In possession of the ball inside the box and near the end line, Louis Clark cut to his left, dribbled toward the goal and flicked a shot near the post past South Florida goalkeeper Chris Blais.

His second goal in just more than 26 minutes had Syracuse juiced up and playing its best match of the season.

But the two weren’t enough. With USF’s rapid three-goal comeback in the final minutes of regulation and overtime, Clark was left to dwell on the missed shots and an emphasis on defense in the second half that may have handicapped the offense from getting its third goal.

‘We tried to just get a result,’ Clark said. ‘We tried, 2-0 up, we think if we defend, we can’t lose. If we keep a clean sheet, but it didn’t work out.’

Clark doubled his goal total for the season in the first half against the Bulls to give SU its lead. His goals were the stamp on a rather dominant first half for the Orange, as it outshot, out-possessed and outplayed a ranked opponent. But SU went defensive in the second half, created fewer chances to score and was left cold, wet and disappointed following a 3-2 overtime loss to No. 11 South Florida in heavy rain on Saturday at SU Soccer Stadium.

‘We deserved the two goals,’ SU forward Lars Muller said. ‘So it’s really disappointing for us that we lost the game at the end.’

The Orange scored two goals in a half for the third time in 29 matches under second-year head coach Ian McIntyre, keeping the ball in South Florida’s half of the field for the majority of the first 45 minutes. SU held the top offensive team in the Big East without a shot for the final 30 minutes of the half, while consistently trying to infiltrate the USF box.

It was a performance that led McIntyre to say after the game that his team ‘got it right’ on Saturday, even in a losing effort.

‘Coming into halftime everybody was pumped, everyone was very excited,’ midfielder Nick Roydhouse said. ‘We were all aware that only half the job was done.’

Syracuse had plenty of chances to make its halftime lead humiliating for USF. Before Clark’s first goal, he scored another that was waved off for offsides.

Clark also got another chance on a header off a free kick, but Blais made a ridiculous diving save, extending his right arm to his right and punching it away.

‘I mean, that’s just been my story all season, really,’ Clark said. ‘I got to capitalize on that, making them chances count.’

The Orange was 45 minutes away from a monumental upset and its first win in Big East play under McIntyre. But the switch to a more defensive game plan created less chances. Syracuse tried to defend and sat back a little bit, Clark said, rather than trying to play up the field.

McIntyre said it’s natural to drop back when a team has a lead over such a threatening attack.

‘Any time, it’s a dangerous lead, 2-0,’ McIntyre said. ‘You want to get that third goal, but you don’t want to give up that (first goal), so I thought we played the game pretty well. We slowed it down, kept the ball in good areas of the field.’

Syracuse did keep things together for most of the second half. But the Orange’s offensive pushes didn’t seem to provide the same numbers, and when they did, USF did a nice job of recovering. Bulls defender Brenton Griffiths mishandled a ball in the middle, giving Clark an open look on net, but a USF defender was able to slide in and force a corner.

Roydhouse, usually the catalyst for SU, was manhandled by the Bulls and turned ineffective. He was involved in multiple collisions, including one in which he said he stayed down for 30 seconds because he couldn’t feel his left arm.

The game got so aggressive that Roydhouse said some USF players didn’t shake hands after the game, leading to a confrontation in which Roydhouse was pulled away from the Bulls players by teammates.

USF sliced Syracuse’s lead in half on a controversial penalty in the 78th minute and tied the game in the 89th minute. By that point, Syracuse had lost its momentum and its burst of offensive development.

‘Going into the second half, we just talked about keeping the same intensity and not dropping it off,’ Roydhouse said. ‘And we tried to do that, and they got two goals on us.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on October 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr