Men’s Soccer Demolishes St. Bonaventure 7-0

By Luke McGrath

CitrusTV Men’s Soccer Reporter

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No. 24 Syracuse (7-4-2, 1-3-1 Atlantic Coast) demolished St. Bonaventure (5-7-1, 2-3 Atlantic 10) 7-0 Tuesday night for the Orange’s fourth win in five games.

SU put up seven goals for the first time since 1990 in a game where they outshot the Bonnies 26-3. The Orange have not lost since September 28th and have three more ACC games to round out the regular season.

Tajon Buchanan was once again dominant, netting a hat-trick to lead SU to the easy victory. It was the first hat-trick of Buchanan’s career. Despite missing three games due to a left knee injury and a red card, the sophomore forward has eight goals and four assists for a team high 20 points.

“I haven’t scored a hat trick since high school so it’s definitely nice to come out and score a hat trick, I mean it’s just a huge confidence booster,” Buchanan said. “To get the first one and then the second one, the third one’s just a bonus honestly.”

When Buchanan first returned from injury he was clearly not at 100 percent, he said, but he has started to feel a lot better.

“There’s really no pain now, I’ve been feeling good for the past week, week and a half,” Buchanan said. “The brace has obviously helped and I think I get it off in a week so hopefully I just keep moving forward.”

While Buchanan has stepped up, Syracuse has gotten scoring production from other places as well. Sophomore defender Sondre Norheim added two goals Tuesday night to bring his season total up to four.

The Orange added another two goals off the bench as junior forward Severin Soerlie scored his third goal of the season and freshman midfielder Julio Fulcar scored his first career collegiate goal.

“It feels good obviously, but it’s nothing that I didn’t expect,” Fulcar said. “I put myself in a good spot and I just put the ball in the back of the net.”

“We’ve got some options and some depth so this was good and a reward for their hard work,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said.

With the win SU wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 6-1-1 record, heading into the close of the season.

“Our ability to go on a bit of a run and a bit of a journey will be dictated by our ability and appetite to win these Monday and Tuesday games and we’ve been good this year,” McIntyre said.

The Syracuse defense also played a big factor in Tuesday’s win, forcing Hendrik Hilpert to make just one save on three shots. It is the third clean sheet in the last four games for the Orange.

Now SU is off until Saturday when it begins a stretch of three ACC games in seven days to round out the regular season. The final run begins on the road as Syracuse travels to take on No. 21 NC State (8-4-2, 2-3-1). The Wolf Pack took down then-No. 1 North Carolina last Friday but fell to No. 11 UNC-Wilmington Tuesday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night.

“That’s a pretty fun, brutal end of the season,” McIntyre said.

In the training room

Graduate transfer Len Zeugner did not play Tuesday night. McIntyre said that he has been “banged up” the last couple of days and said with his trust in the teams depth he was confident enough to give Zeugner the day off.

Between the pipes

When the victory was clearly in hand, McIntyre replaced Hendrik Hilpert with redshirt sophomore Jake Leahy in net for his first minutes of the season. Leahy was not called upon to make a save.

@L_McGrath14 | Lumcgrat@syr.edu