Almost an hour had passed since Mike Seamon finished the most dazzling offensive performance against the Syracuse men’s soccer team’s defense all season, and Brad Peetoom was still scratching his head. In less than eight minutes, one Villanova forward scored three goals, single-handedly making the Orange’s most vaunted unit look lost.

Everybody in the stands and on the sideline seemingly knew what had just happened. Everybody, that is, except for Syracuse’s senior captain.

‘I honestly didn’t know that that one guy scored all the goals,’ Peetoom said. ‘I didn’t realize it was the matter of a single player that out-skilled all of us. I just saw bad positioning, bad communication, bad stepping up to the ball.’

Whether it was poor Syracuse defense or the dynamite Villanova offense, the Orange (5-6-4, 2-6) defense played its worst game of the season in a 3-2 loss to the Wildcats (10-6, 5-4) Wednesday in front of 651 fans at Syracuse Soccer Stadium.

Seamon’s second-half hat trick stunned a Syracuse team that held a 1-0 lead at halftime and appeared on its way to a much-needed victory. Instead, the Orange lost a valuable opportunity to pick up three points, and its chances of reaching the Big East tournament grew even slimmer.

And for the first time all year, it wasn’t a scuffling offense, but uncharacteristic mental lapses by the defense that eventually cost the Orange. Although Seamon entered the game as the Wildcats’ top offensive player with six goals, Syracuse lost him three times before it could regroup.

After the game, SU head coach Dean Foti was surprised to learn that his defense didn’t know Seamon scored all three goals.

‘I don’t think anybody was thinking about too much of anything during those two minutes because we got scored on twice in less than two minutes,’ Foti said. ‘We lost our focus, and we certainly lost track of Seamon. There’s an example of it. You just mentioned it.’

Seamon connected on his first goal late in the 55th minute on a fluke play when teammate Victor Faustino mishit a shot attempt from left of the box. The shot didn’t reach the net, and instead rolled through the box right to Seamon for an easy score. For Faustino, a poor shot attempt turned into his first assist of the season.

When play resumed, Syracuse immediately lost possession because of a well-timed slide tackle by Joe Taylor. Quickly, the ball moved upfield to Seamon, who beat Orange goalkeeper Rob Cavicchia from the right side of the box.

Two goals by one player in 30 seconds, and Syracuse’s 1-0 lead was now a 2-1 deficit.

‘I felt like I had a lot of space the whole game, and when we got the ball to our forwards, things really opened up,’ Seamon said. ‘Second half, it was really a matter of us moving it faster than they could recover. Our passing really got us through.’

Syracuse defenseman Karol Wasielewski scored the equalizer a minute later on a header, but the tie score wouldn’t last long. In the 63rd minute, Seamon did it again, this time beating the Orange defense by himself and ripping one to the left of the goal.

The third goal was too much for Syracuse, which looked shell-shocked when the Wildcats retook the lead. The Orange had allowed three goals to an entire team in a game only once all year and allowed a multi-goal game by one player only once, against Providence. Before Wednesday, Syracuse had given up just one goal at home.

‘I don’t think I ever did that before – well, maybe, once when I was five,’ Seamon said. ‘Never at this level of soccer before.’

Coming into the game, Villanova hadn’t scored since Oct. 3 – a string of four consecutive matches. For the first 55 minutes Wednesday, it looked as though that trend would continue.

But once Seamon got going, Syracuse had no answer. With just three games remaining and the Orange still in last place of the Big East red division, SU may have to win out to reach the conference tournament.

Wednesday seemed like a golden chance for Syracuse to pick up a result. Then Seamon found his rhythm and left a veteran Orange defense and coaching staff in the dust, wondering what had happened.

‘You’re looking for an explanation – I don’t know why he had three goals,’ Foti said. ‘We didn’t do a good enough job on him, that’s about the best I could give you.’

Published on October 24, 2007 at 12:00 pm