It wasn’t even two minutes into the second half when Chiara Gutsche backhand hit the ball at the top of the arc. California’s goalie Natalie Dalton dove to her left as the ball flew inches over her hip and into the back of the net.

The goal was SU’s second of the day. The two-goal lead was the Orange’s largest since it beat Bucknell 3-0 on Sept. 16.

Gutsche scored on both her shot attempts against California (3-8, 0-1 America East) to help Syracuse (8-4, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) win, 4-2, on Sunday afternoon at J. S. Coyne Stadium. It was SU’s first home game since Bucknell that didn’t go into overtime, in part because of Gutsche’s second-half efforts.

“I love scoring, hearing the sound of the ball hitting the board and we need to score to win,” Gutsche said.

When Gutsche came back to campus for her sophomore year, she showed that she had improved enough to earn a starting spot. Now, she is SU’s leading scorer this season with eight goals and has a 34.5 percent success rate on shots — second on the team behind Peyton Kemp, who is 1-for-2 this season.

Gutsche’s goal-scoring has been the difference for Syracuse multiple times this season. Against Stanford, she scored two goals to lead SU to an overtime win against the Cardinal. Against Pacific, her goal while SU was down 2-0 sparked the Orange to score two more in another overtime victory. Against Cal, her goals were sandwiched between the Orange’s first and last goals, but helped Syracuse to win by a two-score margin.

Her second goal came later in the second half, after back-to-back goals from Cal tied the game at two. There was a possibility that for the fourth time in four home games SU would be playing extra minutes.

Immediately after Cal’s second goal, head coach Ange Bradley called for a timeout. It took less than two minutes for that timeout to pay off when SU was awarded its third penalty corner of the day.

“I thought (the timeout) was a good call,” senior Roos Weers said. “I mean we had to focus in, we lost focus a little bit. ”

Carolin Hoffmann inserted the penalty corner. Weers was lined up to shoot the ball. Similar to the goal she scored at the end of the first half, Weers fired the ball toward the cage. Dalton dove to the ground, ricocheting the ball off her chest. Gutsche got the rebound and tapped the ball in. As soon as the ball crossed into the goal, Gutsche thrusted her fist into the air in celebration. She regained the lead for the Orange.

Gutsche said she’s always near the goal after penalty corners for situations like her second goal. It’s something the Orange practice often.

After her second goal when Syracuse was up one, Cal had the ball in the circle. Midfielder Maddie Cleat was in front of the goal. The ball was coming toward her to set her up for the game-tying point when Gutsche ran to where Cleat was. She stole the ball and ran left, clearing the ball upfield, away from SU’s goal.

Gutsche made sure her goals would secure an SU win.

“In the end it doesn’t matter who scores,” Gutsche said, “but I’m happy when it’s me.”

Published on October 7, 2018 at 6:40 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu