No. 22 Syracuse advances to ACC semifinals, defeats No. 9 Virginia in penalty shootout for 2nd straight season

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Daniel Diaz-Bonilla joked that his teammates have been making fun of him for his slow walk-up on penalty kicks. But he didn’t care since he scored in each of his attempts in practice this past week.

So when Mouhameth Thiam fired Virginia’s fifth penalty attempt off the right post, nothing changed for Diaz-Bonilla. He performed his usual walk-up, taking a deep breath before placing his penalty into the top left corner, sending Syracuse into the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals.

“I’ve already done that long walk, eight or nine times in the last week.” Diaz-Bonilla said. “I did the exact same routine for the PK so when that guy hit the post it was really just business as usual.”

Diaz-Bonilla’s spot-kick helped Syracuse (9-3-6, 2-1-5, Atlantic Coast Conference) defeat Virginia (10-4-3, 5-2-1 ACC) on penalties 1 (4)- 1 (3). Despite outshooting Virginia 24-9, the Orange came from behind to defeat the Cavaliers. UVA forward Leo Afonso opened up the scoring in the 51st minute before midfielder Mateo Leveque equalized in the 84th. Two scoreless overtime periods culminated in a penalty shootout before Diaz-Bonilla netted to send Syracuse through to the next round.

Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre has plenty of experience with his teams in penalty shootouts, calling them a “lottery” postgame. After eliminating Virginia in last year’s ACC semifinals on spot-kicks, SU went on to win the National Championship after defeating Indiana in penalties.

For the Orange, last year’s win over UVA was near identical to Sunday’s. In 2022, Syracuse trailed Virginia 2-1 in the 84th minute before Lorenzo Boselli equalized. This time around, Leveque received the ball on a give-and-go with Boselli, near the edge of the box, to slot a shot into the bottom right corner past UVA goalkeeper Joey Batrouini.

It was the Orange’s 10th shot on target after Batrouni remained consistent throughout. He finished with a career-high 13 saves.

“I thought their goalkeeper (Batrouni) was fantastic and kept him in it for long stretches of the game,” McIntyre said.

Afonso scored Virginia’s first penalty in the shootout before Boselli stepped up for Syracuse. But his shot, destined for the bottom right corner, was saved by Batrouni, giving the Cavaliers an advantage.

“Penalties are a roller coaster of emotions. We missed, they scored so we’re behind and then it swung the other way. So that’s penalties,” McIntyre said.

Despite seeing his first action since Oct. 13 due to injury, Afonso scored against Syracuse for the fourth straight game. In the 54th minute off of a rising clearance from midfield, he cushioned the ball initially before losing control.

Possession fell to midfielder Will Citron in the box, who maneuvered past SU’s Olu Oyegunle and poked a pass back to Afonso. With just Jahiem Wickham to beat, Afonso smashed the ball into the right side-netting to put Virginia up 1-0.

Syracuse found its rhythm offensively right after falling behind. Jeorgio Kocevski crossed it to Boselli, who nearly scored off a header, but Batrouni smothered the attempt.

In the 80th minute, Boselli turned his defender on the left side of the box before unleashing a curling shot which Batrouni parried away for his eighth save of the match. A few minutes later, he couldn’t keep Leveque off the scoresheet.

“There was a feeling in the team that we had been dominating them for pretty much the whole game and that the goal was eventually going to come,” Diaz-Bonilla said. “We knew we had it in us and it was just about waiting for that goal.”

Nicholas Kaloukian almost scored 18 seconds later with a left-footed effort that was thwarted by Batrouni at the near post. In overtime, SU didn’t test Batrouni as much. In the 104th minute, Diaz-Bonilla ambitiously curled a shot from outside the box but to no avail.

Afonso skied a 1-on-1 opportunity with Wickham, sending the game into overtime tied at 1-1. And after another scoreless 20 minutes, both sides huddled to decide tactics for a shootout.

Boselli’s miss was followed up by an Axel Ahlander goal which put Virginia up 2-0 in the shootout. Josh Belluz answered back for Syracuse before UVA’s Aidan O’Connor sent his attempt over the bar. Kocevski tied the shootout up at 2-2 through three attempts each.

McIntyre felt his team was “prepared” for a shootout. His team had practiced penalties all week. Noah Singelmann scored his penalty after Daniel Mangarov put Virginia 3-2 ahead. After Thiam missed, Diaz-Bonilla slammed his kick into the net, sending the Orange into a frenzy.

“I was pretty sure that I would be one of the guys that would step up one to five,” Diaz-Bonilla said. “And then when we got into the huddle, (McIntyre) read out the names and told us the order. I was fortunate to be fifth, but I was pretty sure I was going to take one just given how I performed in practice.”

Syracuse wouldn’t have reached the ACC quarterfinals if it weren’t for Diaz-Bonilla’s two goals and two assists in a 5-0 first round victory over NC State. After SU’s win in Charlottesville Sunday, Diaz-Bonilla said his father texted him days before telling him to wait for his moment. He didn’t have to wait long.

“This is a tough group that keeps on fighting, keeps on pushing and finds a way to work to win and move on.” McIntyre said.