The streak is over.

After 385 minutes and 59 seconds, the scoring drought ended for the Syracuse men’s soccer team Sunday at Syracuse Soccer Stadium in a 1-0 victory over No. 22 South Florida, which was undefeated in the Big East. It was Syracuse’s first conference win this season.

In the fourth minute of the first half, sophomore James Goodwin netted a pass from junior Isaac Collings. Not only was it the first goal for SU in four games, it was the first goal in Goodwin’s career.

‘I was shooting for a goal right away,’ Goodwin said. ‘My No. 1 priority was to stay patient, wait for the ball to come to me and finish it.’

The score was also a big relief to the sophomore, who had yet to score in 29 career games.

‘It was due,’ Goodwin said. ‘I was really struggling, shooting all the time and never finishing.’

Only five players had scored all season for the Orange and redshirt freshman Pete Rowley had five of the nine goals to his credit. The other players only had one each.

With his goal, Goodwin emerged as another player who can score for SU (4-5-2, 1-5-1 Big East), meaning it could be that much harder for opponents to defend the Orange.

Even so, head coach Dean Foti doesn’t care who scores the goals, just as long as ‘we get them scored.’

Another player almost found the net for the Orange. In the eighth minute of the second half, Rowley fooled USF goalie Dane Brenner, who dove left as the ball flew right. But the ball hit off the post and bounced away. Rowley thought he scored the goal, running away in the opposite direction.

The Orange totaled nine shots in the game.

Defensively, Syracuse played an extremely strong game, as freshman goalkeeper Robert Cavicchia recorded his fifth career shutout, racking up six saves.

‘We knew it was going to be a tough game,’ Cavicchia said. ‘We knew they were going to take it to us.’

The Bulls (6-4-0, 5-1-0) did take it to the SU defense, but the Orange held strong, surrendering only six shots. One man held silent was reigning Big East freshman of the week Jordan Seabrook, who has 18 points this season. Seabrook registered two shots, but came up empty on both.

‘We all worked hard in it together,’ Cavicchia said. ‘We felt the pressure and handled it very well.’

The most important thing to come from the win for SU is a boost in confidence. Goodwin expects the Orange to go on a roll now, and there is really no reason to believe it can’t. SU has already played St. John’s and Connecticut, ranked third and ninth in the nation, respectively. The Orange dropped both games by 1-0 scores. Both are matches Foti believes his team should have won and with a boost in self-assurance, could have.

‘(A) couple things could have finished off a different way against St. John’s,’ Foti said. ‘Against a couple of these other teams, and you’d be writing about something else because we could have beaten a lot of those guys.’

The win is also important because it marks SU’s first conference victory in 2005 and keeps the Orange in the push for the Big East Red Division playoffs.

‘The kids are confident in that they can play with anybody,’ Foti said. ‘I’m hoping this can be the start of us getting some important goals.’

Published on October 9, 2005 at 12:00 pm