Last year, despite going 6-8-4, Syracuse never gave up more than two goals in a game during the regular season. The Orange (2-1-0) has already eclipsed the mark this season after giving up three to Hofstra (0-3-1) in Sunday night’s home-opening victory and a big reason for that appeared to be the absence of senior defender and captain Kamal Miller.

Miller injured his right knee last week against Portland and played through the injury but wasn’t healthy enough to play against the Pride. Instead, he wore a knee brace and was forced to cheer on his teammates from the sideline, where he watched instead of played for the first time since last October, against Boston College.

“He got through it at Portland, he was a warrior out there, got injured early on,” head coach Ian McIntyre said. The nine-year head coach declined to specify on the severity of his captain’s injury, simply stating that Miller was “day to day.”

Miller was injured following a free kick early in the game when a Portland player landed on his leg. While he was walking with the brace on Sunday and appeared to be in good spirits, when the injury occurred last week it looked much worse to his teammates.

“It was a bit scary, seeing (him) on the floor screaming,” fellow senior Hugo Delhommelle said. “We knew the guy landed on his leg, and we were very worried. We hope he can get back soon, because we need him.”

True freshman Michael Lantry started in Miller’s absence, forming a Syracuse backline that also consisted of redshirt senior Len Zeugner and junior John-Austin Ricks. Despite having the most experience in McIntyre’s system of the group, it was Ricks that appeared to be hurt most due to Miller’s absence.

After being spoken with early in the game by McIntyre for failing to make a play offensively, Ricks’ biggest blunder of the night happened in the 22nd minute. The Diablo, California native missed a header attempt to clear the ball and proceeded to pull down a Pride player in the penalty area. Hofstra converted the ensuing penalty kick to tie the game at one.

While Ricks may have underperformed, McIntyre was impressed by Lantry, who made his college debut.

---

---

“Michael, in his first college game, did well,” McIntyre said. “Emotionally, it’s a big ask to play your first college game. I thought he did very well.”

Despite the win, allowing three goals to a winless Hofstra team after giving up no more than two in a game the previous season, the victory doesn’t bode well for the Orange with conference play starting Friday. McIntyre was pleased with how his team responded to Miller’s absence, but the Orange would rather have its senior leader securing the back line of defense.

“He’s our captain, he vocal on the bench,” freshman midfielder Ryan Raposo said. “But we missed his physicality back there.”

Published on September 2, 2018 at 10:38 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34