with the Orange winning the ball back. Even when they got past one defender, the Raiders were still unable to get behind the whole backline. They finished with only one shot and one corner kick in the half.

McIntyre thought his defense played better in the second half than it did in the first, even though the Raiders managed five shots and seven corners in the second frame. The SU head coach said that was because Colgate took more risks with the Orange’s 2-0 lead in place.

Despite the high number of corners and crosses into the penalty box, the Raiders were unable to come away with any real scoring threat. At 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, Miles Robinson managed to clear a lot of those balls away from goal.

“Mac puts me up to the challenge,” Robinson said about his role of getting to balls in the air first.

In the 85th minute, the Orange scored its third goal, Chris Nanco’s second of the game, to effectively put the game out of reach. But even with the lead, the SU defense kept its pace.

With 30 seconds to go in the game, a ball was played right in front of the penalty box. A Colgate player bounced it off his chest, ready to turn and fire at goal. Before he could shoot, Cross came up and fought for the ball, eventually winning it away. Realistically, the goal wouldn’t have mattered in the final outcome of the game, but that didn’t matter to SU.

“If someone gives you ten bucks and you want to buy pizza that costs five bucks, you keep the other five bucks,” Hilpert said. “You want to keep it.”

In the end, the Orange defense kept up its strength and assertiveness to keep the shutout it wanted to hold on to.

Published on September 2, 2016 at 12:47 am

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer