Tony Asante waited patiently at midfield to take his turn. And at the next stoppage of play, a sweat-drenched Lars Muller gave Asante his chance, jogging off the field before crashing on the Syracuse bench.

The junior ran out to the top of Louisville’s 18-yard box. It was his turn to play the front man in head coach Ian McIntyre’s one-forward scheme.

“We’re both different players,” said Asante about SU’s rotation at the top of its attack. “And we both do certain things better than the other as forwards.”

The two couldn’t be more different. Asante is a dynamite ball-handler who uses his speed to create open shots. And at 6 feet 2inches tall, Muller relies on his height to best defenders in the box and shield the ball away from the opposition as others crash the goal.

But Syracuse is off to its best offensive season in years with the duo heading the charge. And that’s made McIntyre reconsider his forward rotation when the Orange (9-4, 2-2 Big East) travels to play South Florida (6-2-4, 1-0-3 Big East), a near-Top 25 team, at 7 p.m. Saturday.

McIntyre said he’s been trying to find ways to put Muller and Asante on the field at the same time. That plan took a step back, though, when Asante sat out last week’s Rutgers game because of a red card.

With his minutes in the Louisville game used to shake off the rust, Asante might be the answer to Syracuse’s recent offensive lull. In the early half of the season, SU led the nation in many offensive categories.

The team is tied for second in the Big East in points (76) and first in goals (27), but has averaged a goal a game during the past three contests and lost two of those three.

In the win against Rutgers, Muller proved to be more than capable of manning the sole forward position himself. He facilitated many of SU’s 12 shots by gaining favorable position on a defender near the top of the box, trapping the ball and waiting for his teammates on the wings to get open.

That holding strategy worked early in the second half when Muller stalled, then found a trailing Louis Clark for a quick shot on goal.

“Holding up the ball is part of my job,” said Muller. “I can find someone to pass to, and then I can run my channel and try and beat the defender.”

Muller “ran his channel” — or occupied his space in the offensive box — to end the Rutgers game with a heading goal. Watching from the stands because of his red card, Asante leapt to his feet in applause as Muller’s winning score ended the game.

Should another game-winning opportunity present itself, McIntyre wants Asante on the field instead of in the stands. For two seasons at Monroe (N.Y.) junior college, Asante played in a similar scheme as the sole forward, but McIntyre knows that he can maximize the talents of his leading goal scorer elsewhere.

Asante agrees. At 5 feet 10 inches tall, he’s at his best when he’s not bogged down by the taller center backs, but free to roam in space and wiggle away from midfielders and outside defenders.

His long and arching goal from 17 yards out against Niagara earlier this season proved Asante can strike from anywhere. But he knows how to “run his channels” too, if need be, as evidenced by his first goal — a point-black tip-in in the season opener that iced a win against Albany.

Muller assisted Asante’s first goal with a quick pass in traffic. And from the sideline, McIntyre received his first glimpse of what the duo could do to an opposing defense while playing on the field together.

It’s a formula he said he plans on returning to this weekend against South Florida.

“Tony is a dynamic scorer,” McIntyre said. “Lars knows how to facilitate the offense. The idea of putting both on the field is something we’ve tried before and we’ll try again. It’s exciting to think about what these two can accomplish together.”

Published on October 11, 2012 at 12:00 am

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