It’s like being egged on Halloween, listening to embarrassing stories on your birthday and getting nothing for Valentine’s Day.

For the Syracuse men’s soccer team, losing should-win games and aiming to make up for it against the Big East’s strongest squads is a tradition the Orangemen wish would vanish.

But when Syracuse (6-5-1, 2-3 Big East) begins a three-game sequence against ranked opponents with No. 14 Rutgers (4-3-3, 3-2-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Syracuse Soccer Stadium, the Orangemen will be resorting to their same old habit.

‘Every year since I’ve been here we’ve been saying, ‘If we had only won this game or that game,’ ‘ senior Kevin Boyle said. ‘This year it’s inevitable. There’s nothing we can do now.’

Syracuse has already fallen to Big East bottom-feeders Providence and Villanova and sunk to a tie for eighth in the conference. The top eight teams qualify for the conference tournament.

In the next week, the Orangemen will attempt to solidify their spot with home games against Rutgers, No. 15 Boston College and No. 3 St. John’s.

Last year, the Orangemen played their best soccer during a three-game stretch against the Big East’s finest. Syracuse beat Rutgers, tied Seton Hall and lost a close game to Connecticut, but an upset loss to Virginia Tech earlier in the season negated that streak.

‘That’s kind of the reputation we’re getting,’ sophomore Jarett Park said. ‘We show up for all the big games, but we don’t win the ones we’re supposed to.’

Indeed, the Orangemen’s trend continues this season. Besides losing games to Villanova and Providence, SU was unprepared for Virginia Commonwealth in the season opener, a 1-0 loss.

‘I’m so excited for this,’ Park said. ‘We haven’t played a really good team since Seton Hall.’

But against their less-than-stellar opposition since SHU, the Orangemen have gone 2-2-1.

Rutgers, though, will not frustrate Syracuse the way other teams have, packing defensive zones and waiting for SU to make a mistake. Like Syracuse, Rutgers prefers to control the ball, not coil up on defense and spring a counter-attack.

But RU is more talented than the recent opponents who have troubled SU, and the Scarlet Knights might be more skilled than anyone the Orangemen have played.

Rutgers lost Dennis Ludwig, the Big East’s second-leading scorer last season, to graduation and has replaced him with speedy freshman Sam Castellanos. Syracuse head coach Dean Foti said Castellanos, who leads Rutgers in scoring, represents a breakaway dimension new to the Scarlet Knights.

‘These teams can come closer to matching us athletically,’ Boyle said. ‘The difference is, they go out and beat the teams they’re supposed to.’

On Tuesday night, the Orangemen continued their confounding ways, tying Army (2-8-2).

The Black Knights were picked to finish last in the Patriot League preseason coaches poll. The Orangemen dominated time of possession throughout, forcing Army into a defensive posture, Foti said. But SU put none of its 15 shots in the net. Only four of the 15 were on goal.

‘I’m not sure our decision-making was very good,’ Foti said. ‘You need to choose power versus placement when shooting a ball. We need to finish better.’

Foti, though, called it SU’s best effort of the season. Syracuse limited Army to few scoring chances while creating plenty of its own, Foti said.

Still, the puzzling Orangemen managed to avoid victory.

Said Park: ‘It’s disappointing all around.”

Published on October 9, 2002 at 12:00 pm