Men’s soccer smothers Niagara’s defense in 2-0 bounce-back win
Orange are even on the season with win over Niagara
Syracuse soccer fans had something extra to celebrate this Labor Day as the Orange put on a strong offensive performance and beat the Niagara Purple Eagles 2-0 at SU Soccer Stadium.
Right from the opening kick-off, the Orange dominated Niagara with offensive pressure and several promising chances. By the end of the game, Syracuse led the Purples Eagles lopsidedly in shots, 23-4.
Sophomore forward Deandre Kerr had quite the outing tonight. He put SU on the scoreboard in the 59th minute and bagged the last-minute assist to freshman Curt Calov to end the game.
Kerr led the Orange attack with 10 shots, seven of which were on target. He also barraged the Niagara defense with skillful runs and suffocating offensive pressure.
“I could have scored two, three, four goals tonight,” Kerr said. “But I’m happy I got one and that we won the game.”
Kerr, who only scored on one of those seven shots, said his teammates kept his head up when chances didn’t go his way.
“‘Next one, you’ll get the next one,’ that’s what I heard from my teammates all night,” Kerr said. “And after half, I eventually got one. That’s all credit to my teammates.”
While SU’s offense stole the show tonight, the Orange defense held its own at the same time. Niagara had a few chances throughout the game, but Syracuse was able to block shots and make impressive tackles.
Freshman defender Olu Oyegunie got the first start of his collegiate career tonight. He said SU’s defense played to improve on mistakes they made against Georgetown and Penn State earlier this season.
“Coach [McIntyre] talked about having a passionate defense of the goal because last season we conceded a lot of goals,” Oyegunie said. “We came here, worked hard, wanted no goals… [and we] conceded last game, which was tough, so we wanted to bounce back.”
Head coach Ian McIntyre appeared happy with his team’s performance. Syracuse evened its record to 2-2 with the 2-0 shutout over the Purple Eagles.
“The story for us is this: yes, we took 22, 23 shots, and we probably should have scored some more goals, but I also was proud of our work against adversity,” McIntyre said. “We were a center back down, and we lost our starting goalkeeper. But it did not affect our guys at all and they found a way.”
is a contributor for The NewsHouse.
is an advanced military visual journalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
