Callum Willmott angrily stormed off the field, kicking up a clump of turf as he walked to the sideline. Two yellow cards on Niagara earlier in the game meant the forward would have to take a seat on the bench.

But Willmott’s temporary exit in the 63rd minute was only a footnote on his dominating, two-goal performance. The 6-foot-6 forward had already done enough to hand the Orange its first loss of the season.

“They targeted me all game,” said Willmott, Niagara’s top returning goal-scorer from last season. “But luckily, I was able to score a few from the touches I received and made a difference tonight.”

The two goals Willmott scored helped the Purple Eagles defeat Syracuse 2-1 at SU Soccer Stadium in front of 1,336 on Friday night. Niagara (2-0-1) only took six shots in the game, but Willmott made the most of his four chances in Niagara’s first win over SU (2-1) in 11 matchups.

The Niagara sophomore used his unique blend of size and strength on both scores, revealing weaknesses in the veteran SU back line.

Seven minutes into the first half, that back line was left flat-footed.

Willmott timed his header perfectly after gaining favorable position on a smaller defender in Skylar Thomas. He cleanly redirected the ball from right to left and away from leaping SU goalkeeper Alex Bono.

Willmott and his teammates celebrated their first score as they jogged back to their side of the field. Meanwhile, Thomas – SU’s tallest player at 6-foot-3 – could only clap his hands in anger while he fished the ball out of his own net, unable to match up with a player of Willmott’s size.

“It beats you up when you let a goal in that quickly,” said Thomas. “With a guy like that, you have to be aggressive with him.”

With the defensive focus shifted to the tall forward, Thomas and his fellow defenders were able to contain Willmott the rest of the first half. Still, Willmott used his frame to shield the ball away from SU just long enough to set up his teammates.

A few well-placed passes from Willmott’s foot set up Niagara attacks. And when the second half began, Niagara regained momentum and fed their best goal scorer again.

One minute into the second half, a pass split the Orange defense and rolled into the box. Bono charged it, but it hit defender Chris Makowski and fell right to the feet of SU’s nemesis Friday night.

One booming shot later, and Willmott gave the Purple Eagles a comfortable two-goal advantage.

“He had two chances and he scored two goals,” SU head coach Ian McIntrye said. “It made it difficult being two down, but we had to keep pushing.”

SU pushed back 18 minutes into the second half.

As soon as Willmott exited the game with his second yellow card from a diving header, junior forward Tony Asante placed the ball by Niagara goalkeeper Brett Petricek, moving the Orange within one goal late.

But Willmott reentered the game in its crucial closing minutes and seized momentum for the visitors again. He got a touch on each one of SU’s four corner kicks in the last three minutes of the game and deflated any chance for a game-tying score.

With his size, strength, and skill, Willmott led his team to victory.

And with a quick turnaround until Monday’s game against a deep Colgate team, the Syracuse defense has some questions to answer about how they’ll matchup against similar players in the future.

“Without those two lapses, we had a pretty solid outing,” said McIntyre. “Sometimes you just have to take your hat off to a forward after a performance like that.”

Published on August 31, 2012 at 11:09 pm

Contact Nick: nctoney@syr.edu | @nicktoneytweets