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Syracuse senior midfielder Simon Triantafillou threw his hands up and complained after a foul was called against the Orange. “He’s such a diver,” Triantafillou pleaded to the referee after a UNC player was bodied by a Syracuse defender.

Regardless of whether the UNC player was flopping, Syracuse came out aggressive and ended up with 22 fouls, leaving several Tar Heels on the ground after a hard challenge by an Orange defender.

The aggressiveness was needed though, as Syracuse (1-6-4, 0-5-3 Atlantic Coast) held the No. 15-ranked Tar Heels (5-3-3, 5-1-3) scoreless Saturday in a game that went to double overtime. Back-to-back ACC Player of the Week Giovanni Montesdeoca only managed to get one shot on goal all game, and Syracuse bounced back with its first shutout of the year after giving up three goals in their previous game against Louisville on March 12.

“I asked for our guys to try to outwork and outfight our opponent and then ultimately outplay them,” head coach Ian McIntyre said. “I thought we were terrific against an outstanding UNC team.”

Throughout the game, Syracuse relied heavily on long balls to get the ball out of their own half and into UNC’s. However, the Orange backfield was also able to gain possession when the team pushed higher up and to press higher if they lost the ball on the Tar Heels’ side of the field.

Syracuse gave the Tar Heels no breathing room. Defenders would chase their man around, causing UNC to have difficulty making plays. Near the beginning of the second half, a UNC player hesitated to throw the ball in bounds because Syracuse defenders were swarming the area, not giving a clean look for UNC. Syracuse intercepted the ball off the throw in.

“If you give a good player time on the ball, they become special. I thought we did a very good job of limiting their front players and their midfield players,” McIntyre said.

Redshirt sophomore goalie Russell Shealy also recorded his first shutout in his career, recording three saves on a relatively quiet day in the net. Shealy recorded two saves in the first half and wasn’t tested again until the 104th minute. UNC also only had one corner kick all game, in the 38th minute. Shealy didn’t even have to come out of the box to save it after a collective clearance from Syracuse. Shealy said the defense controlled the game by keeping the ball out of Syracuse’s half.

Shealy credits the performance of Triantafillou and Hilli Goldhar for his shutout. While Triantafillou and Goldhar aren’t defenders, their defensive efforts on the outside prevented UNC from scoring on multiple occasions. On one instance in the second half, Triantafillou yelled “Right shoulder, right shoulder” to himself about UNC’s left winger, Jonathan Jimenez, who was a couple yards to his right. He proceeded to mark Jimenez and immediately track down a through ball sent to him.

Later on, in what looked like a second-half breakaway goal for UNC, Goldhar made a slide tackle in the box in a one-on-one to prevent the UNC player from getting a shot.

“Simon and Hilli, they definitely helped out our back three,” Shealy said. “Tracking back is a tough one for them, to go forward and be a part of the attack and to get back and help defend, but I think they were crucial in keeping a zero, no-goals-against today.”

Freshmen Kyle Gruno and Olu Oyegunie anchored the back three, giving the Tar Heels a hard time when they got close to the net. On every 50-50 ball in the air, Oyegunie put in a challenge, leaving the Tar Heel forwards with a tough ball to settle. By the end of the game, Oyegunie had sat down twice from cramping because he was running so much.

“I think a big thing is mentality, and we could have rolled over today. We could have been like ‘Oh our season’s done,’” Shealy said. “But I thought the guys and me showed grit and fought really hard.”

Published on March 20, 2021 at 8:23 pm

Contact Adam: amccaffe@syr.edu