The ball rolled toward Wake Forest goalkeeper Lindsay Preston and behind all of the Demon Deacons defenders. While most of them stopped running – expecting Preston to easily pick up the ball – Syracuse forward Sheridan Street never did.

Street won the ball, took a quick dribble to the right and fired the ball behind the WFU goalie and into the net.

“That’s a big part of our team and our team chemistry,” Street said. “We really want to work hard on getting to the 50-50 balls and scrap.”

SU head coach Phil Wheddon jumped up in the air and pumped his fist. After waiting nearly the entire game for his team to score on Thursday against Miami, Syracuse had converted on a hustle play to give itself a 1-0 lead midway through the first half.

The Orange’s (7-10-1, 3-6 Atlantic Coast) offensive pressure was the key component in its 1-0 win against Wake Forest (4-12-2, 1-8) on Sunday at SU Soccer Stadium.

It was the third consecutive win for the Orange, the longest winning streak of the season. It’s the first the time in program history that SU has beaten three ACC teams in a row. The win gave Syracuse its third conference win of the season, one more than last year with one game left on the schedule.

Throughout the game, Wheddon consistently yelled “play it wide” at his team. Every time an Orange player found herself with the ball in the middle of the field, she turned and passed it toward the sideline to try and spread out the Demon Deacon defense.

“Their strength is their midfield,” Wheddon said. “They have some exceptional midfielders. We wanted to bypass their midfield and play in the flanks a little bit more today, out of respect for them, really.”

Wheddon also pointed out that his players make the most dynamic runs when the ball is played down the sidelines.

That offensive pressure helped the Orange largely keep the ball on the Wake Forest side of the field. Overall, Syracuse had 11 shots on the game, with seven of those coming in the first half.

Even though SU only scored one goal, it had many chances for more. In the first half, senior forward Maya Pitts got the ball on the right side and rifled a left-footed shot toward the back left corner that Preston barely punched out.

In the second half, SU appeared to score its second goal of the game when the ball went under Preston and barely crossed the back line. But the referee ruled that one of the Orange players committed a foul on Preston and the goal was waived off.

“We said at halftime that we needed to get another goal,” Wheddon said. “…I thought we battled hard, I thought we created some good opportunities.”

Though the gameplan was to avoid the Wake Forest midfielders, the Orange offense still had to deal with the physicality that some of the Demon Deacons brought.

Overall, Wake Forest received four yellow cards on Sunday. But despite the physicality, Syracuse’s offense was able to create chances – and capitalize on one – that it hasn’t always been able to.

“I think (our offense) has been fantastic,” Wheddon said. “I’m proud of our team.”

Published on October 25, 2015 at 5:36 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer