SYRACUSE, N.Y. - After four straight matches on the road, the Syracuse men’s soccer team (4-4-2, 0-4-1 BIG EAST) returns home for five consecutive home dates beginning on Wednesday, Oct. 5 versus nationally-ranked St. John’s at 7:00 p.m. The Orange is 4-0-1 in home contests this season and 6-3-1 in its last 10 matches at the SU Soccer Stadium.
The Orange enter Wednesday’s pairing in last place in the conference’s Red Division. SU has one point in league play, but a win against the Red Storm would move the Orange into a tie for fifth in the division. The top six clubs in each division will qualify for the 2005 BIG EAST Championship.
Syracuse went 0-1-1 last week, losing to DePaul in the first-ever meeting between the two teams and playing New York Region foe Hartwick to a scoreless draw. Freshman keeper Robert Cavicchia (North York, Ontario) earned his fourth shutout of the 2005 in the Hartwick contest. Cavicchia owns a 0.69 goals-against average in more than 915 minutes of action, the best mark by a rookie keeper in the BIG EAST and SU’s defense is third in the league with a team goals-against average of 0.76.
The Orange has given up just eight goals in its first 10 matches. It’s the fewest scores an Orange defense has allowed through 10 contests since SU gave up seven scores in its first 10 games of 1984. Syracuse has allowed more than one score just once this season (at Providence on Sept. 23). The Orange has surrendered 96 shot attempts (9.6 per game) and 48 corner kicks (4.8 per game). Conversely, SU has launched 114 shots and registered a BIG EAST best 66 corners.
The Red Storm are 5-1-3 overall this season and are third in the Red Division with 11 points and a 3-0-2 conference record. St. John’s is the top-ranked school in the New York Region and held the eighth and sixth spots, respectively, in last week’s NSCAA/adidas and Soccer America polls. The Red Storm moved up to No. 3 in the latest collegesoccernews.com rankings.
St. John’s has shutout its last four opponents and Steven Old was selected as the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week for his effort in blanking Louisville on Oct. 1. The Red Storm leads the conference and ranks fifth in the nation in team goals-against average (0.41). Sophomore keeper Jason Landers is sixth in the country in goals-against average (0.42) and ninth in save percentage at 0.88. He has 30 saves on the season and five shutouts.
Offensively, the Red Storm’s Matt Groenwald is tied for seventh in the league in points with 13 (five goals, three assists) and Sebastian Alvarado-Ralph is second on the team with eight points and leads the club with four assists.
The Red Storm holds the advantage in the all-time series versus SU, 13-7-1. The Orange’s last win against St. John’s came in 1996 at the SU Soccer Stadium. The Red Storm was ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time, but Michael Correll scored twice to lead SU to an upset victory, 2-0.
The month of October has traditionally been the most successful month for the SU men’s soccer team. Dating back to the 1975 season, Syracuse has posted a 128-100-31 (.554) in October which is the team’s best monthly record in terms of number of victories and winning percentage. SU is 53-50-14 in October matches under head coach Dean Foti, including six straight winning Octobers from 1991-96.
Admission to Wednesday’s match is free and gates open approximately one hour before kickoff.
