Miles Robinson walked off the field in disgust, pleading first with the head referee then the fourth official. Syracuse’s best defender, and arguably its best player, had been red-carded just over five minutes into the game for elbowing a Wake Forest player in the neck during a scrum on a corner kick.

“What about the elbows he’s throwing at me?” Robinson said to the sideline referee.

For the remaining 85 minutes of regulation, and what turned out to be 20 more minutes of overtime, Syracuse played a man down against the No. 2 team in the country. And despite conceding a goal less than 20 minutes after Robinson’s red card, No. 6 Syracuse’s (10-3-3, 3-2-3 Atlantic Coast) defense buckled down to hold the Demon Deacons (12-2-3, 5-1-2) off the score sheet for the rest of the game in a 1-1 draw at SU Soccer Stadium Friday night.

Robinson will miss SU’s next game because of his red card. Syracuse will have to improvise at the back again in the first round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday.

“That early in the game, you lose one of your players and you lose him for the next one,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said. “You practice a certain way all week and within five minutes, all that hard work is out the window. … The way we responded was magnificent.”

After the card, which was met with serious backlash from Syracuse’s players on the field, McIntyre and the Orange bench, SU shifted into a far more defensive stance. Freshman John-Austin Ricks moved from right midfield to right back alongside Louis Cross and Kamal Miller, while SU’s rotation of center defensive midfielders retreated closer to the back three than normal.

Tony D. Curtis | Staff Photographer

That rotation didn’t include Mo Adams, Syracuse’s starting defensive midfielder, who sat in the stands serving his one-game suspension for accumulating five yellow cards in the regular season.

The last time Syracuse was without Robinson — when Adams was there to fill the defensive void — the Orange lost two games in a row. When the sophomore was called up to the United States Under-20 Men’s National Team earlier this month, then-No. 3 SU suffered a stunning 2-1 loss to Albany. In the second game without Robinson, Syracuse dropped a 1-0 decision to then-No. 8 Louisville.

This time, Ricks played one of his best games of the year, Miller scored Syracuse’s lone goal and Cross turned in another stellar performance at center back.

“As soon as it happened, at first we were a little shaken,” Ricks said, “but we immediately turned that switch.”

With the Orange on the defensive and struggling to generate any legitimate chances, Wake Forest repeatedly pestered the depleted Orange back line. Often when SU regained possession, McIntyre yelled, “Keep it!” from the sideline so the visitors couldn’t jump back on the offensive and exploit a man-down Syracuse side again.

The Orange was rarely caught on the counter-attack, and even forwards Chris Nanco, Johannes Pieles and Kenny Lassiter chipped in on the defensive end to compensate for the loss of Robinson. Whenever the Demon Deacons had the ball in the attacking third, none of the 10 SU players on the field was near midfield. Instead, they were packing into their own defensive third.

“It all happened so fast,” Miller said of Robinson being sent off. “We just worked well together and grinded out the draw.”

McIntyre said after the game that there is no appeal process to get Robinson’s one-game suspension overturned. He declined to offer his opinion on the call, only saying that he’d have to watch the play again before jumping to judgment.

Regardless, Syracuse is without whom McIntyre called the team’s most dominant defender for another 90 minutes this week. The Orange will have to improvise in the back again if it wants to repeat as ACC tournament champions.

But if Friday was any indication, Syracuse could survive without Robinson.

Published on October 28, 2016 at 11:36 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman