If Maggie Befort could point to where she and the rest of the Syracuse field hockey team could have evened things Saturday afternoon, it would begin on the field’s end line – a penalty corner.

If there was a chance to tie Connecticut’s one-goal lead Saturday afternoon at J.S. Coyne’s Stadium, this was it. But No. 1 Syracuse went scoreless on 13 penalty corner opportunities in its 1-0 loss to No. 9 Connecticut.

‘It’s huge. I want to say like a free throw in basketball,’ Befort said. ‘A good opportunity to score, especially when we have such a high goals per game. And usually we score one out of three.’

The loss was SU’s first blemish after an undefeated three-month run. Syracuse rebounded one day later, defeating Holy Cross 7-0 Sunday afternoon.

In truth, Syracuse dominated Saturday afternoon against UConn. It walked away in disappointment with eight more shots on goal and penalty corners than the Huskies. SU just couldn’t find the net.

Halfway through the second half, freshman midfield Martina Loncarica made the decision to drive to the cage by herself from the top of the opponent’s arc. The first defender fell backward, the second was tripped up by her own stick pursuing the ball placed between her legs and the third hooked Loncarica – giving Syracuse a penalty corner opportunity.

On that corner, the Orange turned the ball over.

On the 13th penalty corner, with 3:24 left, Befort’s push-out of the ball was stopped, passed and moved forward by Syracuse – three of four checkmarks to a perfect penalty corner, Befort said. But, the ball didn’t meet cage, instead getting blocked by bodies, sticks, posts and pads.

Some of SU’s chances dissolved when the ball was pushed wide right, went beyond the point of getting a clean shot, or was turned over between passes. A perfect corner-goal is made on a one-two pass, Befort said.

‘We didn’t execute,’ head coach Ange Bradley said. ‘And the ball didn’t fall for us. Sometimes you have games like that. I think people forget that we make it look easy.’

So after 90 minutes of being shut out, SU got back on track 20 minutes into Sunday’s 7-0 win against Holy Cross. On the second penalty corner of Syracuse’s game Sunday, Shannon Taylor made it look easy. Her shot from a push-out broke past five Crusaders for a goal. A perfect penalty corner.

‘That gave us a sense of relief that we’re moving on, that we can still do it,’ Taylor said. ‘It builds confidence.’

Though Syracuse missed 13 chances on Saturday, it recovered with four goals on 13 corners given by Holy Cross on Sunday. For Bradley, this proved her team thinks in the moment and has learned from its inability to tie Saturday’s lost game with numerous chances.

‘It’s a sign of a champion,’ Bradley said. ‘We didn’t get it done the day before, but we got it done (Sunday).’

edpaik@syr.edu

Published on October 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm