No. 18 Syracuse drops No. 2 Virginia with strong goalie performance

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse defeated No. 2 Virginia in a 1-0 match on Saturday at the SU Soccer Stadium. The victory marks No. 18 SU's first against a top-five opponent since the Orange defeated Connecticut in 2001 when the Huskies were the top-ranked team in the nation.

Senior defender and co-captain Skylar Thomas scored the only goal of the match in the 31st minute. The 6-3 Thomas soared into the box following a Julian Buescher corner kick, finishing the ball into the back of the net with a header.

"We scored on a restart and they didn't, it sounds almost too simple, but Virginia is a quality team," head coach Ian McIntyre said. "Similar to Notre Dame, it was a fun match with a thin margin between winning and losing. Thankfully tonight we came out on the good side."

Junior goalkeeper Alex Bono had four saves on his way to his eighth shutout victory of 2014. All four of Bono's saves came off of brilliant scoring chances for the Cavaliers. In the 54th minute, he made a save to preserve the Orange's 1-0 advantage after Virginia's Ryan Zinkhan got a shot off from inside the six yard box.

Darius Madison and Jake Rozhansky led the attack for Virginia. Madison had four shots and created a number of chances in the box for the Cavaliers. Rozhansky had two shots, both of which came on net. Calle Brown played all 90 minutes in goal for UVA and made five saves.

Syracuse and Virginia each had 13 shots in the match. The Orange also earned eight corner kicks, while Virginia earned just three.