TAMPA - It may have taken a while tonight but the University of South Florida men's soccer team finally warmed up from the frigid 30-degree central New York temperatures to pull away for a 3-0 win over Syracuse at the SU Soccer Stadium.
The win improves the Bulls record to 9-2-2 and 4-2-2 in the BIG EAST. The Orange drop to 2-12-0 on the season and 1-7-0 in the BIG EAST.
"This was a very good win for us," said USF head coach George Kiefer. "We had a goal called back and a number of chances in the first half and I think that we were good from start to finish tonight. It was good to see Zak (Boggs) get on the board again. I think that once he got one goal that he would start to score more, for him to get the game winner was great. And then you see Hasani (Sinclair), get another goal in back-to-back games. I think what your starting to see now is that these guys are starting to get much more relaxed and are just playing and not looking to get goal, but to just play good soccer and because of that the goals are starting to come."
Although Andre Mittoo had the games first shot - sending it high over the crossbar - in the third minute of the game, the Orange would look to jump out quickly taking four of their eight first half shots during a three minute stretch between the 13 minute mark and the 16 minute mark.
The Bulls, however, would start to change to complexion of the game on their offensive end starting with a dangerous header by Sebastian Thuriere that went wide in the 24th minute.
Just about five minutes later, in the 29th minute, Zak Boggs got the Bulls on the board first with a spectacular goal off a free kick. After a foul - and yellow card - by the Orange's goalkeeper Ryan Jones, USF lined up for the free kick allowing Boggs to fire a bender around the wall, from right to left, and into the back of the net, stunning Jones.
That would be the first of two shots that Boggs would have on goal in the first 45 minutes. He then made a good attempt in the 41st minute only to have Jones make the save.
The Bulls would take a 1-0 lead into the intermission despite being outshot 8-5 in the first stanza.
The Orange tried to dictate the flow of the game once again, like in the first half, however USF would have none of that.
Boggs tried to make another bid for his second goal of the game, and to increase the Bulls lead to 2-0, when he took a shot in the 49th minute that went off the post and USF was not able to put the rebound into the goal.
Both teams would then go up and down for the majority of the second half until the 75th minute when Thuriere finally did increase USF's lead to two goals when he fired a shot - off a pass from Javed Mohammed - from 10 yards out into the upper right hand corner of the goal past Jones.
Five minutes later, in the 80th minute, Hasani Sinclair got himself in the scoring column netting a goal off a pass from Thuriere to give the Bulls their final 3-0 margin.
USF's three goals mark the second straight game that it has accomplished the feat after not doing it since it shutout Florida Atlantic 3-0 on Oct. 21, 2008.
The Bulls did have multiple point scorers tonight with Thuriere recording three points (1-1) and Mohammed two (0-2).
"Sebastian scored a SportsCenter goal tonight," said Kiefer. "He received it and buried it in the upper 90 of the goal. It was hit with a lot of power and I am really happy for Sebastian."
Jeff Attinella recorded his fifth shutout on the year while stopping both Syracuse shots on goal.
The Bulls will now return home to face Dartmouth in their last non-conference game of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. That game marks the first of a season-long three-game home stand for USF that will also include Villanova on Oct. 24 (7:30 p.m.) and DePaul on Oct. 28 (7:30 p.m.).
The Bulls will close out the regular season on Oct. 31 when it travels to New Jersey to face Rutgers at 7 p.m.
Season tickets for USF men's soccer games are $40 for adults and $20 for youths and senior citizens. Adult individual match tickets are $6, while youth and senior citizen admission is $3. All groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $2.50 per ticket. All USF students will be admitted at no cost when they display their student ID.
