The Syracuse Orange men’s soccer team pulled off an upset on Sunday, as they managed to beat No. 5 NC State in the ACC quarterfinals 3-0, booking their spot in the semifinal on Thursday.
The game was pretty
calm overall in the first half, as neither team was able to score for the whole period. Some solid defensive play by both sides led to a 0-0 halftime scoreline. However, it was clear that NC State had the early advantage in this one, as they had nine shots to the Orange’s four, and goalkeeper Tomas Hut was forced to make three saves during the period.
After the break, however, the Orange offense began to come alive. In the 52nd minute, Chimere Omeze would put a ball in from the left side of the box, which found the left foot of Sachiel Ming, who would fire it into the net to open up the scoring for Syracuse. This would be Ming’s second goal of the season and his career, his first coming in the regular season match against NC State.
The Orange offense was nowhere near done, however, as in the 69th minute of the game, Carlos Zambrano would set up for a corner kick, after the offense had put plenty of pressure on the Wolfpack defense. The ball would be played perfectly, and would fall right past the goalkeeper completely untouched for an Olympico goal. This is Zambrano’s second Olympico of the season, and would mark the first time this season that NC State gave up more than one goal in a game. The goal would send the Orange players into a frenzy, and they continued that energy going into closing out the match.
The Orange would continue to fend off the NC State attack, including some unbelievable saves by Tomas Hut, and a goal-line clearance that had to be sent to video review to make a decision. However, in the 86th minute, a Syracuse clearance fell right to Chimere Omeze, and he was able to sprint halfway down the field with nobody ahead of him and slot the ball past the NC State goalkeeper, securing the 3-0 win for the Orange. Further, the three goals scored in this one nearly matched NC State’s total number of goals given up all season in one game.
One of the major stories coming out of this game is the effort of Tomas Hut, as he played absolutely incredible in net for the Orange. He made 10 saves on the night, including seven in the second half alone. Included in these were some world-class stops, for example, in the 72nd minute, where he saved one shot by a member of the Wolfpack, before just a few seconds later saving another shot from inside his own six-yard box. This was just one of the multitude of incredible saves Hut made in this game, as he was a crucial factor in keeping the clean sheet and playing out this game to the end.
After their 1-0 win over Stanford, SMU will be Syracuse’s next opponent in the semifinal of the ACC tournament. The Orange and Mustangs have already matched up this season, resulting in a 2-0 win for the Orange. SMU is a very difficult team; however, they are very beatable for the Orange, and this game could definitely result in an Orange win and a trip to the ACC final.
Syracuse will play SMU at 8 p.m. at First Horizon Stadium in Cary, NC, on Thursday, Nov. 13. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network and the winner will advance to play the winner of California vs Virginia on Sunday afternoon.
