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Mateo Leveque sent a left-footed cross into the 18 yard box. Nicholas Kaloukian tried to make a play on the ball, but couldn’t reach his leg out. It spurted out to Nate Edwards trailing behind.

Binghamton goalie Dylan McDermott charged out, trying to corral the loose ball with Edwards charging ahead. The two collided with each other, but Edwards’ contact forced the ball to trickle backward, right where Gabriel Mikina was positioned. With McDermott out of his spot, Mikina had a wide-open net, finishing with authority, giving Syracuse a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.

“There was a little bit of chaos in the box, and (the ball) kind of squirted out,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said postgame. “(Mikina) took the opportunity.”

Syracuse’s (2-0-0, Atlantic Coast Conference) offense controlled Binghamton (0-2-0, Atlantic East Conference) for the entire game en route to a dominant 3-0 win over the Bearcats. The Orange outshot Binghamton 17-1, including eight shots on goal. The Bearcats’ offense struggled, mostly sitting back with most of their men behind the ball. Unlike its win over Providence, SU rarely pressed high up the field.

“We knew they were going to play a direct game today,” Mikina said. “They wanted to put the ball over our head, they wanted to try to score off of throw-ins, corners. But we limited them to no shots, no corners, so (it was a) light day for us.”

SU controlled the ball from the start, but had trouble executing early on. Before their first score, the Orange had taken five shots in the first 23:14.

During the fourth minute of play, SU held it deep within the Bearcats’ zone. Kaloukian bolted inside the 18 toward the left goalpost and fed Lorenzo Boselli at the top of the 6-yard box. Boselli maneuvered himself to get off a clean shot, but it went into a sea of Binghamton defenders, deflecting out-of-bounds.

11 minutes later, Mikina roamed the right flank and sent a diagonal pass to the left side of the 18, where Giona Leibold was there to receive it. Leibold made a crafty dribble to get past his man while Boselli and Edwards were open in the middle of the box. Leibold’s pass went in between the two, and was cleared.

Syracuse continued to apply the pressure in the second half, searching for a second goal to create a cushion.

Leveque took a corner-kick to commence the 56’ mark. He whipped it into a packed 6-yard box, where Binghamton’s Luke Yates headed the ball outside the 18. Leibold moved to his left to get there first, immediately controlling it with his left foot and firing an entry pass back into the crowded 18-yard box.

His feed found Josh Belluz in the middle of the box. The Villanova transfer used his 6-foot-6 frame to flick his head to the right and redirect it into the back of the net. Earlier in the first half, Belluz mistimed a header that went above the net and off target.

“I had an opportunity in the first half in a similar scenario where I had the ball coming behind me. So I saw the same opportunity here and I obviously directed it a bit more,” Belluz said.

Syracuse’s first two goals each came from defenders. McIntyre’s aggressive tactics on both allows defenders to push up and play out-of-position at times. Mikina constantly darted deep inside the opposition’s zone to create scoring chances.

“From our defenders all the way to our forwards, everyone can score on this team,” Mikina said. “It just comes down to who wants it more and our defenders, our forwards wanted it more today.”

SU’s persistent play on offense was the result of its tight defense. McIntyre didn’t utilize the high press to the degree he did in the season-opener, but the Orange still prevented Binghamton from getting anything going.

As the clock ticked down to under 27 minutes remaining, Binghamton was in desperation mode. Michael Bush attempted one of his many long throw-ins, tossing it way to the back half of Syracuse’s zone. Bush’s pass was targeted for Marcus Nahim, who was aligning himself in front of Belluz.

The ball was redirected off the foot of Nahim, arching high in the air as Felipe D’Agostini played the ball off his head. Pablo Pedregosa ended up with control, instantly heading it to Leibold, who cleared it out toward midfield. Kaloukian gained possession, feeding Daniel Diaz Bonilla streaking down the right side, ending a chance for the Bearcats to break the SU defense.

In the 74th minute, Devin Heanue was issued a yellow card for extending his leg out on a speeding Edwards in the open field. Jeorgio Kocevski took the ensuing free-kick from the far right side.

As Kocevski twisted it into the box, Boselli beat Heanue off the jump and got all the way out in front. Boselli turned his head to the left upon making contact with the ball, sending it past McDermott and into the low, left corner of the goal, putting Syracuse up 3-0 late in the game. It was Boselli’s third goal of the year thus far, all coming off of headers.

“We need that from our strikers,” Belluz said.

Published on August 29, 2023 at 12:21 am

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews