From the time Emily Hawryschuk scored the 14th and final goal for Syracuse, to the time the final whistle blew, Syracuse committed 11 fouls. They were fouls that put the Orange down a player, fouls that led to free-position shots and fouls that led to Virginia Tech goals in a game decided by one point. 

It was the second time this season the opening draw took place over a gold circle with CMB overlapping in the middle instead of standing over an orange block S. Last time the Orange played at Christian Brothers Academy, they came back against then-No. 12 Notre Dame. On Wednesday, SU almost discovered what it felt like to be the Fighting Irish in SU’s 10-9 win. The Hokies (8-6, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) staged a comeback, but No. 3 Syracuse (13-2, 5-1) outlasted VT and won by one point, 14-13.

“We hung on, we did what we needed to do to get the W and made it exciting for the fans, again,” SU head coach Gary Gait said.

Syracuse started the game in a similar fashion as most games this season: score early and score a lot. Within a minute of Hawryschuk winning the opening draw, Mary Rahal scored. Then Megan Carney, Vanessa Costantino and Meaghan Tyrrell scored within a minute of each other and SU was up by four.

When they were up 5-1, a shooting space penalty gave Nicole Levy a free-position attempt. She wound her stick a few times waiting for the whistle. When it came, she passed to Rahal who was running toward the goal. Rahal caught the ball but soon lost it and Virginia Tech’s goalie scooped it. Cradling it a few times, her stick tipped back too far and caused an own goal, giving the Orange a 6-1 advantage.

Virginia Tech’s own goal was a turning point. Moving forward, SU was unable to run up the score and struggled to keep Virginia Tech from scoring.

After the Hokies responded to the own goal, and SU netted one more, the Orange suffered 12 dry minutes. During those 12 minutes, the Hokies brought it within three.

Prior to Wednesday, SU hadn’t allowed an unranked team to get within six goals going into the second half. The Hokies did, almost going into the half three goals behind the Orange, similar to SU in its comeback win against Notre Dame.

With 17 seconds before the first half whistle blew, Levy was in a scrum. Surrounded by black jerseys in front of the goal, her white uniform stood out as she twisted her stick and found the net to give SU a four goals lead.

It was the start of SU’s longest scoring run since VT’s own goal. Coming out of the half, Carney was awarded an open net free position shot she converted on then, the freshman assisted Hawryschuk on the junior’s 50th goal of the season.

Then, Syracuse started to foul, leading to player down and free-position opportunities.

“We had some cross checks, some sticks got close to the head,” Gait said. “They made the calls. We went man-down a few times.”

The Hokies were set up for multiple scoring opportunities. A foul by Ella Simkins led to a VT free position shot. SU goalie Asa Goldstock saved it, but, moments later, a foul by freshman Sarah Cooper led to another free position attempt for the Hokies. This time, the ball found the net and SU’s lead was down to four.

Twice more as the clock wound down Virginia Tech was awarded a free position shot. Both were overshot. The first was intercepted by SU defender Kerry Defliese. The second time though, the ball flew past the end line. Players from both teams rushed to the spot where the ball exited the field of play with their sticks outstretched. Virginia Tech was awarded possession and that quickly turned into a goal.

The Hokies were down by two with a minute and a half left. Hawryschuk won the draw control for SU but VT caused a turnover on Tyrrell. They cleared the ball and scored with the clock stopped at 30 seconds.

Hawryschuk was at the draw again. She won it and SU played keep away for the final seconds, keeping Virginia Tech just out of reach of an upset.

“It was a game that literally went down to the last minute,” Hawryschuk said. “Coming out with a game where we played the full 60 minutes is awesome.”

Published on April 3, 2019 at 6:29 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu