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In the 15th minute of Syracuse’s game against Canisius, Giona Leibold attacked the Golden Griffins’ 18-yard box and found an open Elton Chifamba in the right corner. Chifamba’s first cross was deflected out by the Canisius defense, but on the second try, his cross led to a two-goal Syracuse advantage.

As the ball spun back out to Chifamba, he gathered it with a soft touch before lifting it to an unmarked Andre Cutler-DeJesus, positioned on the back post. With a swift header, Cutler-DeJesus placed the ball past Golden Griffins goalkeeper Jack Petrie into the right side of the net.

“We saw that the back post was open a lot of times, so if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Chifamba said. “We just tried to keep finding the back post, (and) it worked out for us tonight.”

The goal was the second time in the contest where Syracuse (3-2-2, 0-1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) targeted the back post in its 5-1 win over Canisius (2-4-1, 0-0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference). With the Orange’s attack coming through crosses from the corners, the Golden Griffins could not keep up, as SU led 29-3 in shots. The offense’s success led to the most goals since the Orange’s 5-0 win over NC State on Nov. 1, 2023.

SU head coach Ian McIntyre said the Orange had worked a lot on feeding the ball to the back post, and it helped Syracuse jump out to a fast start.

Just three minutes in, Cutler-DeJesus found Leibold with space to work with on the left sideline. With two touches, Leibold sent a low-arching pass to the far side of the 18-yard box. The ball nicked the out-stretched leg of Kodie Sarkodie, right to Gabe Threadgold. He cleaned it up to give SU an early 1-0 lead.

Threadgold was left unmarked on the opposite side of the field due to the efficient passing that started with SU’s backline. Sam Layton and Chifamba directed the Orange to set up runs into Canisius’ territory, working to shift the ball horizontally.

Along the left sideline in the 14th minute, Leibold stole the ball away to start an SU possession. Short passes put the ball at Nicholas Kaloukian’s feet, who worked a give-and-go with Nathan Scott at the top of the box. Working from left to right, Kaloukian delivered a pass for Threadgold to take a weak-side shot, but it flew wide.

However, the strong chance by Threadgold led to an SU corner. Chifamba’s first service into the box was cleared out, but SU retained possession in the Golden Griffins’ half.

Canisius failed to shift its defense back to Chifamba, and on his third service into the box in under a minute, Cutler-DeJesus was waiting to take advantage.

“We’ve been working on crosses in practice, especially to our center backs,” Chifamba said. “The regains on corner kicks (is) something that we’ve been working on and being able to see that go in for Andre (Cutler-DeJesus) was an awesome moment for him.”

In the 25th minute, Leibold used his speed to create separation on the right sideline and served a high-lofting cross to the middle of the box. The ball made it over Kaloukian on the front post and Threadgold crashed the back, but Sarkodie got to it first and cleared it out.

The Orange continued to feed the back post in the 33rd minute, going through Leibold again. Threadgold got a shot off, but it was corralled by Petrie.

Syracuse tacked on a goal by Daniel Burko in the 38th minute and by halftime it led 3-0, having already matched its season-high in goals from Aug. 25 in a 3-0 win over Niagara.

Compared to spurned chances in its previous matches during the four-game winless streak, SU was finding success on crosses. Chifamba said when he works the ball to teammates such as Sachiel Ming and Leibold, it creates “dangerous” attacks because of their ability to deliver passes to the posts.

Just eight minutes into the second half, SU got the ball to Scott for a near-post goal to increase SU’s lead to 4-0.

The Orange stuck with the pressure on crosses in the second half and in the 60th minute, Threadgold nearly connected with Ming on the reverse side. Ming received a strong chance on the left side, but grounded the ball, leading to an easy save.

Canisius showed strength in defending near-post feeds as it denied crosses in by Scott and Ming. Unlike the Orange’s successful attempts, the passes lacked the force to get over the top of the Canisius defense.

Syracuse’s high pressure got the Golden Griffins to crack one last time in the 89th minute after Michal Gradus was fouled in the box. He struck home the penalty kick to put the finishing touches on SU’s victory.

“Getting goals and assists out of the wing back (with) the way that we play, that’s when we’re at our best,” McIntyre said.

Published on September 17, 2024 at 11:56 pm

Contact Timmy at: tswilcox@syr.edu | @TimmyWilcox32