Wake Forest, Syracuse battle to 0-0 tie

As the highest-scoring team in the nation, top-ranked Wake Forest got a look at what opponents might try and do in the postseason Friday night at Spry Stadium.

The Syracuse Orange stacked its defense to the brim, keeping eight and sometimes nine players behind the ball. The Deacons couldn’t find a goal despite taking 22 shots as they battled to a 0-0 tie.

Even though the Deacons had already locked up the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament next week, they were trying to become the first team to go 8-0 in conference play. The final regular-season game didn’t go as coach Bobby Muuss of the Deacons had hoped.

“It’s a weird game,” Muuss said. “What are we playing for? We were playing for history and there’s a reason no team has done it because it’s hard to do.”

The Deacons (15-0-1, 7-0-1 ACC) had four or five legitimate chances in those 22 shots, but couldn’t score. They had 50 goals on the season coming in, but Syracuse goalie Hendrick Hilpert made at least four quality saves.

Logan Gdula of the Deacons said it was obvious early on that the Orange (6-8-3, 0-6-2) wasn’t about to get into a transition game.

“I think some teams have sat back on us before but I felt like from the beginning they were playing for the tie,” Gdula said. “They knew what they wanted to do and they haven’t had a good season, but they were celebrating a lot even though it was a tie.”

The Orange managed seven shots but goalie Andreu Cases Mundet never had to make a save. Whenever the Orange cleared the ball the only player on top on offense was Tajon Buchanan.

Muuss said the Deacons never got into their usual flow of pinpoint passing.

“I’m extremely disappointed in our overall performance and I feel like we wasted the first half,” Muuss said. “We were feeling out the game and then we only have 45 or 65 minutes with the overtime to sort it out.

“We had too much individualism and we pride ourselves on knocking it around and moving and passing. I thought there was a lot more dribbling than normal.”

With 4,300 in attendance at Spry Stadium, the Deacons were hoping to send their five seniors out with a victory in the final regular-season game. One of those seniors, Steven Echevarria, said opponents are going to get defensive in the postseason.

“I think it’s something we have to get used to,” Echevarria said. “It was really interesting to see how they packed it in on us and we just couldn’t break through and find one.”

Senior Jon Bakero led the Deacons with seven shots, and in the second overtime period he had a good chance but just missed. Ema Twumasi was credited with three shots but he was bottled up every time he got inside the box as the Orange had two or three defenders collapse on him.

“They came in and had a game plan and they executed it,” Gdula said. “They were happy to just tie us.”

The Deacons won’t have to play again until Nov. 5 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament against either N.C. State or Virginia Tech. Game time at Spry Stadium will be 1 p.m.

“It stings that we couldn’t make history because we wanted to be the first to go 8-0 in the ACC,” Gdula said “We had a good regular-season so there’s nothing to be down about.”

Notes: The Deacons are the Atlantic Division champions for the third straight year.... With 19 minutes to go in regulation, star defender Kevin Politz of the Deacons went out with a cramp in his right leg. Muuss said it wasn’t worth the risk sending him back in there. Freshman Mark McKenzie replaced Politz and the defense didn’t miss a beat…. All five seniors (Jon Bakero, Kevin Politz, Luis Argudo, Steven Echevarria and Rafael Fagundo) were honored along with their families before the game.... Muuss is 18-1-5 against ACC opponents in the regular-season.

Source: greensboro