Syracuse needed a breakthrough on Oct. 15 against Connecticut, and its open play offense wasn’t producing with the game still scoreless. Its production on set pieces had struggled much of the season, but on the seventh corner kick of the night, Sondre Norheim snuck in a pocket of space between four Huskies defenders.

Massimo Ferrin’s service was perfect, and a wide-open Norheim nodded the ball in at the near post.

In one of the Huskies’ final attacks of the night, UConn’s Dayonn Harris received the ball on the left flank and drove at Norheim one-on-one. Harris cut inside then quickly switched directions, but Norheim lunged in and won the ball, preserving SU’s clean sheet in an eventual 1-0 win.

“He goes up against guys that are supposed to be really, really good players and he makes them look average,” Norheim’s backline partner Nyal Higgins said. “He gets forward a lot and scores goals. He’s had a great impact on the team.”

Norheim’s sturdy defending and timely attacking has driven Syracuse (7-4-4, 2-3-2 Atlantic Coast) to four wins and three clean sheets in its last five games, keeping the Orange’s chances of hosting a first-round game in the ACC tournament alive. Over that span, Norheim has scored four goals — all from headers off set pieces — and shown his experience in defense to help SU to its best run of form of the season.

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Head coach Ian McIntyre recruited Norheim in 2016 to be Syracuse’s next big, physical center back in place of the Major League Soccer-bound Miles Robinson and graduating Louis Cross. He joined the program in February 2017 and was paired that fall with then-junior Kamal Miller to anchor the Orange’s backline, starting 17 games.

“We had some big shoes to fill,” McIntyre said. “We were trying to continue that kind of dominant, physical defender. Sondre brings that.”

In his first two seasons, Norheim missed just one game due to a suspension after he received a red card against Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in his second career match. He went on to start 33 consecutive games spanning until the end of his sophomore season. After a back injury in the spring of 2019 carried into the fall, Norheim missed his first-ever game because of injury, SU’s season-opener against then-No. 13 Georgetown.

Norheim said even in the offseason, he has “always been in good shape.” McIntyre called Norheim “arguably the hardest working guy on the team on and off the field.”

“It’s my job to be ready for each game,” Norheim said.

Norheim’s durability has allowed him to stay on the field and lead the Orange’s backline, which, unlike past years, lacked experience playing together. Prior to this season, SU’s two other starting center backs — Higgins and Dylan McDonald — had appeared in a combined four games against ACC opponents, and never in the same game.

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When Norheim’s back injury prevented him from playing against Georgetown, McIntyre went away from his preferred three-at-the-back system and changed to a back four with Higgins and McDonald as the center backs. The defensive unit “wasn’t mature,” Higgins said, and the Orange conceded three times against Georgetown, including two in one minute in the second half to put the game out of reach.

“(Sondre) brings a veteran type of quality to the team,” Higgins said. “That’s what we were looking for in that first game.”

At one point, the Orange had earned the most corners in the nation without scoring a goal. Ferrin’s service has improved of late, though, and Norheim has been the beneficiary.

His first goal was SU’s equalizing third goal against UNC off a free kick. Three days later, he scored the winner against Connecticut. Four days after that, Norheim scored twice in the Orange’s 7-4 loss to No. 8 Clemson. His four goals on the year rank tied for third among Syracuse players and bring him to nine total in his college career after five as a sophomore.

“If you’re going into the box, your mentality should be, ‘I’m going to score,’” Norheim said. “Sometimes (the ball) ends up in your area, and you have to be in the right mindset to go get it.”

Norheim’s physical stature makes him hard to handle in one-on-one situations. At 6-foot-4, Norheim is the tallest player on Syracuse’s roster. If his height wasn’t enough, Norheim added six pounds of muscle to his 180-pound frame this past offseason.

In what was an inexperienced, mistake-ridden defensive unit at the start of the season, Norheim’s veteran presence and leadership have made them complete, evident in SU’s 3-0 win over No. 23 North Carolina State on Saturday. With the postseason nearing, the Orange’s backline must be at its best to give SU its best chance of advancing and potentially securing a home game in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

“We’ve been progressing and we’re going to keep progressing,” Higgins said. “We’re getting better. We’re maturing as a unit.”

Published on October 29, 2019 at 8:12 pm

Contact David: ddschnei@syr.edu