Oyvind Alseth threw his jersey over his eyes and put his hands on his head. Players around him stood with their hands on their hips and Miles Robinson untied his cleats.

For a drained Syracuse team, it felt like the end result wasn’t what it deserved.

“We probably had a couple of the better chances to try and steal something tonight,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said.

The Orange outshot North Carolina, 13-6, and owned a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal. But the closest SU came to breaking through was a Chris Nanco curling shot that hit the underside of the crossbar. The No. 3 Orange (8-1-1, 2-1-1 Atlantic Coast) settled for a double-overtime scoreless draw against No. 4 UNC (7-1-1, 3-0-1) Friday night at SU Soccer Stadium. After reeling off eight straight wins to start 2016, Syracuse is now winless in its past two games after a pair of top-five teams stalled the Orange’s historic start.

“We’ve been very good,” McIntyre said. “But you know, Notre Dame at Notre Dame is a tough place. This is an elite team as well.”

Scoring chances were few and far between in the first half for both teams, as Syracuse’s only true threat on goal was a Louis Cross header from just outside the 6-yard box off a Nanco cross. Mo Adams and Sergio Camargo got off shots on goal, but both rolled on the ground and trickled safely into the hands of UNC goalkeeper James Pyle.

Syracuse goalie Hendrik Hilpert faced only one shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes, which he dropped to the ground to save after Jack Skahan found space near the right post. For the two highest-scoring teams in the ACC, it was the defenses rather that prevailed in the first frame.

Frustration reigned for the majority of the second half, as neither team broke through. UNC’s Colton Storm screamed to his sideline, “I need a little help!” after he lost the ball and it led to an SU chance in the box. After Liam Callahan was called for a foul in front of the Tar Heels’ bench, he slammed both his hands on the grass and yelled at the referee.

“We had a lot of chances against Notre Dame second half and a lot of chances this game,” Camargo said. “The goals will come, but it’s very frustrating.”

Nanco continued to pressure the North Carolina back line and create the most dangerous chances for Syracuse within the last 15 minutes of regulation. On one sequence, he carried the ball down the left sideline before cutting across to his right, shedding two defenders and curling the ball off the crossbar and away from danger.

On the ensuing corner kick, Nanco found the ball at his feet after it rebounded out of the box, but his volley trickled wide of the left post. Three minutes later, he escaped a double team near the corner flag and drew a foul to give Syracuse yet another chance in the attacking third.

“With Nanco hitting the crossbar, stuff like that, Sergio causing them trouble, I sensed it coming,” Adams said, “but we were just lacking that final touch.”

McIntyre said the next step for Syracuse is to beat a national title contender. Syracuse is in that conversation, but against two of those teams in the past week, the Orange came away with no wins.

Against then-No. 3 Notre Dame, Syracuse lost with 18 seconds remaining. On Friday night, the Orange was inches away from redeeming its heartbreaking loss to jumpstart another winning streak.

The record-breaking start is gone and Syracuse has faced a better taste of reality in the past seven days. But if anything, it showed that SU is right there.

“We can ball with the rest of them,” Camargo said. “Didn’t get the results we wanted, but if you ask them, they would say the same thing. Any other night, they could’ve gone our way, both games.”

Published on September 30, 2016 at 9:31 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman