In the 79th minute, Syracuse forward Maya Pitts crossed the ball from the left corner to the middle of the penalty box, where Stephanie Skilton headed the ball to Eva Gordon on the left side of the box. Gordon attempted to slip the ball into the left corner of the net, but St. John’s goalkeeper Diana Poulin dove to the grass to make the save, turning cheers of excitement from the SU fans into groans of disappointment.

“I thought Eva did a great job of getting into the near post space,” Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said of the play. “(Poulin) made a good save, so I give her credit.”

Poulin didn’t have to make many saves in the first half as the Orange struggled to create scoring chances. Syracuse adjusted its offensive strategy at halftime, getting in more opportunities similar to Gordon’s. But the Orange (1-2) failed to capitalize on any of them in a 1-0 loss to St. John’s (3-0) at SU Soccer Stadium on Friday night.

In a scoreless opening 45 minutes, Syracuse was rarely able to get the ball inside the box on offense. Wheddon tried to make changes on the fly by substituting Gordon and forward Alex Lamontagne into the game for Alexis Koval and Sheridan Street, but not much changed.

At halftime, the head coach said he talked to his team about taking advantage of the space between St. John’s midfielders and back line. And in the second half, Syracuse pushed up its wide players on the Red Storm’s defenders and began to pressure the ball more. Wheddon said that SU also attempted to isolate its forwards in one-on-one situations.

“We just played way more direct and it showed in the opportunities we got,” Gordon said.

The first of those opportunities came in the 41st minute, when Lamontagne dribbled the ball just in front of the penalty box before lofting a short lob pass ahead to midfielder Jackie Firenze. Only Poulin stood between Firenze and a goal, but the pass traveled a little too far and straight into the goalkeeper’s hands.

Later, with 25 minutes to play, Street crossed the ball from the right side of the box toward the St. John’s goal. Poulin and Koval were the only players in the area. Both slid for the ball, but Poulin got there first and made the save.

“I thought we were doing a great job,” Wheddon said. “We got some great services into the box.”

Gordon’s scoring chance came with roughly 11 minutes left, and it would end up being one of Syracuse’s final shots on goal. But it wasn’t SU’s final opportunity, as the Orange was awarded consecutive corner kicks in the 87th and 88th minutes. Firenze took both, but Syracuse couldn’t convert on either.

“We just needed to finish our chances,” Firenze said. “We had some good opportunities there but that’s just something that we’re going to have to work on.”

Published on August 28, 2015 at 11:03 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu