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In the 48th minute, Clemson defender Joey Skinner missed a tackle in his own defensive half, coughing the ball up to Syracuse forward Levonte Johnson. After a quick give-and-go, Johnson cut toward the goal and slotted the ball in the roof of Clemson goalkeeper’s net to give the Orange a 2-1 lead.

No. 16 Syracuse (6-0-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) held onto the lead to pull off the upset, defeating the defending national champions, No. 1 Clemson (6-1, 1-1 ACC), and ending the Tigers’ 11-game winning streak dating back to last November. Syracuse remains unbeaten, winning every game thus far besides a 1-1 tie against Vermont, and it has upset the Tigers for the second straight year.

In 2021, SU managed to defeat the Tigers 2-0 with goals from Deandre Kerr and Manel Busquets, preventing a sub-.500 season. Both sides were even on the stat sheet with the Orange having 14 shots compared to Clemson’s 12. On Friday, midfielder Jeorgio Kocevski and Johnson secured the victory for Syracuse. 

It didn’t start strongly. Syracuse coughed up an early eighth minute goal. After a turnover in SU’s defensive third, Clemson’s Alvaro Gomez played the ball out wide right to Shawn Smart, who sent a low-driven ball to Isaiah Reed. Reed, the 2021 College Cup’s Offensive Most Outstanding Player, shot the ball on his first touch into the upper-center of Russell Shealy’s net, putting the Tigers up 1-0. The Tigers are just the second team to score against SU. 

The Orange had a few chances before the early Tiger goal. Three minutes in, Johnson drove down the right side of the field, but a heavy touch allowed a simple clearance by the Tigers. Three minutes after Johnson’s drive, Noah Singelmann hit a left-footed volley outside the 18-yard box that forced a diving save from Manion. 

On another play, Johnson sent in a lofted cross from the outside of the box. Fellow forward Nathan Opoku got a head on the ball and the shot hit the crossbar, but any subsequent goal wouldn’t have counted as Opoku was offside. Similar to its other victories over ranked opponents — then-No. 22 Notre Dame and then-No. 21 Penn State — Syracuse outshot the Tigers 20-12, though Clemson had more opportunities to score and were occasionally able to get through the backline.

In the 11th minute, Opoku had another opportunity to level the score. After Johnson played him a simple pass from the top of the box to its right side, the transfer forward turned and shot, but Manion got a foot on it to make the save. 

Eventually, Syracuse tied the match with Kocevski’s first goal of the season. After Manion got out of position, the ball was approaching the left goalpost, but two Tiger defenders seemed they would clear it out. But after a miscommunication between the two, which forced an uncontrolled ball, Johnson played a simple ground pass across the box to Kocevski. The midfielder cut it back away from Manion and scored a tap in.

No one tallied another goal in the first half, but after 45 minutes, Syracuse had outshot Clemson 10-4 and edged the Tigers in corners, 5-4. By the end of the game, SU finished with nine corners, compared to the Tigers’ six.

Entering today’s game, the Tigers held a 125-8-8 record when scoring first under head coach Mike Noonan. Three minutes into the second half, Johnson netted the game-winning goal, becoming the Orange’s season-leading goal-scorer with three. 

The Orange didn’t settle defensively when they got hold of the lead, continuing to test Manion and the Clemson backline. Midfielder Colin Biros sent a curling shot from outside the box that was easily handled by Manion. The next chance came off a free kick in the final 10 minutes of the game from Curt Calov.

Clemson defended with a two-man wall, which allowed Calov to send a curling ball to the near-post, but an outstretched Manion saved the shot as the ball hovered over the goal line. Manion finished with seven saves, but it was Shealy’s six saves that gave the Orange the upset. 

With 35 minutes left, Reid had a shot right in front of goal inside the penalty box, but Shealy came out big to narrow the shooting window, getting a foot save. With under 10 minutes to go, Reid received a cross to the back-post and tried to redirect the header, but it didn’t have enough power to get past the diving Shealy. A similar play happened just a few minutes later, but once Syracuse trickled down the clock by holding the ball in the corner, it had secured its third victory of the year against a ranked opponent.

Published on September 16, 2022 at 10:09 pm

Contact Cole: colebambini@gmail.com | @ColeBambini