Elliott Townsend had a wide-open look at the goal. He had maneuvered past the defense and set up on the right side of the box. With only the goalie to beat, he fired the ball high over the crossbar.

He knew he had wasted his chance.

‘I missed a golden one,’ said Townsend, a senior forward and midfielder. ‘When you can’t convert your chances, it’s been the same old story that we’ve had this season, not being able to finish the ones that we have.’

Townsend’s missed opportunity was just one of many for Syracuse (2-12, 1-7 Big East), which fell further in the Big East standings after dropping Saturday night’s game, 3-0, to No. 12 South Florida (9-2-2, 4-2-2). Syracuse had won the last two meetings against USF, who had never won at SU Soccer Stadium until Saturday night.

Townsend wasn’t the only SU player who couldn’t find the back of the net, either.

Senior captain Hansen Woodruff had several good looks at the goal but could not convert on any of them. On a free kick of his own, Woodruff fired a shot just over the crossbar. Later in the game, a header from the captain looked like it was headed for the back of the net, but USF goalie Jeff Attinella made one of his two saves to end the scoring threat.

The box score did not tell the whole story of the game. Syracuse put forth one of its best efforts of the season. The Orange kept enormous pressure on USF throughout the first half, and early portion of the second half, by keeping the ball in the offensive zone.

As a result, the Orange dominated the Bulls in every category except the one that mattered: goals scored. Syracuse had 15 shots compared to USF’s nine. The Orange also had six corner kicks while South Florida had five.

‘We just wanted to prove we can play with them, and I think we did that,’ said senior midfielder Kenny Caceros. ‘We can play with them. We did play with them. We outplayed them in a few big parts of the game. We just couldn’t come up with the result.’

The different styles of the two offenses ultimately led to the final result. Syracuse played a more grinding style throughout the night. The Orange frequently passed the ball deep in USF territory and tried to set up scoring plays.

The setups succeeded in that they gave Syracuse multiple open looks at the net and quality shots. But the results the team wanted never materialized, and the offensive possessions did not yield any goals.

The Bulls, on the other hand, took advantage of their scoring opportunities. Their first goal came when SU goalie Ryan Jones tripped USF’s Zak Boggs just outside the box. Jones received a yellow card, and Boggs fired the ball into the goal on the ensuing free kick.

The Orange managed to go into the half down by only one goal. But as their scoring chances continued to yield only frustration, the Bulls found the back of the net twice more in the latter portion of the second half.

South Florida’s quick strike offense reared its head again when Sebastian Thuriere fired a missile past a diving Jones to put the Bulls ahead, 2-0.

‘Their second goal was a spectacular shot,’ Caceros said. ‘Nothing anybody could have done would have stopped that. That shot was top corner, a perfect shot.’

Down 2-0, Syracuse continued to play aggressive offense late in the second half. But the Bulls took the ball downfield quickly on a breakaway and put the exclamation point on the game with a goal in the final ten minutes.

The game unfolded in the same pattern Syracuse has followed all season against the tougher opponents on its schedule. Against teams like USF and Louisville, the Orange play competitively in the first half but give up late goals in the second half to put the game out of reach.

‘It was a lot of things: frustration, probably fatigue,’ Townsend said of Syracuse’s giving up two late goals against the Bulls. ‘At this point, for a lot of us, it’s getting to the more mental aspect where, given our record, eventually we feel like we’re going to have to get a break, but it just hasn’t come so far.’

azmeola@syr.edu

Published on October 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm