Men’s Soccer Peaking at the Right Time, Defeats No. 23 NC State 3-0
By Nick Kuzma
CitrusTV’s Mens Soccer Beat Reporter
Syracuse, N.Y. – In the 37th minute, Severin Soerlie found the back of the net to the Orange a 1-0 lead heading into the half.
It was like a Hollywood script as the senior tallied his fourth goal of the year on Senior Night in front of over 1,000 at SU Soccer Stadium.
“Obviously getting a goal [on] senior night, that’s what everyone wants, and it’s good ending If it’s the last [game we play at home], but I don’t think so.”
The Syracuse Men’s Soccer team (7-4-4, 2-3-2 Atlantic Coast) still has one more regular season game left to play before heading into the ACC Tournament.
In order to host a conference tournament game, SU will have to finish as a top six overall seed, the team is currently sitting in eighth.
“We feel very confident,” said Soerlie. “We know we have a lot of goals in us, our defense is solid, our midfield’s working hard. I think it’s a good place to be right before [the ACC] tournament.”
On paper this looks like on of Syracuse’s most complete performances of this year.
“I thought we were terrific from the opening whistle, all the way down,” said SU Head Coach Ian McIntyre.
The 10-year head coach was quick to praise No. 23 NC State (8-4-3, 3-3-1 Atlantic Coast) who he called “very good” and “well coached”.
Still, the Orange were in control from the first minute on, tripling the shot total of the Wolfpack.
In the 63rd minute, Ryan Raposo scored his 12th goal of the year to give the Orange a 2-0 lead which felt insurmountable for NC State.
The Sophomore, in very little space, and with his left foot, flipped the ball over the Wolfpack goalkeeper, off a free kick.
“I practice that shot a lot,” you can ask the guys, that’s my favorite type of shot.”
Though Raposo was noticeably happy after the match, he still feels like there is room for improvement.
“Yea we created a lot of chances, early in the game, that I thought we could’ve capatilized on, but in my honest opinion, we’ve had better game than today,” said Raposo. “But, I guess today was the day that everything happened.”
One of the things “that happened” for the Orange, was Freshman Amferny Sinclair scoring his first goal of his collegiate career.
The goal put the game on ice, and put SU up 3-0, which was the final score.
“We keep Amferny as far away from the goal as possible,” McIntyre joked, “and now we may have to second guess that thought.”
Next up for the Orange, the team heads to Boston College for its regular season finale.
Last year, SU and the Eagles tied 0-0 on October 26, it was also Syracuse’s final regular season game of the season.
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 o’clock on November 1 at Newton Campus Lacrosse & Soccer Field, which is located on BC’s Newton campus.
npkuzma@syr.edu l @nkuz71
