Much has been made this season of the Syracuse men’s soccer team’s defense. The offense, though, has not received as much notice.

After the unit’s recent performance, it finally started receiving some attention for all the wrong reasons.

On Friday against Providence, SU sophomore forward Hanson Woodruff took a cross from Tom Perevegyencev and converted on his seventh goal of the season. It was the lone offensive highlight for the Orange in two games this weekend.

Two days later against No. 5 Connecticut, SU managed just two shots, neither of which challenged goalkeeper Josh Ford.

The results were a 3-1 loss and a 1-0 loss, and Syracuse’s losing streak is up to three games – a disappointing stretch for a team that went unbeaten through its first seven matches. SU (4-3-3, 1-3 Big East) has scored just one goal during its current slide after netting five in the previous two matches.

With the hot start virtually eliminated in the standings, the Orange now needs to start finding some answers before the season starts to spiral.

‘We have an athletic and explosive and dynamic team, and we were really not dynamic and explosive over the weekend,’ Syracuse head coach Dean Foti said. ‘It’s not that the guys weren’t trying – they were trying. It’s just that we didn’t have any juice left.’

Going into the season, Syracuse knew most of its offense would come from two players: Woodruff and junior forward Kyle Hall. But early in the year, it looked like the supporting cast would contribute more to the goal scoring than originally anticipated.

Through the first three games, three players besides Woodruff and Hall combined for four Syracuse goals, including two by Perevegyencev. Hall didn’t even connect for his first until the fourth game of the season – a 1-1 draw with James Madison on Sep. 9.

Since then, the hope of a balanced attack has completely disappeared. Woodruff and Hall have scored Syracuse’s last eight goals, spanning a series of seven consecutive matches. The last time anybody else found the back of the net was almost a month ago, when the Orange beat Seton Hall on Sep. 7.

‘Offense can’t rely on just the forward and the midfield – it has to be the whole team,’ Hall said. ‘Collectively, we have to move up as a team so we can support one another when we do attack. We did that at the beginning of the season, but as the season’s gone on, we haven’t had the numbers we need to be threatening.’

Even when Syracuse was consistently scoring goals, most of them came on breakaways when either Hall or Woodruff found their way behind the opposing defense. From a set offense, the Orange has looked stale and uncomfortable.

With Woodruff’s and Hall’s speed, they were able to receive long passes from midfielders and simply beat the defenders to the rolling ball while staying onsides. From there, the only thing left was to beat the keeper.

But with a schedule laden with road games, fatigue has seemingly neutralized some of that pure speed. In its first 10 matches, the Orange has played only three at Syracuse Soccer Stadium. Furthermore, Syracuse has played two games in one weekend four times this season, a large number of quick turnarounds.

‘Their forte is able to explode past people,’ Foti said of his attackers. ‘When you step on the gas pedal and your mind says ‘go’ and your body says, ‘No, I can’t do that today.’ And that comes after a week of trying to tone down the training so that we could recover.’

Unable to simply blow past defenses, Syracuse has tried to score from a traditional offensive set, but it hasn’t been easy. Woodruff attributes the struggles to a lack of possession. The combination attempts have been thwarted by a bad pass or poor ball control – mental errors Woodruff calls a sign of mental and physical fatigue.

As the schedule clears up, the Orange hopes to get its legs back. Syracuse has no more quick turnarounds on its schedules, often having a week between games.

Still, Woodruff knows two players can’t make up for poor fundamentals. Fixing one problem can spark this offense before it’s too late.

‘We gotta keep the ball more – it starts with that,’ Woodruff said. ‘When we start to keep the ball more, we don’t defend as much, and we’re not as tired toward the end of the game. That will produce more chances, and we’ll get more goals.’

Published on October 2, 2007 at 12:00 pm