If it finally happens, Kenny Caceros will celebrate. If it finally happens, the weight of the struggle will be off his and his teammates’ backs.

If Syracuse finally breaks through with its first Big East win, the pressure will evaporate.

‘It will mean everything,’ Caceros said. ‘It’s almost like make-or-break now. The worst thing we could do is put our heads down and lose our confidence, the worst thing we could do.’

That confidence will be essential for the Orange (1-8, 0-4 Big East), which travels to Rutgers (5-3, 3-1 Big East) on Friday night-the team’s fifth Big East game of the season. The contest will be Syracuse’s third straight conference road game.

Syracuse, mired in a seven-game losing streak, has dropped four straight Big East matches to open conference play. But the players insist the season is not over, and that confidence and optimism still rule the locker room.

‘We’re 1-8 right now, but we can’t mope around and feel sorry for ourselves, or it’s just going to get worse,’ senior captain Hansen Woodruff said. ‘Everyone is staying positive and looking forward to this Friday.’

Caceros said that the key to keeping the players’ heads up is constant communication and encouragement. Syracuse will need that positivity to translate into a win, or, at the very least, a goal. The Orange is stuck in a three-game goalless streak and has tallied only one score in its last six games.

At first, SU head coach Dean Foti said that the team had plenty of opportunities to score but could not convert those chances into goals. But in its last two games against Providence and Connecticut, Syracuse did not get those same opportunities, and the coach changed his tune.

‘This past weekend was probably the first time the chances that we were getting started to dry up,’ Foti said. ‘This past weekend was the first time that we haven’t dominated games.’

Foti added that a potential remedy for the team’s offensive woes is to reestablish Syracuse’s attacking style. He said the team has to keep the ball in the opponent’s end of the field and drive more aggressively to the goal, rather than taking a more passive approach.

So far, Syracuse has zero wins in conference, a seven-game losing streak and an anemic offense. So where is the silver lining in this dark storm cloud of a season?

The answer lies in the hearts and minds of the players. A 1-8 start has given the team the attitude of a caged animal. With its back against the wall, Syracuse has no choice but to dig deep, and make the best of a difficult situation.

Foti thinks that, despite the team’s poor record, the remaining opponents on the schedule should be worried.

‘I don’t think I would want to play us,’ Foti said. ‘The people that have played us would not want to have to try to convince their team that this team is 1-8 after watching us play. We’ll use that to our advantage.’

At the midway point of the season, the road for Syracuse does not get any easier. Two of the Orange’s next five opponents (South Florida and Louisville) are nationally ranked (sixth and 17th, respectively). In the final portion of the schedule, Syracuse will face Adelphi and St. John’s, both of which are hovering just outside the Top 25.

Before those tests, Syracuse will have to contend with Rutgers. Friday’s matchup could prove to be a turning point in the Orange’s season. A win could energize the team and start the ball rolling toward salvaging the season. Another loss and Syracuse could sink deeper as the season continues to slip away.

While Syracuse tries to fight its way out of the quicksand, the clock is ticking on the Orange’s season. The team has not pushed the panic button yet, but Foti called October a crucial month for the team.

The players know how important the rest of schedule is to their season.

‘You can’t put your head down,’ Woodruff said. ‘The season’s not over.’

azmeola@syr.edu

Published on October 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm