With Syracuse possessing the ball on Miami’s half of the field midway through the first half, SU goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan strayed far away from her goal to watch the action and yell instructions to her back line.

Brosnan stayed in that spot for much of the first half, when Syracuse consistently dominated the ball and prevented Miami from generating much offensive pressure. And when the Hurricanes did move the ball forward, SU’s defenders were usually there to stop the ball and make life easy for Brosnan, who only had to make one save in the first half.

But the early parts of the second half were a different narrative for the Orange, who suffered a few defensive breakdowns. Miami took advantage on one and got a ball past Brosnan, but that was all the Hurricanes (5-10, 2-6 Atlantic Coast) would get before Syracuse (6-10-1, 2-6) cleaned things up in a 2-1 overtime win at SU Soccer Stadium on Thursday night. In the win, SU limited Miami’s Gracie Lachowecki — who has the third-most goals in the ACC — to zero shots on goal.

Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said he knew one of the keys to stopping Miami’s attack would be taking Lachowecki out of the action. So he had Erin Simon shadow her throughout the game, and Lachowecki never managed to get much going.

“I thought Erin was superb,” Wheddon said.

In the opening 45 minutes, so was the rest of Syracuse’s back line, namely Maddie Iozzi, Alana O’Neill and Jessica Vigna. The trio consistently turned away Miami’s attackers and broke up crossing passes. The Hurricanes got just one shot on goal, which Brosnan turned away with ease.

“I thought we did really well on shifting,” Vigna said. “When someone stepped to the ball, the other backs did well on stepping in and making sure nothing got past us.”

In the second half, though, Vigna said she and the rest of the defense came out flat. Miami began to create more pressure and push the ball forward. Syracuse struggled to build anything from the back, and its longer passes usually got returned by Miami’s midfielders and defenders back into SU’s zone.

The result was more opportunities for the Hurricanes. Two minutes into the half, Miami’s Natalie Moik possessed the ball just to Brosnan’s right and tried to loft it over the goalkeeper, but Brosnan jumped high and grabbed it out of the air. Four minutes later, Erin McGovern had a point-blank look at the goal off a free kick, but again Brosnan made the save.

Six minutes later, though, Miami earned a corner kick and McGovern headed the corner into the net, scoring the goal that seemed inevitable.

“I just thought we weren’t winning possession,” Wheddon said. “We took too many risks on the ball. … We were disheveled and caught out of position at times.”

After the goal, the back line seemed to figure things out and recaptured the success it had in the first half. Vigna said she and her teammates began communicating more, and Miami didn’t get another shot on goal.

Meanwhile, Syracuse scored two goals of its own, one in the 85th minute and another in the second overtime period — enough to get a second consecutive win.

Said Wheddon: “I give our back line a lot of credit. … I thought we settled down.”

Published on October 22, 2015 at 11:45 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu