The ball barely left the Syracuse half. The few times Syracuse managed to get the ball into Colgate territory, it went to two SU forwards overwhelmed by four Colgate defenders. Every feeble attempt at an attack during the duration of the last 30 minutes of regular time was quickly recovered by the Raiders. SU defender Jakob Karlgren said the Orange was left hanging.

SU played 60 quality minutes in its game against No. 24 Colgate Wednesday. Syracuse (2-5-3) got the 3-2 win off an overtime free kick by midfielder Mark Brode. In those 60 quality minutes, the Orange controlled the ball. It completed passes through the middle. It kept possession. It put immediate pressure on the Colgate (5-2-3) offense. It scored. Twice.

Soccer games, however, last 90 minutes. The Orange never maintained a steady composure in the last third of regular time.

Colgate dominated that last half-hour of play, chipping away at the Orange lead. With five minutes left to play, Colgate tied the game, sending it into overtime.

‘In the first half we outnumbered them in the middle, so we moved the ball much better,’ Brode said. ‘We were just taking our chances. And then I feel like we started to get a little bit tired, started to get a little content with our 2-0 lead, and we started messing up pretty bad. All we were doing was clearing, clearing, and we just got bombarded with so much pressure.’

With less than a minute left in overtime, Brode vindicated the SU team that had showed up for those first 60 minutes. Brett Jankouskas was fouled just outside the 18-yard line, setting up a free kick.

Midfielder Nick Roydhouse, who had unsuccessfully taken a similar free kick earlier in the game, stepped up to the ball with Brode. Surprising both the opposing team and some of his own teammates, Brode took the shot instead of Roydhouse. The ball sailed to the right of Colgate goalkeeper Chris Miller to end the game.

‘I had a little feeling,’ defender Karlgren said. ‘It was the same as when we won the last game (against Northeastern). It was a nice feeling and a wonderful free kick.’

Brode was responsible for Syracuse’s first goal, as well. He headed the ball past the goalie off a corner kick taken by Roydhouse 20 minutes into the half. Only 1:03 later, the Orange struck again. Fredrik Forsman flicked the ball over the goalie’s head to gain that 2-0 lead.

Although Roydhouse did not start because of what he said was a ‘coach’s decision,’ he played a big role in the game. He was the spark that got his teammates to find the back of the net. Both goals occurred within minutes of his arrival on the field, just more than 20 minutes into the game. Momentum was a big factor in the quick succession.

‘When we score one, they get down a little and we get pumped up, so we just kept going,’ Karlgren said. ‘I feel we could have scored some more goals.’

The breakdown of SU’s dominant play was obvious. The first sign of trouble came with a miscommunication between goalie Ryan Jones and Karlgren, which left the keeper at the top of the box. The play did not result in a scoring opportunity for the Raiders, but Syracuse began to lose control.

The Orange showed signs of fatigue, and the team’s lack of experience defending a lead became apparent. Colgate scored two goals within about 11 minutes of each other. That period between the Raiders’ two goals was rife with scoring opportunities, including a corner kick and shot that barely missed by Colgate’s Steven Miller.

‘We haven’t had a lead all year, so we weren’t really too sure how to play with the lead,’ Roydhouse said. ‘It was actually a really good experience to have the lead, come back and then be able to win. It was kind of like the best of both worlds.’

So after a complete deterioration of SU’s quality performance, the team faced overtime. Jones said the Raiders still had control of the game coming off their resurgence in the second half. Colgate showed its dominance in the beginning of the 10-minute overtime with four shots to Syracuse’s one.

But one shot is all it takes. No matter how well SU started the game, or how poorly it finished, all it needed was the opportunity for the set piece and Brode’s accurate right foot. Head coach Ian McIntyre was just happy with the win.

‘I thought they were on top,’ McIntyre said. ‘I thought their momentum continued. Without creating a lot of quality, they had the ball in our end most of the time. At the end of the day, they can have the ball all they want if we score that final goal. That’s the all-important one.’

alguggen@syr.edu