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Jeorgio Kocevski lined up a corner kick in the 51st minute, looking to break a scoreless tie. The Syracuse midfielder looped a perfect ball through the teeth of the UAlbany defense. His delivery fell to teammate Gabriel Mikina, who headed the pass inside the left post for the Orange’s lone goal.

That was all the offense No. 1 SU (3-0-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) needed in its 1-0 win over UAlbany (2-2, 0-0 America East Conference) on Monday night. After missing a few opportunities to extend their lead in the second half, the Orange’s defense survived a flurry of threatening attacks from the Great Danes to deliver their third clean sheet of the season. In his first career start, Syracuse goalkeeper Jahiem Wickham faced five shots, tallying two saves.

“That was an intense, physical college soccer match,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “Probably not the prettiest, but that’s what you get in these regional matchups. Thankfully, we found enough to get through this tonight.”

Syracuse comfortably dictated the pace throughout the game’s first minutes. Lorenzo Boselli received a touch pass from Mikina just over midfield but UAlbany defender Lucas Watt swiftly stole possession. Moments later, the Orange earned their first corner of the match. Midfielder Mateo Leveque whistled a promising cross into the box, but Nicholas Kaloukian’s header sailed just over the bar.

SU’s best chance to score in the first half came 21 minutes in. A cross from Giona Leibold picked out Leveque, generating a one-on-one opportunity against Wilson. Leveque’s glancing header, however, went just wide past the right post.

Despite SU’s dominance in possession, the visitors made the most of their few opportunities. Watt brought down a long ball deep in Syracuse territory but the Orange did well to close him down. Watt produced a rushed attempt straight into the outstretched arms of Wickham, who made his first collegiate start following the suspension of Jason Smith.

While its aggressiveness produced eight first-half shots, the No. 1 team in the country had to scale back its tenacity after receiving three yellow cards in a five-minute span. Leveque got hit with the first card following a soft tackle in the 37th minute. Kocevski found himself in the same predicament following a hard challenge in midfield a minute later. In the 42nd minute, Mikina was booked for a crunching tackle which halted a UAlbany attack.

The Orange avoided further bookings for the final three minutes of the first half. But they failed to generate any offensive momentum

Syracuse continued to control the attacking tempo early and often in the second half. UAlbany defenders Ben Kaplan and Max Wilhelm cleared the ball out of harm’s way, but surrendered three consecutive SU corners. The Great Danes knocked the first one away and a Boselli header, which took a deflection, missed left the second time around. Kocevski serviced a rocket straight to Mikina during the third try. Mikina’s header flew inside the left post, breaking the deadlock in the 51st minute.

“The first corner, right before, just went over my head then someone kicked it over and we won another corner,” Mikina said. “I told [Leveque] and [Kocevski] to do the exact same thing and it worked out,”

The visitors countered with an attack in the 58th minute, but SU defender Gavin Wigg’s timely tackle wiped away the danger. On the ensuing break, Kaplan took out Boselli on a deep pass attempt, garnering UAlbany’s second yellow card in three minutes.

The Orange looked poised to build on their one-goal lead but could not capitalize on two great opportunities at the 60-minute mark. First, Kocevski dished a beautiful ball to Boselli through the thick of the Great Danes’ defense, but a diving Wilson saved his shot. Boselli misfired minutes later off a feed from Daniel Diaz Bonilla to the left of the net, keeping SU’s advantage at one.

Desperate to score, UAlbany pushed up its back line and controlled possession for the final 30 minutes. Wickham looked solid in net for Syracuse as time wound down, snatching away searching passes.

“[I’m] also very proud. Maybe in other years, this becomes a 1-1 game and we’re having a different conversation,” McIntyre said. “A clean sheet, a win. We can build on this going into Louisville.”

With 10 seconds remaining and the clock ticking, the Great Danes hurried one last corner kick. Kaloukian stepped in front of a shot at the buzzer, deflecting away the final attempt to secure the win for the Orange.

“A little bit of chaos we had right at the end,” McIntyre said. “[UAlbany] just ran out of time, and one of our guys put their bodies on the line.”

Published on September 4, 2023 at 11:58 pm