SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Junior Ben Polk (Banbury, UK) scored in the 78th minute to lift the No. 22 Syracuse men’s soccer team to a 2-1 victory against Albany on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at the SU Soccer Stadium. The win is the fifth straight for the Orange, which improved its overall record to 8-2-1.

“We weren’t at our best tonight for a couple of reasons,” said Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre. “The first is you give a lot of credit to Albany. We weren’t fully at the races. Having said that, we found a way to win tonight.”

Syracuse had more quality scoring opportunities throughout the match and junior Chris Nanco (Brampton, Ontario) gave the Orange the lead when he took possession of the ball after it deflected off an Albany player in the box. He put his shot inside the far post in the 14th minute for his third goal of the year.

The Great Danes (5-5-1) were awarded a free kick in the 36th minute when Orange goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert (Eiterfeld, Germany) was called for a foul when he slid out of the box with the ball on the wet turf. But Hendrik was up for the challenge as he knocked Bernardo Mattos’ shot off the free kick out of the box to maintain Syracuse’s lead.  Albany’s offense continued to press forward and tied the game on a set piece in the 44th minute when Carlos Clark scored off a corner kick by Philip Persson for the equalizer.

Syracuse’s offense dominated the second half. The Orange registered six shots and three corner kicks in the first 25 minutes after intermission and recorded the game-winner in the 78th minute. Sophomore Julian Buescher (Duelmen, Germany) played the ball into the box from the right side. Polk took the pass in the air, jumping to volley the ball into the bottom left corner for his team-leading fifth goal of the season. Buescher was awarded an assist on the play, his career-high sixth of the season, marking the ninth consecutive game in which he has recorded at least one point.

The Orange outshot Albany, 15-6, and recorded 11 corner kicks to two for the Great Danes. Hilpert made a season-high four saves in his second career start, while Danny Vitiello had eight saves for Albany.

Syracuse goes back on the road this weekend to take on No. 2 North Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

AGATE
  1st 2nd Final
Albany  1 0 1
Syracuse 1 1 2

Scoring:
13:19 SU Chris Nanco
43:19 Albany Carlos Clark (Philip Persson)
77:37 SU Ben Polk (Julian Buescher)

Shots: Syracuse 15, Albany 6
Corner Kicks: Syracuse 11, Albany 2
Saves: Syracuse 4 (Hendrik Hilpert), Albany 8 (Danny Vitiello)

Attendance:  627

-- SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: NEW YORK’S CO