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Penn State defender Femi Awadesu sent a pass up the right wing that was blocked by a sliding Giona Leibold, sailing out of bounds for a throw-in. The ball nearly rolled into the Syracuse bench, but Awadesu sprinted to collect it.

Awadesu took the throw quickly to preserve PSU’s early momentum just four minutes into the game. He found a surging Peter Mangione running into an open gap, and then he collected a loose ball trickling down the line.

Awadesu’s cross loomed over everyone in the box, but it landed just near the left corner flag for his opposite winger to collect. He quickly dished the ball off to Seth Kuhn who found Mangione in the goal box for a header, which tucked into the bottom left corner. Mangione was ahead of a perfectly aligned group of three Orange defenders, but the assistant referee’s flag still stayed down and Christian Curti went two yards further back than Syracuse’s set defensive line, keeping the PSU sophomore onside.

“They put a lot of quality in the box,” Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre said. “We talked about it going into the game that it’s important to man mark in the box, and unfortunately today we got exposed a couple times and they punished us.”

Syracuse (1-1-0, 0-0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) struggled to shut down No. 11 Penn State (1-0-1, 0-0-0 Big Ten Conference) from close range and lost 3-0 in its first loss of the season. Despite outshooting Penn State 15-13, the Orange’s defensive struggles cost them its 31st all-time loss to the Nittany Lions.

Five minutes into the second half, Syracuse dealt with another Awadesu throw-in, this time deeper into their half near the opposite corner flag. The throw was lobbed over two Orange defenders and brought down by Pierre Reedy, who dribbled into space in the penalty box. He pulled a pass back near the penalty spot to Mangione, who then made a first-time pass to Kuhn.

Kuhn’s point blank shot was denied by a diving Russel Shealy, but his rebound found the left foot of Andrew Privet, who found the upper corner which extended Penn State’s lead to 3-0.

“We got punished for a couple of soft goals early in both halves,” McIntyre said. “You can’t hand an opponent as good as Penn State’s soft goals.”

Sunday’s game, which was nearly threatened by a premature cancellation due to potential lightning in the area, gave the players a consistent downpour to play under. The ball skipped and hindered more than the players had hoped for, McIntyre said, which deferred Syracuse’s routine plans to send long balls out wide and to its two target forwards.

The rainy surface also challenged the Orange when playing through the middle of the field. Just two minutes before Pitllick’s goal, Shealy lined the ball up for a goal kick and played an ordinary bouncing ball towards midfielder Amferney Sinclair inside his own half. Bu the ball bounced all the way up to Sinclair’s head, rather than being set up for an easy first touch, as he jumped to try and keep it in front of him.

His defender behind him collected the ball and brought it down, which led to a Nittany Lions cross that found an open Reedy in the right side of the box. As he brought the ball down cleanly, Reedy was rammed to the ground and drew a clear penalty. Reedy then stepped up to the penalty spot and converted Penn State’s second, calmly slotting off the right post and in.

“We were caught in transition a little bit and gave away a soft bounce,” McIntyre said. “That second goal really hurt us. Although we huffed and puffed, we didn’t really create enough quality.”

But while Syracuse struggled defending crosses, its best chances came when the Orange had crosses of their own. With Leibold temporarily playing in the center of the field, he opened up a wide open left wing for midfielder Colin Biros to meet a through ball down the left flank.

Biros’ bouncing cross found the head of Sinclair crashing in towards the back post, sending a head-on net — that would’ve been the eventual first-half equalizer — right into Penn State goalkeeper Kris Shakes.

Then, early in the second half, Syracuse moved the ball along the right wing to Luke Biasi, who had space to look for open players in the box. He found Leibold at the back post who took a quick shot at Shakes. Shakes spilled the rebound and the ball made its way to the top of the penalty box where DeAndre Kerr trapped the ball. Kerr’s low, blistering shot went right into a wall of Penn State defenders, who deflected it towards the left touchline.

Despite the missed chances and successfully outshooting Penn State by two attempts, Mcintyre views the loss as a lesson against the 2019 National Champions.

“It’s a steep learning curve,” McIntyre said. “Over the 90 minutes, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two teams, yet we lost 3-0.”

Published on August 29, 2021 at 10:49 pm

Contact Alex: ahcirino@syr.edu