Eight minutes into Sunday’s game, Liz Sack intercepted a pass from a Pennsylvania defender and began to push the ball toward the Quakers’ half of the field. As she crossed the midfield line, she curved between two Penn defenders and carried the ball all the way to the end line.

The ball skirted harmlessly out of bounds after a misjudged dribble, but it was still an important moment for the Orange.

Sack’s offensive surge was the first time an SU attacker carried the ball past midfield, and it was the Orange’s first real chance at a goal after facing an offensive onslaught early from the Quakers.

“At least we got something going there,” an SU fan yelled from the stands.

After a slow start from the Syracuse (8-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) offense, a surge in the final 50 minutes of the game led SU to a 4-0 romp over Penn (5-2, 1-0 Ivy League) on Sunday at J.S. Coyne Stadium. The win came just two days after the Orange dropped a 3-2 double-overtime game to No. 5 North Carolina, its first and only loss of the season.

Penn posted three shots in the first six minutes of the game as the Orange defenders stood on their heels. Just five minutes in, SU goalie Regan Spencer was forced to save a dangerous shot from close range. A minute later, a Penn shot clanged off the post to Spencer’s left, missing the net by mere inches.

After an SU pass drifted out of bounds, Orange head coach Ange Bradley began pacing on the sideline in front of the bench, leaning toward the field as she shouted at midfielder Laura Hurff to get something going.

“We just needed to manage (Penn’s) pressure early,” Bradley said after the game. “They pressured us hard and we’ve been working on that kind of stuff. Our backfield was reshaping.”

Seconds after Bradley yelled at Hurff, the junior scooped up a pass in the midfield and began a push into the Penn half.

A minute later, Hurff was on the receiving end of a pass from Annalena Ulbrich, mashing a one-touch shot at Penn goalie Liz Mata. The ball flew past Mata’s helmet and buried itself in the top shelf of the goal for SU’s first of the day, putting the Orange up 1-0.

“Getting a goal always helps, it just gets everybody’s spirits up,” Hurff said. “I think the link-up pattern up the field helped us say, ‘We got this, we’re in this.’”

The SU offense transformed after Hurff’s opening goal. Emma Lamison and Sack began pounding the Penn defense, pushing the pace of the attack and launching shots on Mata in the net.

After posting just one shot in the first 11 minutes of the game, the Orange finished the first half with 11. And following a goal apiece from Roos Weers and Ulbrich in the second half, the SU attack had notched 28 shots and eight penalty corners.

“I don’t think anything specifically changed, it was just the wake-up call that we needed,” Ulbrich said. “We had a lot more link up, combinations, midfielders passing and shooting the gap. It was a really good day for our offense.”

As the seconds ticked off the scoreboard and the Orange sat safely ahead of Penn at 3-0, the SU attack had one last chance at a score. After winning a penalty corner with no time left on the clock, Nisje Venrooy curled one final corner into the arc toward Elaine Carey.

Carey trapped the ball and slid it to Hurff, who slapped it between Mata’s legs and into the back of the goal. After starting the Orange’s momentum with a goal 60 minutes earlier, Hurff ended the drive the exact same way she had started it.

“We came out and executed the game plan,” Hurff said. “We knew what we wanted to do, and we came out and finished it in the end.”

Published on September 25, 2016 at 6:21 pm

Contact Matt: mjfel100@syr.edu