HAMILTON — When Nyal Higgins and the Syracuse defense is protecting a lead, Higgins says he doesn’t think of how much total time is left. Instead, Higgins shouts out every five minutes, not how much time is remaining, but that another five has passed.

Higgins is in his first season with SU, he transferred from Oakland, and he described he and freshman Dylan McDonald as the “newbies” with the Orange. Higgins kept the Orange’s defense organized and made sure they focused on just five minutes. 

“I just let the team know where we should be defending to keep the team organized every five minutes,” Higgins said. “We just completed five more minutes, instead of thinking about how we have 40-45 minutes.”

The Orange scored in the opening 90 seconds on Tuesday night against Colgate on a Massimo Ferrin goal. The onus then turned to SU’s defense to protect the 1-0 lead, something SU has struggled with all season. When Syracuse led 1-0 vs. Yale and 2-0 against New Hampshire, the Orange were pegged back and settled for ties both times. For the first time all season, Syracuse (3-2-3, 0-1-1 Atlantic Coast) grabbed the first goal and saw its defense maintain it, this time for 89 minutes in a 1-0 win over Colgate (1-3-4, 0-0-1 Patriot) at Beir-Small ‘76 Field. 

Syracuse’s backline, sans veteran defender Sondre Norheim for most of the game, turned in what Higgins called the Orange’s best defensive performance of the season so far. Colgate muddied up the game the entire second half and outplayed the Orange for spells as it won second balls in the midfield and pushed numbers forward. But SU never broke. 

“It became very disruptive second half, it got very ugly,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “If you sit off a team like Colgate, it becomes that you’re encouraging that additional pressure and encouraging those long balls.”

The Orange didn’t face their first shot of the game until the 20th minute, when midfielder Kentaro Morrison picked up the ball in the midfield and ran at the center of the Orange’s backline. Higgins and McDonald dropped off, so Morrison fired a weak ground shot that turned into a routine save for goalkeeper Christian Miesch.

Syracuse pressed high and dominated most of the chances in the first half, enabling the Orange’s defense to play a higher line. When the Raiders tried to hit balls over the top, they were unable to connect and link up.

“Those guys today were monsters in the back,” Ferrin said. “It ignites our attack… If we’re not winning those balls in the air, it can make for a long game.”

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Before Tuesday’s game, McIntyre knew Norheim wouldn’t be in the starting lineup. He’s been battling an undisclosed injury for much of the season and McIntyre has called him a “warrior” on multiple occasions. 

McIntyre asked the junior if he could provide 15 minutes of defending off the bench if the Orange were in a close game. McIntyre said that Norheim told him he could provide the aerial presence, even if he couldn’t go the full 90. 

With 19 minutes to go, Norheim entered the game for freshman Noah Singelmann, a defensive switch that enabled the Orange to better counteract Colgate’s dangerous long throw-ins and direct long balls. Defender John Austin-Ricks also replaced midfielder Hilli Goldhar as the focus switched away from scoring a second goal and toward securing the 1-0 win.

“He’s probably our most aggressive player in the air,” McIntyre said of Norheim. “We’re not the biggest team in the world and he gave us a little bit of height.”

Higgins tracked Colgate’s 6-foot-3 defender Christian Clarke on set pieces, while McDonald was responsible for roaming the center of the box and clearing everything away. 

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The Raiders generated multiple half-chances off of these long throws, but either Miesch was able to claim the ball or the Orange cleared the ball out of danger. In total, Colgate mustered just seven shots, three on goal.

Syracuse turned to stall tactics — trapping balls near the corner flags and delaying before free kicks — as precious seconds ticked off the clock. One long throw-in produced a diving header that was headed to goal, until Higgins deflected it out for a corner.

“I thought Simon Triantafillou, Dylan, Nyal, Matt Orr, all did a good job of fighting and scrapping,” McIntyre said. “It was ugly at times.”

In the game’s final five seconds, Colgate earned one final corner to try and equalize. Raiders’ goalie Jacob Harris came forward. He leaped for the header off the delivery and connected, but the ball sailed just wide of Miesch’s far post. The full-time horn sounded, and for the second time in 2019, Syracuse kept a clean sheet.

Five minutes at a time.

Published on September 24, 2019 at 11:02 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo