Before this season even began, the Syracuse offense faced a tall order: It needed to replace its top five leading scorers from 2012.

Tony Asante, a senior forward, tore his ACL before the season started. Jordan Vale, whose nine goals led SU and tied for sixth in the Big East, transferred to UCLA. Lars Muller and Ted Cribley graduated, as did Louis Clark — who is still on Syracuse’s sideline in a coaching capacity.

Despite the scoring challenge that confronted the Orange, its youth has answered the call.

“We understood that we were replacing the majority of our goal production, so we understood that the new guys have to step up,” head coach Ian McIntyre said, “and we have confidence in them.”

A trio of Syracuse freshman forwards — Emil Ekblom, Alex Halis and Chris Nanco — has accounted for 15 of the Orange’s 24 goals thus far, and the three players rank as SU’s top three scorers. They’ll look to continue to carry the Syracuse (8-3, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) attack when SU travels to Boston College (4-3-2, 2-2-1) on Tuesday for a 5 p.m. matchup.

Even with so many proven threats from a year ago unavailable now, the Orange attack is on pace to eclipse its own numbers from a year ago.

Through 11 games, SU’s shooting percentage is up from 13.7 to 18.5 percent, and the team averages 2.18 goals per game after netting 1.86 goals per contest in 2012. In 21 games last year, the Orange logged 39 goals — a total that SU is primed to surpass.

The freshmen’s execution has been balanced. Ekblom tops SU with six goals, while Halis has scored five and Nanco four.

“We’ve talked about our need to share the load,” McIntyre said. “It’s important that we share the load, because I don’t think we have a 15-to-20-goal player on our team.”

Ekblom leapfrogged to the top of the scoring column after his hat trick — SU’s first since 2008 — against North Carolina State on Friday, a 5-0 beating in which Syracuse’s forwards had a field day.

For the Orange’s second goal of the night, Ekblom led Nanco with a perfect cross just past the goalkeeper. Ekblom then proceeded to put on a three-goal performance — the last of which was made possible by a pass from fellow freshman Oyvind Alseth.

“We are fluid up front,” Ekblom said on Friday. “Our front guys play well together. We try to find each other up front and it worked out well tonight.”

That chemistry has struck opposing defenses in a handful of occasions this season.

Alseth found Ekblom for SU’s fourth goal in its season-opening win at Colgate. Nanco and Halis combined for nine points — four goals and one assist — in the Orange’s win against Manhattan.

And if the Orange needs heroics, its freshman group has proved reliable.

Halis netted the only goal in Syracuse’s upset of then-No. 12 Connecticut on Sept. 17. Ekblom and Nanco each scored in the second half of SU’s comeback win at Duke three days later.

Deadlocked in overtime against Binghamton on Oct. 1, Halis came through with his third game-winning goal of the season.

“Our freshmen are very, very talented,” McIntyre said. “We realized that our new guys would have to contribute with some goals and some important goals at important times.”

Still, the ACC transition has not been easy for the Orange. Syracuse sits at just 2-3 in-conference and takes on a Boston College team that managed to tie the same Notre Dame team that dominated the Orange.

Building off of SU’s confidence-boosting victory against N.C. State, its freshmen will need to continue to rise to the challenge as ACC play intensifies.

“I think as time goes on, we’ll pick up the speed and tempo,” Nanco said after SU’s loss to Virginia, “and play the way we know how to play, which is very fast and moving the ball forward and getting after scoring goals.”

Published on October 7, 2013 at 10:20 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb