Levonte Johnson’s 86th minute goal sends Syracuse to ACC semifinals

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Levonte Johnson just ran. He didn’t know if goalkeeper Russell Shealy would even pass to him. He didn’t know if he’d even get a chance to shoot on goal – Syracuse didn’t have a single shot on target by that point in the 85th minute. And after all, he was at the edge of his own box.

But he sprinted “just because,” he said. Like he has all year, Johnson made something out of nothing with his pace.

Shealy jumped and snatched the ball off a North Carolina corner, and against the advice of his coaches, he punted the ball downfield on a low line drive towards the streaking Johnson. While running back on defense, Til Zinnhardt tried to deflect it away, but he mishit the clearance and tapped the ball ahead to Johnson.

Johnson took a couple touches before Riley Thomas poked it out, causing Johnson to slip onto the wet grass. He recovered, spun around and headed toward the goal. With Zinnhardt on his right and Victor Olofsson on his left, Johnson slid and tapped the ball in between the goalkeeper’s legs to give the Orange their lone goal of the night.

Thomas and Zinnhardt immediately fell to their knees and stayed there for some time. Olofsson slapped the grass with both hands and then kicked it in disgust. Johnson and his teammates jumped on each other in a dogpile at the corner flag.

It wasn’t pretty, but No. 4 Syracuse (13-2-3, 5-1-2 Atlantic Coast) squeezed past North Carolina (8-5-5, 2-2-4 ACC) 1-0 to set up a semifinal matchup with Virginia, the only ACC team to beat SU this season. Last year, the Orange’s season ended in the first round of the ACC Tournament at the hands of the Tar Heels because of a penalty kick in the 106th minute. This time around, Johnson’s heroics secured SU’s spot in the ACC Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2015.

In 2019, the last time Syracuse won an ACC Tournament game, they beat UNC in the first round but lost in the quarterfinals at Virginia, who went on to win the ACC Tournament and lose in the College Cup finals.

But as the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament this year, the Orange will host the Cavaliers at 5 p.m. on Nov. 9. When the two sides played in Syracuse on Sept. 24, Syracuse was down to 10 men for the majority of the match and nearly pulled off a scoreless draw, before an 85th minute winner spoiled its unbeaten start.

North Carolina’s defense held its opponents to an average of just 6.6 shots per game going into the match. On the other hand, Syracuse registered an ACC-best 17.6 shots per game and Nathan Opoku led the conference in shots per game (2.76).

The Tar Heels’ defense was as stingy as advertised. They dropped eight men behind the ball and stifled Syracuse’s attacks before they could even turn into chances. Before Johnson’s breakaway goal, the Orange had managed just four shots all night and just one in the second half, a wild Abdi Salim header off a corner.

Dropping so many men deep hurt SU on the counter, where the Orange, especially Johnson, have thrived this season. Syracuse likes to push the ball on any chance it gets, but they just couldn’t break through UNC’s compact 4-4-2 formation despite controlling much of the play. The Tar Heels plugged up spaces and didn’t allow the Orange time on the ball.

Both Johnson and head coach Ian McIntyre pointed out that they sensed the Tar Heels were tiring in the final 10-15 minutes of the match. On the corner that ultimately doomed them, North Carolina brought multiple players forward to try to score a last-minute goal themselves. But it ultimately backfired as they had no one back deep to match up with Johnson’s pace.

“We needed, from a team that gets so many numbers behind, that little bit of brilliance to just try something,” McIntyre said. “And then Levonte did the rest.”

McIntyre specifically commended UNC’s Tim Schels, who battled with Amferny Sinclair and disrupted Orange play all night. UNC forced Syracuse into picking the ball up deep, and they struggled to make it through the gauntlet of Tar Heel defenders. SU’s five shots were a season-low and its one shot on goal tied a season-low. It didn’t force a single Tar Heel save.

“The one shot, we were just clinical,” Johnson said. “Thankfully, we won the game with it.”

Despite UNC’s defensive effort, Johnson’s pace was all Syracuse needed. Against Niagara on Sept. 13, Johnson’s breakaway goal was the difference in a 1-0 win. Last year, he made highlight after highlight with his speed on breakaways for Seattle University. “Little kid moments,” a former coach called them, because they don’t often happen at the collegiate level.