Alyscha Mottershead put on one last dribbling exhibition. Jenna Rickan got in a few final headers, all with a smile on her face. Rosina Callisto scored one last goal from just outside the box.

Syracuse’s seniors put on one last performance to remember in their final regular-season game at SU Soccer Stadium.

SU’s seven seniors, or as the team joked, the “S Club 7,” were honored in a pregame ceremony before their game against St. John’s on Saturday. Senior captain Amanda Hamilton, who has been out the entire year with a knee injury, began the night with a rendition of the national anthem. Orange head coach Phil Wheddon started the remaining six seniors: Callisto, Mottershead, Rickan, Brielle Heitman, Skylar Sabbag and Jasmine Watkins.

Two seniors scored goals and another picked up an assist in the Orange’s (9-6-2, 6-3-1 Big East) 3-0 victory over SJU (9-3-4, 3-3-1).

“It was an emotional day for all of us,” Callisto said. “At the pregame meal, everyone started getting all teary-eyed. We just said in the locker room that when we come out tonight, we just have to absolutely kill it.”

Heitman, playing in her seventh game of the season, collided with a Red Storm player just 36 seconds into the match and was carried off the field.

“Brielle is one of my greatest friends, so when you see that it kind of makes you want to go a little bit harder,” Rickan said. “Even though she wasn’t on the field, we used her just like she was.”

Moments later, Rachel Blum headed a pass to Watkins, who sprinted down the left sideline past two St. John’s defenders. Watkins, who saw game action for the first time all season, connected with Erin Simon. Simon scored to give the Orange an early 1-0 lead.

A trio of seniors — Callisto, Watkins and Mottershead — had a goal-scoring opportunity with 25 minutes to go in the half, but Mottershead’s wind-aided chip shot from just in front of the goal sailed high. Sophomore Alexis Koval came on for Watkins with 13:41 left in the half, ending her night and home career.

The score remained 1-0 until Callisto scored with just more than three minutes left in the first half.

“Before today’s game, I said I really want to score a goal against St. John’s because the first goal I scored in my career was against St. John’s,” Callisto said. “So I was just thinking going into the game that I absolutely have to do it. I didn’t think it was going to happen because it wasn’t until much later in the game, but when I had the shot I took it.”

Wheddon was glad she did.

“Terrific,” Wheddon said. “If there’s one thing I could say about Rosie over her four years is that she’s scored four or five like that from outside the box, just lasers into the corner. So I was so happy for her to score that goal.”

Mottershead then put an exclamation point on the win with a header off a corner kick.

“We’ve had, I don’t know, close to a hundred corner kicks,” Wheddon said. “And to score on a corner kick, to be a header from a senior, that was perfect. A perfect ending.”

Emotions ran high at SU Soccer Stadium, but by the end of the game, it was all smiles.

“It’s hard to know it’s the last time you’re going to play at a beautiful stadium that we built up for four years,” Rickan said. “It’s an awesome experience. You put in so much work in four years that you just want to enjoy it, so we got to tonight.”

Published on October 21, 2012 at 11:57 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu