Syracuse dominates first half, still gets blown out against GU

The last thing the Syracuse men’s soccer team wanted Saturday was to lose a key player in a game it actually had a chance to win.About midway through the first half of the Orangemen’s 4-1 loss to Georgetown, senior defender Chris Aloisi hit his head hard against the ground after attempting to make a header. Both Aloisi and a Georgetown player went for the ball, but it was Aloisi who got the brunt of the hit, forcing him out for the remainder of the game.Until Aloisi’s injury, the Orangemen controlled the game. Syracuse struck first when freshman Frank Bruno fed a pass to sophomore forward Jeff Evans, who kicked the ball past GU keeper Tim Hogan.The Orangemen (2-7-5, 0-4-4 Big East) won most loose balls, and Georgetown (6-7-2, 3-5-0) simply wasn’t playing well.’We were lucky to get through the first half with Syracuse only scoring one,’ Georgetown head coach Keith Tabatznik said. ‘They deserved to have at least two goals.’Even two wouldn’t have been enough for the Orangemen, though, since the Hoyas scored four unanswered goals in the second half.Syracuse players and coaches have refused to comment to The Daily Orange.Tabatznik said the turning point came in the 55th minute, when Georgetown junior Dan Gargan scored the Hoyas’ first goal by deflecting a pass from Carl Skanderup just to the left of SU goalie Alim Karim.’Before the goal, we hadn’t been able to take over,’ Tabatznik said. ‘The goal off the deflection was deflating for Syracuse.’Aloisi’s absence hurt Syracuse’s defense and it was unable to make the plays it needed to maintain the lead in the second half. Georgetown took seven shots in the second half compared to only three taken by the Orangemen.’I wouldn’t say that (Aloisi’s injury) demoralized Syracuse,’ said Tabatznik, ‘but I think that it really hurt them.’After the first Hoya goal, Georgetown junior Kaiser Chowdhry scored a pair, and freshman Ricky Schramm beat two SU defenders for his seventh goal of the season. All four Georgetown goals came within a 25-minute span during the second half.Saturday’s game marked the second time Aloisi has left a game with an injury this season. In SU’s last win – which came Sept. 17 – Aloisi went down less than four minutes into the game with a knee injury. The injury turned out to be minor and he was able to start three days later in the Orangemen’s 3-0 loss to St. John’s.Along with missing Aloisi for stints, the Syracuse defense missed senior Chris Fehrle for a series of four games last month due to a suspension that SU head coach Dean Foti refused to discuss. The Orangemen lost three of four games that Fehrle missed.After Saturday’s loss, the Orangemen have little chance to make the Big East tournament this year even if the defense does play well in its upcoming games.After the Georgetown loss, Syracuse remains winless in the Big East and is dead last in the standings. Only two games remain on the league schedule.The Orangemen controlled the first half and had a decent chance to beat the Hoyas to earn their first Big East win. But the Orangemen failed, yet again.’I don’t think we played well in the first half,’ Tabatznik said. ‘(The Syracuse) forwards were all on the same page. But in the second half, we got our first bit of fortune in the game.’





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