ITHACA, N.Y. – Despite recording eight more shots than the Orange, the Cornell men's soccer team fell to Syracuse 2-0 in its home-opener Monday at Berman Field.
 
This marks the first loss of the season for the Big Red, who are now 3-1, while the Orange advanced to 3-2 overall.
 
Opportunities were plentiful for the Big Red, but a few unfortunate bounces and impressive saves by Syracuse goalkeeper Hendrik Hilpert kept Cornell off the board. Of the 14 shots that the Big Red recorded, eight of them were on goal.
 
"We played against one of the top teams in the country and for about 75 percent of the game I thought we were dominant," Cornell head coach John Smith said. "We paid the price for a couple of defensive lapses."
 
Syracuse opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the contest. Ryan Roposo swept the ball to his right to create shooting space and fired a bending shot out of the reach of Ryan Shellow in net.
 
The Orange added another goal on a header from Len Zuegner off of a corner kick four minutes later.
 
The Big Red responded by keying up several strong opportunities.
 
In the 30th minute, Harry Fuller put a shot on net that forced Hilpert to come out of the goal and throw two fists on the ball. The rebound popped back out to Emeka Eneli who came within inches of narrowing the Big Red's deficit to one, but instead sent it off the crossbar.
 
In the second half the Big Red put a shot in the net, but it was negated by an offsides penalty.
 
"As much as I'm upset at losing, this is the first time since I've been here where I sat back and said to myself that we are really becoming a good program because I knew we played well against a top team," Smith said.
 
The Big Red heads to the west coast this weekend, where it will take on Cal State Northridge on Friday at 7 p.m. (PT) and Cal State Fullerton at 5 p.m. (PT).