Last Friday, then No.1-Wake Forest tried to bully Syracuse with physicality. Virginia Tech executed a similar gameplan a week earlier, so the Demon Deacon’s attempted to follow the blueprint on their first possession of the game. WFU’s 6-foot-2 forward Machop Chol glided down the pitch, pressuring the left side of SU’s formation.

He was a step away from the box when an orange-and-blue striped blur charged and knocked the ball away from behind. Ryan Raposo, a forward known for dazzling with his offense, used his 5-foot-7, 139-pound frame to dispossess Chol. It established the tone of the impending 2-0 upset, the Orange’s first conference win in more than 700 days.

“We did a good job of limiting their opportunities,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said after the WFU win. “That starts with the front guys.”

No. 24 Syracuse (6-4-1, 1-3-0 Atlantic Coast) is riding a three-game winning streak in part because of its forwards’ — from Raposo to Hilli Goldhar to Massimo Ferrin — devotion in SU’s defensive third. The Orange currently rank 98th in goals against average. They’ve allowed 14 scores in 1030 minutes of soccer. Twelve of those goals, however, came in the season’s first 7 games. While the Syracuse offense starts to click, the defense has done its part. It kept Wake Forest and Ohio State — one of the best, and then one of the worst offenses in the country — off the score sheet. The Orange aim to prolong its winning streak in Kentucky on Friday at 7 p.m. when it takes on No. 11 Louisville (7-2-2, 3-1-1).

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Earlier this season, it was SU’s smaller players like Goldhar and Raposo that faced discomfort due to their size. Goldhar said he routinely got “kicked,” referring to getting knocked over by larger defenders. The Orange have countered with Raposo and Goldhar, using their speed to ambush opposing ball-handlers.

With the game still scoreless in Syracuse’s 3-0 win over Ohio State on Oct. 8, the Buckeyes tried to switch play and cross the ball to the opposite side of the field. Raposo, playing in a deeper spot defensively, knocked the pass off its course when it reached its target and drew a foul.

“It’s a willingness to make life uncomfortable for the opponent,” McIntyre said.

The tactic worked in the first half of the Wake Forest contest. Multiple forwards pressed high and Raposo darted near the penalty box, corralling a loose ball and getting a shot on net. Generating more turnovers hasn’t been an emphasis, McIntyre said. Instead, the focus has been on positioning.

In the second half of the OSU contest, McIntyre urged his forwards to maintain the defensive intensity. The Buckeyes earned a throw-in in front of the SU bench after a sustained bout of possession. McIntyre walked the sidelines with arms pointed at two white jerseys. He called for Raposo and Severin Soerlie, another first-year forward, to match up.

“We keep drilling home that everyone has to work hard on the field,” senior defender Kamal Miller said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a forward, a winger or defender. You need to contribute defensively.”

Ferrin, a junior transfer, this season has bounced around SU’s 3-5-2 as a midfielder, central forward and winger. In recent games, Ferrin has hovered near the penalty box, snuffing out short-corner attempts and kick starting breakaways.

Orange goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert “appreciates” watching forwards make an impact in the defensive third. He’s noticed it drains opposing forwards of their stamina while simultaneously energizing the Orange. SU has fed off the momentum in the last week and responded to its most-recent failure.

Following SU’s double-overtime loss to Virginia Tech on Sept. 28, Raposo and other players were distraught. The loss dipped Syracuse’s winning percentage below-.500 and put the Orange on the wrong end of a three-game winless streak.

A change needed to be made. And then Syracuse limited Akron, the 22nd offense in the country, to one goal. Then Wake Forest, a team that had scored multiple goals in all of its previous games, was kept off the scoresheet. Then Ohio State, a team that’s scored five goals all year, was handled with ease. The forwards had stepped up on both sides of the field.

“I got to contribute so (a loss like the Virginia Tech game) doesn’t happen defensively and offensively,” Raposo said.

Published on October 10, 2018 at 11:11 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez