Juuso Pasanen turned to the stands as the clock ticked down in the final seconds, pumping his arms up and down to motion for the raucous home crowd to stand up.

It was a feeling no Syracuse team has experienced since Oct. 17, 2001, when the Orange beat then-No. 8 Rutgers, 3-2, in overtime. It took 13 years and 16 tries, but SU knocked off a Top-10 opponent on Saturday night.

“It puts us at that table with all those big-time teams,” junior goalkeeper Alex Bono said. “(Virginia is) a final four team and for us to come out and make a statement like that is definitely a big deal for us.”

After a Skylar Thomas header goal put SU ahead with 15 minutes remaining in the first half, the back three buckled down to post its eighth shutout of the year as No. 18 Syracuse (8-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) took down No. 2 Virginia (4-3-1, 1-1-1 ACC), 1-0, at SU Soccer Stadium in front of 2,019 fans.

The Orange has come close to knocking off national powerhouses, most recently in a 1-0 loss against then-No. 4 Notre Dame on Sept. 13., but it was finally able to edge a team SU head coach Ian McIntyre thinks can win the national title.

“Tonight, it kind of validates what you’re doing,” McIntyre said.

Just 10 minutes into the game, Virginia’s Ryan Zinkhan fired just wide of the left post from close range. Less than a minute later, Jake Rozhansky beat two SU defenders before Bono tipped away a would-be goal. A minute after that Rozhansky shot at the near post and Bono tipped it again.

The game flashed before Syracuse’s eyes in a matter of three minutes, but the defense of Jordan Murrell, Thomas and Tyler Hilliard was able to weather an early storm.

The hosts had their own bevy of semi-threats, but after a half hour of knocking on the door, Thomas used his height to his advantage on a corner kick.

Julian Buescher whipped in a corner from the right side and the 6-foot-3 Thomas mounted two Virginia defenders before heading the ball into the top-left corner to give Syracuse the lead.

“We’ve been working on that all week, all year actually, probably my whole college career,” Thomas said. “…working on crossing and finishing and hopefully I finally got it down.”

With a minute remaining in the first half, yet another corner kick found a Syracuse head. Alex Halis directed the ball to the far-right corner from close range past the dive of UVA goalie Calle Brown, but Pablo Aguilar stuck out his hand to stop the ball from crossing the line, to which no penalty was given.

It was a microcosm of the second half for SU, as Nick Perea, Chris Nanco and Halis all threatened to extend the lead but were unable to do so.

On a day where Syracuse could’ve blown the Cavaliers out, it was the defense, yet again, that allowed the team to hold on in a 1-0 game.

“We have eight wins this season and every single one of our wins has been a shutout, which is massive for our defense, massive for our entire team front to back,” Bono said. “If we won 1-0 every single game, I can’t say I would mind that.”

McIntyre noted how his team was tired of being second-best to top-tier opponents. He referenced last year’s games against Notre Dame and Virginia as ones that stuck out.

This time though, he didn’t have to harp on falling just short.

“I can’t comment on respect on a national stage, but in our locker room, we know we’ve got a very honest, hard-working group,” he said. “Not just to knick a game — to play well tonight, yes it was close, but we played some good soccer.”

Published on September 27, 2014 at 10:48 pm

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