In the last three games, Sondre Norheim has trickled into the opposing penalty box — away from his usual post on Syracuse’s backline — and found net. Against Clemson, he mimicked the same routine: start behind and run in front of the back post. 

He noticed Clemson’s set piece defense packed the front post, so he tried it again. Massimo Ferrin, on the service, saw him coming, and Norheim was left unmarked. An 81st-minute goal cut a once-four-goal deficit in half.

Down the stretch of Syracuse’s (5-4-4, 1-3-2 Atlantic Coast) historic scoring affair with No. 8 Clemson (11-1-1, 4-1-1), the Orange relied on set pieces for an offensive spark. It’s a far cry from a team that went 83-straight corner kicks without a score to start its season. Three of its four goals on Saturday resulted from a restart — almost matching its season total (four) coming into the game.

“If you tell us before the game we’d score three set pieces we’d take it in a heartbeat,” Ferrin said. “You don’t expect to score three in a game.”

Postgame, every positive head coach Ian McIntyre highlighted was qualified with a negative. “We’ve scored some good goals, but we’ve conceded some bad ones.” “We attacked well at times, but too many of our good players had bad games tonight.”

After his goal, Norheim was mobbed by teammates and quickly rushed to the other side of the field, ready to fend off Clemson with momentum swinging toward the Orange. Three passes into the Tigers possession, a dropping ball reached Norheim’s left foot and he kicked it array, toward SU goalkeeper Christian Miesch and onto the cleat of a Clemson striker. Norheim watched his muff turn into a two-on-one. He watched as his set piece goal was erased on the scoreboard 40 seconds later. Every one of Syracuse’s four goals in the 7-4 was erased by No. 8 Clemson, and then some.

“If you had told me we would have scored four goals at home against this Clemson team, I’d have thought we’d won the game,” McIntyre said.

Syracuse may have finally figured out one of its early season weaknesses in set pieces. But on Saturday, it didn’t matter, because a blowout was imminent and any traces of their success resulted in a crushing loss.

“When we scored, they scored again,” McIntyre said.

Clemson, on the other hand, had a full, efficient offensive repertoire. Seven goals — two from set pieces — from four different players. Syracuse hasn’t had a performance close to that all season.

Early in its season, SU’s scoring came almost exclusively from balls in-play. Some nights, the Orange didn’t need succeed on corners and free kicks to win. On Saturday, it was their only hope. Eight straight shots to start, including four on goal, didn’t make it past Clemson goalie George Marks. Conversely, the Tigers turned three on-goal shots into three scores.

On one play in the first half, Luther Archimede had a field full of space off a through ball. Trailing defenders from three sides looked to close and he passed out to an open Severin Soerlie in the penalty box. Soerlie’s shot went well over the net.

Any hope to compete came with 10 seconds left when Ferrin dashed toward the left corner for a last second corner. “It was a little bit chaotic,” Ferrin remembers. The senior swung a dangerous ball to defender Nyal Higgins, whose header gave SU some sort of life.

“Pretty much just wanted to get one because we were down three goals,” Higgins said. “We needed to get back into the game.”

It didn’t help. Seventy minutes into the game, SU found itself down 5-1. It needed another injection of offense, anything to limit a beatdown to a two or three score game. Scrambling for that spark, Ferrin targeted another defender in Norheim.

Ryan Raposo had cut the Clemson lead to three and Ferrin’s second service assist of the game, this one to the streaking Norheim, made it 5-3. Offensive success would come from set pieces, not fast breaks and through balls.

Later, they’d repeat that gesture in the same fashion. It resulted in Norheim, who hadn’t scored a goal through 11 games, to record his fourth goal in three games.

That didn’t matter to Syracuse’s success, nor Norheim. On that second goal, one that also cut the Orange’s deficit to two, Norheim didn’t celebrate.

“I wasn’t happy on the second goal because I still had the conceding goal in the back of my mind,” Norheim said.

“It’s the story of the whole game.”

Published on October 19, 2019 at 11:20 pm

Contact KJ: kjedelma@syr.edu | @KJEdelman