After Syracuse and Princeton remained scoreless in the first half, Ange Bradley knew she had to give the Tigers some problems. So she sent along a tough one — Martina Loncarica.

‘I think Martina was a key part for us,’ said Bradley, SU’s head coach. ‘We moved her up front and she created a lot of problems for their defense when she moved to forward.’

Those problems included three shots on goal from Loncarica and a total of 12 in the second half for the Orange. Those problems included a goal, scored by Loncarica on a penalty stroke. And those problems created countless open looks for Syracuse in front of the Tigers’ goal.

Princeton failed to find solutions for those issues, and No. 5 Syracuse came away with a 5-0 win over the 19th-ranked team in the country Sunday. The Orange scored four of its five goals by drawing Princeton goalkeeper Christina Maida out of the net, moving the ball around her and capitalizing on wider angles to shoot from.

With Loncarica’s move to the forward position, Syracuse also transferred its momentum up the field. After a first half of back-and-forth play between the Tigers and the Orange, Syracuse dominated the field in the second half, rarely letting the ball move deeper than its own 25-yard-line.

All season long, Syracuse has focused on trying to anticipate where passes will go. The players wanted to run to where the ball will be, not where it is. This allows the Orange to get ahead of its opponent and create passing and shooting opportunities.

‘It’s something we practice, it’s the way we work to try to score goals,’ Bradley said. ‘It’s about moving into the space where the ball is going to be as opposed to standing. Then, the ball gets past you.’

To get to where the ball was going to be, Syracuse players were diving all over — especially in front of the net. Junior forward Kelsey Millman ended up on the ground after she reached out her stick to touch the ball in behind the goalie for a score with eight-plus minutes left to play. That was followed by an unassisted goal from sophomore midfielder Leonie Geyer and a final goal on another diving play from freshman forward Lauren Brooks to cap off the scoring with less than a minute left.

‘When you see those kids diving, they’re moving into those spaces,’ Bradley said. ‘They’re doing exactly what you teach. I’m just so happy watching what they did today. I’m very proud of them.’

Princeton was also coming off a 2-1 loss Saturday to Dartmouth in its first Ivy League game of the season, and Syracuse was able to take advantage of a tired team. The extra day off allowed SU to utilize its speed and passing ability to overpower a usually dangerous Tigers team.

‘They’re a really skilled team,’ Millman said. ‘They have a lot of good players in the midfield. … so once you move the ball around each other and around the field, you open it up.’

During the first half, Syracuse noticed open lanes where Princeton wasn’t covering the SU attackers but weren’t able to take advantage of them. They shot only three times. Susek said the team decided during halftime to focus on transferring the ball around the field more.

Syracuse put a heavier emphasis on balls pushed out to the wings and making sure players were there to receive them — an attacking style led by Loncarica. When it moved play to the edge of the field, the forwards moved to open lanes and met little resistance from the Princeton defense.

‘We kind of adjusted that going into the second, so that kind of helped open up the space,’ said Susek.

That open space led to the Orange pressuring the ball up the field. After Loncarica kicked off the scoring just under 20 minutes into the second half, the goals just began to flow. Five goals in the last 16 minutes.

‘It all just fell into place, one (goal) right after the other,’ Susek said. ‘We really kept our intensity up in the second half and moved the ball really well to get in behind their defense.’

knmciner@syr.edu

Published on September 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm