There were three minutes left on the clock. Syracuse hadn’t led since the first half but was chipping away at Notre Dame’s lead and coming off a game-tying goal from a free position opportunity, Emily Hawryschuk had the ball again. She came from the back of the net, spun around and shot low, hitting nylon after a one-on-one with Notre Dame’s goalkeeper.

Hawryschuk completed a 5-1 scoring run in the final minutes of the second half, and capped a run of four unanswered scores for the Orange.

The No. 8 Fighting Irish (9-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) almost served No. 4 Syracuse (10-2, 3-1) its third loss of the season but a strong second-half performance made up for Syracuse’s struggles in the first half in a 10-9 win. The Orange struggled to score in the first but netted three goals in the final eight minutes to win their fourth-straight win.

“It was a great win for the team,” Hawryschuk said. “It was just offense stepping up and doing their job, defense held them to one goal in the second half. I mean that’s awesome.”

The win over Notre Dame mimicked a win then-No. 4 Northwestern over a month ago. In both games, the Orange were down by two with seven minutes left. Both games had Syracuse scoring three more goals after the seven-minute mark and in both games, it came down to a game-winning goal by Emily Hawryschuk.

But the difference between the two: location. The Orange played in Syracuse but there was no block “S” in the middle of the field and no fluorescent lighting hanging from a dome roof. Syracuse was outside where a gold circle with overlapping purple letters indicated the game was at Christian Brothers Academy. The NCAA Women’s basketball tournament caused the game to change locations.

Used to practicing and playing inside, the Orange didn’t get a chance to practice at CBA’s field before Sunday’s game, Hawryschuk said.

“Bri Stahrr gave a great pregame speech saying it’s still Syracuse, it’s still our home. We’re a mile and a half down the road,” Hawryschuk continued.

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Syracuse scored first when senior Nicole Levy ran around the net and flipped the ball in but Notre Dame answered quickly. ND took the lead a moment later when Andie Aldave caught the ball from Maddie Howe, cradled a few times and fired it past SU’s goalkeeper Asa Goldstock.

The rest of the first half saw the lead change two more times. Syracuse tied it up, then flipped the lead again. Then, Howe reciprocated the tie for Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish bench broke into the chorus of DJ Otzi’s “Hey baby” with players harmonizing, “Hey baby, ooh, ahh, I wanna know if you’ll be my girl.”

The Orange wouldn’t regain the lead after that goal until Hawryschuk’s game-winner. But after Notre Dame controlled the first half, scoring eight goals, the second half was all Syracuse.

“Great second half for the defense,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “We finally got the offense going at the end, got the four goals we needed and finished the game.”

Mary Rahal was able to score an early goal after halftime but then both offenses struggled. The defense and Goldstock found their footing after a shaky first half. Goldstock had six saves in the second half and Notre Dame went into a 20-minute scoring drought. During ND’s inability to score in the second half, Syracuse was face-guarding Howe. Alexa Radziewicz, playing on her high school’s turf, received a yellow card. Howe wasn’t being covered as close with Radziewicz out of the game, beat Allison Trice and scored ND’s lone goal of the second half.

Sam Swart responded quickly to Howe’s goal. She lined up for a free position shot and scored her second goal of the game. Two minutes later, Cara Quimby caught a pass from Vannessa Constantino and shot into the net reducing’s Syracuse deficit to just one with six minutes left.

After a timeout, Notre Dame won the ensuing faceoff but turned the ball over. It was taken up the field and Hawryschuk was awarded a free position shot. She stood on the arc, winded her stick and blasted a top-shelf goal to tie the game.

“When Emily scored (to tie the game), I was absolutely ecstatic,” Morgan Widner said, “and the hard thing is you get so excited when the goal is scored and then you kind of have to bring it back down a little bit to focus on the draw.”

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Widner won the following draw, and the Fighting Irish tried to regain the lead on its final possession. With less than a minute left, Syracuse gained possession and called a timeout. When the game resumed, Swart took the ball and ran around the field to keep from turning it over. She ran literal circles around ND players before Kathleen Roe pushed Swart from behind causing the sophomore to fall and drop the ball. Roe received a yellow card.

There were 4.3 seconds left for SU to keep Notre Dame from tying the game. Swart passed to Goldstock. As the final whistle blew, Goldstock chucked the ball 50 yards and her team ran out to meet her.

“We’re playing ACC games so the play’s getting higher,” Widner said. “It’s getting more intense and it’s getting more exciting to have those ‘dog fights’ as coach (Regy) Thorpe likes to say.”

Published on March 24, 2019 at 2:17 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu