Head coach Ian McIntyre was concerned about a letup after a tightly contested, emotional game against Notre Dame on Saturday.

His worries came to fruition during a stagnant first 17 minutes, as he frustratedly paced back and forth on the sideline while yelling at Stefanos Stamoulacatos to “find the game.”

Minutes later, Stamoulacatos responded, swiftly assisting on a Juuso Pasanen goal and Emil Ekblom followed suit with his own tally three minutes later.

After a slow start, the No. 23-ranked Orange (5-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) used those two early goals and a late one from Nick Perea to beat Cornell (2-2-1), 3-0, in front of 647 at SU Soccer Stadium on Tuesday night.

After getting out to an early lead, the Orange back three buckled down and shut down the Big Red attack.

“It’s a testament to our guys,” McIntyre said. “We found a way to get the result tonight.”

After wide-open Cornell midfielder Tommy Griffin nearly scored early on, defenders Louis Cross and Jordan Murrell unleashed vocally on the Syracuse midfielders to find their marks. Goalkeeper Alex Bono screamed for his team to push up out of the defensive third whenever he corralled the ball.

But the tide suddenly changed from a Big Red-dominated game to one that the Orange had firmly in its grasp.

Ekblom took the ball to the left edge of the box before laying it off for Stamoulacatos atop the 18. He one-timed it to Pasanen, who side-footed the ball into the top left corner from 20 yards out in the 18th minute, beyond the outstretched left arm of Cornell goalie Zach Zagorski.

“Amazing,” Pasanen said of his goal. “It was a great play on the left side. It was the best feeling. It’s always good to get the first goal.”

A minute later, Chris Nanco came in for Stamoulacatos and immediately wreaked havoc on the Big Red back line. He dangled left defender Zach Bialik on the right flank before cutting inside and feeding Ekblom, who volleyed the ball into the bottom-right corner for his third goal of the campaign.

The Big Red nearly cut the lead in half shortly after, when Bono bobbled a bouncing shot and Cornell forward Conor Goepel got a toe on it, but the ball trickled wide left to preserve the shutout.

It was the closest Cornell would come, despite having a multitude of semi-chances, as Cross — in replacement of the suspended Skylar Thomas — remained steadfast in the center of the back three.

“It was a bit of a shaky start, but I think we adjusted well,” Cross said. “Second half, we came out really well. We knew we had to be tighter, get the defense together a bit more, so I think we did pretty well.”

Syracuse threatened to extend the lead several times early in the second half, but were unable to convert. Ekblom  beat two defenders with back-to-back spin moves in the box before hitting the left post. Oyvind Alseth beat four defenders before unleashing just wide left. Alex Halis ripped a shot that Zagorski was just able to hold onto.

Bono and the back line weren’t tested nearly as much in the latter stages of the game as the Orange’s five-man midfield continued to put the Cornell defense on the back foot, virtually until  the clock hit triple-zeros.

Perea added an insurance tally with just more than two minutes remaining that beat Zigorski at his near post, providing a fitting conclusion to a game that, after a shaky SU start, seemed all but decided.

“This Cornell game was a tough test for us,” McIntyre said. “Now we take a deep breath for a few hours and get ready for Coach (Mike) Noonan and his talented Clemson team.”

Published on September 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm

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