Syracuse’s frustration reverberated throughout SU Soccer Stadium, taking the form of an Emil Ekblom fist hitting the Plexiglas of the Orange bench.

Syracuse had been overmatched.

“We definitely had enough time to come back,” forward Grant Chong said. “It was just a matter of will and power to get back in the game and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that.”

Pitted against a physical Virginia team, the Orange (6-3, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) failed to produce any offense in its 2-0 loss to the Cavaliers (4-3-1, 1-2-1) at SU Soccer Stadium on Saturday night. Syracuse continued to struggle in adapting to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s faster style of play. The Orange has scored just three goals through four ACC matchups.

UVA’s suffocating defense limited SU to just two shot attempts, only one of which was on net.

“They did a good job, didn’t they?” head coach Ian McIntyre said. “They really stifled our service into our front guys. I think our movement could’ve been a little better, but they close space down.

“They work very hard. They get two players around the ball and really try to smother you.”

The physicality of the contest was felt just as early as UVA’s first goal less than six minutes into the game.

SU’s Juuso Pasanen drew a handful of whistles throughout the half from the Cavaliers’ defense. And a collision sent Orange defender Jordan Murrell to the grass for the first of his two injury breaks in the 20th minute.

Playing from behind just 5:45 into the match and facing heavy pressure from the UVA defense, Syracuse’s attack was never able to catch up.

In the 30th minute, freshman Alex Halis started a break and dished to Ekblom, who couldn’t put it in the back of the net.

That turned out to be the best chance the Orange would have all night.

“Against these teams, when you have opportunities you have to capitalize on them,” Chong said. “Because you may only have one or two each game. We weren’t able to. We didn’t have very perfect chances to try to score, and it just didn’t work out well for us.”

The Cavaliers offered each other plenty of help defensively, especially on the outside. Chris Nanco, one of the Orange’s more aggressive forwards on Saturday, saw a handful of double teams as he tried to maneuver down the sideline and toward the box.

Virginia would even send more help. A triple team on Syracuse’s Noah Rhynhart toward the end of the first half left Rhynart on the ground as the trio started a UVA break going the other way.

“We’re not one of the biggest teams, so it hurts us in the long run,” Nanco said. “The physicality of Virginia, we needed to use our ball work and our speed to get around that and that’s what will help us down the stretch.”

The personal fouls and chippy play finally culminated with a scuffle in the 62nd minute. Murrell had a few words with the UVA defense after Halis took the brunt of a hard foul, a penalty that drew Virginia’s first of two yellow cards.

But on the ensuing free kick, Murrell’s cross was not close enough to the net to give SU a chance to score.

The Orange’s second and final shot attempt of the match came 10 minutes later. Syracuse strung two passes together in the attacking third, but Rhynhart’s header sailed well over the top of the net.

“This will be a tough one to watch on video,” McIntyre said, “but it’ll also be a great one to watch on video because I think we’ll take a lot away from what they brought and how they smothered the space in the game.”

Published on September 28, 2013 at 11:52 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb