After Kirk Johnson watched his second goal of the season enter the net last night, he collapsed to the ground in celebration.

The rest of the Syracuse men’s soccer team would’ve liked to join him. The Orangemen could have fallen to the grass as well — in relief — after Johnson’s goal gave SU a 3-1 victory over Hartwick at the Syracuse Soccer Stadium.

Despite entering the final 25 minutes with a 2-0 lead, it was all the Orangemen could do to avoid a tying rally by the Hawks. Johnson’s score ended a five-minute period where Syracuse played without its top two marking backs and Hartwick kept the ball pinned in the Syracuse end.

“It doesn’t matter who we have in there,” Syracuse head coach Dean Foti said. “That has no effect. We’ve got to do better.”

Senior defender Eric Chapman missed the game with a head injury sustained against Seton Hall, while Matt Chew left the game after a Hawks player came down on his ankle. Chapman is day-to-day while Foti said he wouldn’t know Chew’s status until after he was checked by trainers.

While Chapman and Chew were out, the SU defense cleared the ball to forward Jarett Park, who flicked a pass over the Hartwick squad. Johnson won a footrace with the lone defender and volleyed a bouncing ball into the top of the net to give SU the 3-1 margin.

Playing without Chapman, the Orangemen dominated the game early, taking the two-goal lead and a 9-4 halftime shot advantage. To adjust, Ryan Hall moved from midfield to defense, and midfielder Mike McCallion joined the starting lineup, replacing Hall.

While the Orangemen earned golden opportunities on the offensive end, goaltender Alim Karim could’ve watched from a folding chair, as the Hawks failed to create substantial scoring chances.

“We did well early,” forward Guido Cristofori said. “We feel like we could have been up 4-0.”

In the 18th minute, after Cristofori drew a foul on a collision, Hall took a rolling feed from Ari Schneider and drilled a one-timer into the lower left corner to put SU up, 1-0.

A Cristofori collision set up Syracuse’s second goal, too. Thirteen minutes into the second half, the senior shouldered a Hartwick player to the ground and nonchalantly stepped over him. Moments later, Cristofori was taken down from behind by Hawks defender Damien Charlton.

“He must have thought I was trying to step on the kid’s stomach or head,” Cristofori said. “Next thing I know, he’s slide-tackling my ankle from behind.”

With Hartwick watching Cristofori and Charlton jaw at one another, the ball squirted down the sideline to midfielder Ilias Calaitzides, who slotted the ball just inside the right post past goalie Randall Moate.

“I was just trying to stay calm,” said Calaitzides, whose goal was the first scored by an SU freshman this year. “I knew he thought I was going to pass, so I aimed far post.”

Hartwick’s fortunes began to change midway through the second half. At halftime, Foti changed Syracuse’s traditional 3-4-3 offense to a 2-5-3, taking one Orangeman off the forward line and placing him in the midfield.

The move gave Syracuse an additional player on the defensive end but stymied its possession-based offense. With Cristofori moving from forward to midfield, the SU offense began to chase down wild, full-field passes.

“We’re a very athletic team,” Foti said. “But when you start kicking the ball (downfield), you give it right back to the team and can’t use that athleticism.”

Meanwhile, Hartwick outshot SU, 13-6, in the second half. Still, SU’s defensive strategy held up until Karim, the Orangemen’s freshman goalie, and the referee combined to give the Hawks their most dangerous chance.

In the 68th minute, Karim punched a Hartwick attempt a few feet to his left. After dribbling it, he picked the ball up, prompting the referee to blow his whistle and call an indirect kick. The referee determined that Karim had maintained possession and then picked the ball up again.

On the indirect kick, Hartwick midfielder Kevin Saunders slipped the ball across the goalmouth, where midfielder Neil McLean slammed it in, cutting the SU lead to 2-1.

“I felt like we played well,” Hartwick coach Jim Lennox said. “Better than the result we got. But that’s soccer. The second goal was a back-breaker and the third was the end.”

Published on September 25, 2002 at 12:00 pm