Losses like Sunday’s are the worst kind for Ian McIntyre. After keeping pace with Siena all game, the SU head coach dealt with the disappointment of seeing his team fall in overtime.

‘I thought the second half and overtime we were on top of our game for long periods,’ McIntyre said. ‘I thought there was gonna be a goal scored in overtime. We were the team that had chances.’

Unfortunately for Syracuse, Siena was the team that capitalized on its chances. Less than five minutes into overtime, Siena (2-2-0) scored the game-winner to send SU (1-2-0) home with a 2-1 loss.

Last season, Syracuse fell to Siena 5-1 in its season opener, the Orange’s first-ever game under McIntyre. SU played better this time around. The squad got plenty of contributions from its starting defenders and an infusion of energy from its young bench players, McIntyre said.

McIntyre still thought his team played well despite the disappointing result. Freshman Skylar Thomas, a defender, scored a goal for the second straight match.

‘I thought we were very good today,’ McIntyre said. ‘Unfortunately, the final score probably doesn’t reflect the overall game. From the start to the final goal, I thought we were excellent.’

After playing to a 1-1 stalemate in regulation, SU had multiple chances to win the game in overtime before Siena could even get a shot off in the extra period.

Ted Cribley’s shot went high over the crossbar, and Louis Clark’s potential game-winner was saved by Siena goalkeeper Jack Binks.

Two minutes after SU’s best attempts, Siena had two of its own and capitalized on its second one for the win. Sindre Ek netted the game-winner after following up on a shot by Mike Matera that ricocheted off the goal post.

McIntyre said his team is young and still growing. Games like these show signs of improvement that can be used to build off of for the future, he said.

‘We’re still a young team that’s learning and will continue to learn,’ McIntyre said. ‘This time last year Siena really embarrassed us at home. Today, I think we really could have gone on and won by a couple. For long periods we were really dominant.’

His hope is for that dominance to continue in the future for entire games. Even though the loss to Siena is tough to swallow, it’s just part of the development for a team still meshing so many new players together.

In SU’s first three games, the defense has been solid. Sunday was the first game in which the Orange gave up multiple goals. It has been the offense that has struggled to convert those opportunities into goals.

But the offense showed flashes of potential in its two-goal outburst against Canisius Thursday and once again in the loss to Siena. Last year, it took Syracuse five games to score three goals. This time, SU did it in three.

‘If we continue to play with that quality use of the soccer ball and that intensity and tempo,’ McIntyre said, ‘we’ll continue to develop as a team.’

rnmarcus@syr.edu

Published on September 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rnmarcus@syr.edu