Just under 20 minutes into the second half, Courtney Brosnan leapt into the air among a cluster of red and white jerseys to catch a St. John’s corner kick when her legs were swept out from under her.

She landed hard on the ground, still clutching the ball and popped right up. She took a few steps toward the referee and asked for a foul, pointing and yelling that the St. John’s players had crept into her sphere.

“It was a 50-50 ball,” Brosnan said. “I think she definitely had a lot of contact on me, so I kind of thought it was a foul. But it’s up to the ref.”

Syracuse (1-2) dropped its home opener 1-0 to St. John’s (3-0) Friday night at SU Soccer Stadium. It was a physical game that was dominated by flying shoulders, swinging elbows and physical slide tackles, especially around midfield.

But on a night that pitted two former Big East rivals against each other, Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon wasn’t too surprised by the way the game turned out.

“St. John’s is a fast, dynamic, physical team and it was evident,” Wheddon said. “We got some beat up players tonight”

Sophomore forward Alex Lamontagne was the one to fall first.

Streaking up the right sideline midway through the first half, Lamontagne was taken down by a slide tackle. The flying foot clipped Lamontagne’s right knee, and she lay on the ground, writhing in pain before medical assistants helped her off the field.

Lamontagne later re-entered the game, but sat out the remainder of the first half.

“St. John’s is a really, really good opponent,” Brosnan said. “They’re very physical, a couple fast forwards, and they were in on every tackle. They didn’t give us anything easy.”

Then came Jackie Firenze, who was bodied up inside the box trying to head in a cross.

She fell to the ground and stayed hunched on her knees for a few moments, then rose slowly and limped back towards midfield.

“We knew that St. John’s was going to be a physical team, and knowing that obviously helped us,” Firenze said. “But I think we lacked a little bit in our physical nature as well.”

Brosnan said that Syracuse needs to work on asserting themselves more early on. Instead of making its presence known on Friday, SU instead let its opposition set the stage.

“We need to get out there first and win the first couple tackles and kind of set the tone,” she said. “We sort of let them dictate tone and they came at us with (winning) the 50-50s.”

Syracuse spent most of the night trying to apply pressure whenever St. John’s players received the ball. Wheddon could be heard calling for a double team from the sideline.

With under five minutes to go and Syracuse looking to tie the score, Stephanie Skilton was body-checked to the ground as she waited to receive a header just outside the box by the Red Storm’s Emily Cubbage.

The home crowd voiced its disapproval without hesitation, and St. John’s was eventually assessed a yellow card with 24 seconds remaining. But for Wheddon, it was just another game against a familiar foe.

“Yeah, there’s that old rivalry,” he said. “We’ve always had a physical battle with them and it’s typically come down to a one-goal game. And unfortunately tonight, we came out on the wrong end of it.”

Published on August 28, 2015 at 11:37 pm

Contact Matt: mralex01@syr.edu