Alie Jimerson caught the ball just behind the Albany cage, on the right side of goalie Erin Leghart. With one defender in front of her, Jimerson faked right, went left and flashed in front of the crease. The senior shot low and gave Syracuse a 5-1 lead.

Heading into SU’s matchup against Albany, Syracuse was tied for the best offense in the country with 20 goals per game. The attack relied on a litany of options, with 11 different players scoring a game.

When Jimerson gave the Orange a four-goal lead, she was the fourth different goalscorer after 10 minutes of play. She was one of 12 different scorers in an eventual 19-12 win. Following the goal, she emphatically dropped her stick and huddled with her team. The lyrics of Ace Hood’s “Hustle Hard” blared over the sound system:

“Same old sh*t, just a different day.”

No. 5 Syracuse (3-0) torched Albany (0-2) and preserved its perfect start to 2018. The Orange dominated for the majority of the first half, entering the break with a nine-goal lead, its largest of the young season. Sophomore Emily Hawryschuk tallied a trio of goals in the first half, and Jimerson finished with three points (a pair of goals and one assist). The blowout provided a reprieve before SU embarks on what head coach Gary Gait called the “toughest three-game stretch” in the country, when the Orange faces No. 16 Virginia, No. 4 Florida and No. 1 Maryland.

“I thought we got off to a great start,” Gait said. “It was an excellent first half. We took control of the game. I thought it was very well done by our starters.”

When the final whistle blew, SU led in every major category including shots (37-25), caused turnovers (10-4) and ground balls (23-14). The win extended Syracuse’s now 11-game winning streak against the Great Danes.

In the last three matchups, Syracuse bested Albany by a combined five goals. SU topped the Great Danes 13-12, a year ago, due to a free-position goal by Riley Donahue with nine seconds left. Thursday night’s meeting bucked the trend of close games.

Last season, Albany’s man-to-man defense forced the Orange to loft long shots inside at Leghart. SU found success when it dove inside and drew 15 free-position shots. Syracuse didn’t rely on eight-meter shots on Thursday, however, it out-played the Great Danes and scored at will.

“We wanted to push the ball,” Gait said. “We wanted to run. We got some easy stops … It turned into some easy goals.”

One such goal came in the first half off an Albany restart. Taylor Gait knocked the ball away from an Albany midfielder, sent it forward to Jimerson and triggered a fast break. Jimerson had a one-on-one and saw Hawryschuk out of the corner of her eye 10-yards behind her. Jimerson sprinted past the goal and drew the defense with her.

As Hawryschuk approached, Jimerson turned and slung her the ball. Hawryschuk beat an out of position Leghart and recorded her third goal of the half, one more than the Great Danes’ first-half total (two).

Early in the first half, Molly Carter chased down a loose ball 10 yards away from Albany’s net. She scooped it up and was quickly bracketed by two purple jerseys. She planted her foot and spun around, leaving the two defenders behind her. She sped toward the net as another Great Dane defender charged. The freshman attack slotted the ball top-shelf while she fell to the ground. The referee raised her arms in the air, signaling SU’s second goal.

Carter popped up and hugged her teammates. She made it look easy, a sign of what was to come.

“We had a few different set offenses,” Hawryschuk said, “and from that we had the different looks.”

The visitors miscommunicated on switches, rotated late in the defensive-third and forced Leghart to make doorstop saves.

With 18:11 left in the first frame, Leghart saved a Mary Rahal shot and deflected it in front of her crease. Leghart and an Albany defender reached for the loose ball and sent it rolling toward their own net. Both failed to stop it before it crossed the goal line, and stared into space and processed the own goal.

Leghart saw 22 shots total when the two teams squared off last season, she was tasked with stopping 21 in the first half alone.

Riley Donahue, whose heroics decided the game a year ago, was absent in a first half in which she didn’t score a point. When she got on board in the second half and gave SU a 10-goal lead, she triggered a running clock. Albany responded with a 3-1 run and hinted at a comeback, but SU kept scoring. Seven more goals were scored and Gait rotated all four of his goalkeepers into the game.

Late in garbage time, Vanessa Costantino seemed to pass the ball inside to Mackenzie Baker, who was in front of Leghart’s net. A freshman attack, Baker redirected the ball to the ground. Leghart saw the ball late and fell to her knees to save it, but it was futile.

Like they had all game, SU scored with ease and cruised in a matchup that’s caused it so many problems in years past.

“We had a set offensive plan,” Hawryschuk said, “and we worked off of that and the goals just came.”

Published on February 22, 2018 at 7:41 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez