In Ian McIntyre’s 10 years as Syracuse head coach, the program has been almost perfect in season openers. The Orange typically face inferior opponents in the year’s first contest — they have lost just twice in such games since McIntrye’s tenure began in January 2010.

From 2012 to 2016, SU started its season with a multi-goal shutout victory four times. The past two campaigns have started with more of a test, as the Orange squeaked by St. Louis in 2017, 2-1, and Oregon State in 2018, 2-1.

In 2019, Syracuse had its toughest challenge to start the season in over a decade — on the home field of No. 13 Georgetown. McIntyre noted the difficulty of starting the season against a ranked opponent but saw it as a grand opportunity for the Orange.

“It’s going to be a great test,” McIntyre said Wednesday. “We scheduled this tough game for a reason, to find out where we are. It’s going to be a benchmark.”

Syracuse (0-1) showed its quality, particularly in the second half, but fell short to No. 13 Georgetown (1-0), 3-1 on Friday afternoon in at Shaw Field in Washington, D.C. The contest marked the 19th all-time meeting between Syracuse and Georgetown, with the Hoyas improving their record to 12-5-2.

The Hoyas had the first threatening attacks of the afternoon through midfielder Jacob Montes, who fired two shots, including one off the right post, before 15 minutes had passed. Georgetown went on to strike the woodwork once more in the first 45 minutes and registered seven shots total to the Orange’s two. Freshman Luther Archimede was the sole SU player to test Hoyas goalkeeper Giannis Nikopolidis in the opening half.

Georgetown began the second half where it left off the first. Junior Jack Beer fired at Syracuse goalkeeper Christian Miesch within one minute before junior Derek Dodson gave the home team the lead two minutes later. Midfielder Dylan Nealis played junior Paul Rothrock through on goal, and with two SU defenders in close pursuit, the junior slid it across to Dodson for an easy tap-in.

Immediately after falling behind, the Orange began creating chances in its best spell of the game. Archimede tallied his second and third shots of the game in the following minutes. Just over a minute after Dodson’s strike, Nikopolidis took down Archimede in the penalty area. Sophomore Ryan Raposo stepped up and buried the penalty shot into the bottom left corner, knotting the match at one.

Archimede continued to spearhead Syracuse’s attack over the next 15 minutes, ringing off three more shots, but none found the back of the net. Nikopolidis logged three of his four saves in a six-minute span following the Orange’s equalizer.

The Hoyas withstood SU’s pressure and nicked the go-ahead goal when senior JB Fischer drilled a header in the top right corner from a corner kick with 15 minutes remaining. One minute later, graduate transfer Ethan Lochner’s cross found a wide-open freshman Dante Polvara, whose first touch took him past Miesch, where he slotted in Hoyas’ third goal.

While the final scoreline favored Georgetown, the two sides posted similar stats. The Orange were outshot, 16-15, and had five shots on goal to GU’s six. The two goalkeepers were equally busy as Miesch recorded three saves to Nikopolidis’ four.

Syracuse will host Binghamton in its home opener at 7 p.m. on Monday.

Published on August 30, 2019 at 6:51 pm

Contact David: ddschnei@syr.edu