In a span of minutes Saturday afternoon, Syracuse had a goal disallowed and two scoring chances hit the crossbar. As disappointing as that sounds, the offensive futility is becoming second nature for the Syracuse men’s soccer team this season.

The Orange allowed a season-low one goal Saturday against No. 8 Boston College at Syracuse Soccer Stadium. Yet Syracuse’s inability to score once again haunted it in a 1-0 loss to the Eagles.

‘We’re not going to let this bother us,’ freshman James Goodwin said. ‘We’re going to come right back out.’

The Eagles were the first ranked opponent SU faced this year, and through halftime with the game scoreless, the Orange appeared to be hanging tough.

But 10 minutes into the second half, BC freshman Charlie Davies broke the tie, and with SU’s offense struggling to put balls away in the net, it was all the Eagles needed.

Davies took a pass from fellow freshman Johann Helgason, found a little bit of open space, and broke behind SU’s defense in the box. Davies launched a soft shot to the opposite corner past Syracuse (1-3) keeper Rich Scheer.

‘Every game in the Big East is tough,’ said Scheer, who started his third consecutive game. ‘We had our chances. It could have gone either way.’

Indeed, it looked like on many chances Syracuse was going to tie the score.

SU freshman Justin Van Houten had a goal disallowed for being offside in the 64th minute, and then two minutes later, junior midfielder Alejandro Nuno headed a crossing pass that grazed the crossbar before going out of play.

Isaac Collings nearly tied the game a little while later on a shot from the left corner, but it hit the crossbar.

Scheer had the unlucky vantage point of seeing the offensive chances develop from the opposite goal, only to see them fail to find the net time after time. The junior said the offensive attack is there, but the chances aren’t falling, in part because the team is especially young with many freshmen starting.. ‘Watch out,’ Scheer said. ‘Because when the offense does start clicking, we’ll score.’

It’s becoming commonplace for Syracuse to outplay a team in offensive chances and still come up empty.

The Orange has managed only four goals through its first four games, losing three of those, and scoring two goals in a game only once.

BC keeper Issey Maholo had his second consecutive shutout. Maholo shut out No. 24 Cal State last weekend, and made one save against the Orange on Saturday.

‘We have to be patient and it’s going to come as the season goes along,’ SU junior Pat Gallagher said. ‘We have a lot of good players on this team and a lot of guys that can put the ball away. We’re just unlucky right now, but things will come around.’

Published on September 12, 2004 at 12:00 pm