SU Men’s Soccer Comes Back from 1-0 Deficit to Beat Penn State, Advance to Sweet Sixteen

By Julia Morris
Photos by Jiayang Zhang

Inches ended up being the difference for the No. 9 Syracuse University men’s soccer team in its NCAA tournament game on Sunday.   

With just six minutes left in regulation, sophomore Oyvind Alseth fired the ball toward the net from the right corner of the field.  Penn State goal keeper Andrew Wolverton caught the ball and fell to the ground, causing many of the 1,213 Orange fans present at the SU Soccer stadium to go silent, as the ball looked like it had been saved.  However, seconds later the silence turned to cheers as Wolverton fell just inside of the goal line and officials whistled for a score, giving the Orange a 2-1 lead.

 

“I got a great ball there and I tried to cross it,” Alseth said.  “Fortunately, it wasn’t a bad hit I had so I guess the goalie wasn’t expecting it and it snuck in across the line right inside of him.”

Leading up to Alseth’s goal, Syracuse midfielder Juuso Pasanen got tangled up with Penn State forward Mark Wadid. A foul was called on Wadid – who threw away the ball in frustration and vocalized his disagreement to the referees.  Orange defender Jordan Murrell then took the free kick from midfield and sent a long ball to Alseth to set up the goal.

“I was looking at O and I saw he was in a little bit of space and I was just trying to clip it under the back,” Murrell said. “When he brought the ball down I was hoping he was going to cross the ball and he actually scored.”

Before scoring the game-winning goal, Alseth also helped set up the game-tying score for the Orange in the 73^rd minute. Following a Syracuse corner kick, he sent a cross pass to forward Emil Ekblom who was sprinting down the right side of the field.  Ekblom then directed the ball to the lower left corner of the net to even the score 1-1. The goal was Ekblom’s eighth of the season.  
 

 

"I made a good run and just had to slide it in," Ekblom said.

Lions Score First

Even though the Orange maintained possession of the ball for most of the game and dominated the Nittany Lions on the offensive end, Penn State scored first in the 60^th minute.

“We were on top of the game at the time and it was kind of a fluky play,” Syracuse Coach Ian McIntyre said.

Syracuse goalie Alex Bono, who has been consistent at guarding the net for the Orange all season, tried to throw the ball to defender Tyler Hilliard but it slipped out of his hands and landed a few feet outside of the box at the feet of Penn State forward Connor Maloney.  Hilliard tried to stop Maloney as he closed in on the goal but he was called for a foul inside of the box, setting up a penalty kick for the Lions. 

Maloney converted on the penalty shot, sending the ball to the lower left corner of the net as Bono dove the opposite way.  The score put the Lions ahead 1-0.
 

“I was going to roll it out to T and I had to hold up and at the last second and I couldn’t hold it up,” Bono said.  “It’s a terrible, terrible mistake by me and it pains me thinking after that that I could ruin all of our senior’s chances to go to the sweet sixteen.  But give credit to the guys they fought back and they really saved me on this one.”

 

Missed Opportunities in the First Half

The first half was scoreless for both teams, but the Orange had several opportunities to score.  Syracuse outshot Penn State 8-1 in the first half and 19-5 throughout the game.

Just seven minutes into the game, Julian Buescher sent a kick from the left side of the field toward the goal that connected with Alseth. However, Alseth’s shot knocked right off the right goal post.

Wolverton made several outstanding plays in the first half and finished the game with eight total saves.  With 21 minutes left in the first half, Orange forward Alex Halis headed the ball from inside the box toward the net.  Halis’ header looked like it was going straight for the left corner of the net but Wolverton made a diving stop to his right to keep the game scoreless.

“He probably is the man of the match,” McIntyre said. “I thought he was fantastic.  We had a couple chances first half and we had a few smiles on our bench because he was outstanding today…he was very good tipping crosses over the bar, he’s got great reach.”

Despite Wolverton's impressive efforts, his mistake when handling Alseth's game-winning goal proved to be the difference maker of the match.

Next Up

With the victory, the Orange now advances to the Sweet Sixteen to take on No. 8 Georgetown, which  knocked out the Orange in the 2012 NCAA Tournament in a game that was decided by penalty kicks. 
 The re-match will take place next Sunday,  Nov. 30 at Georgetown.