Heading into Thursday, Syracuse was winless against Connecticut in 17 matchups dating back to 1997. The last time SU even scored against the Huskies was nearly 11 years ago.

But the Orange (4-3-1, 1-0 Big East) ended UConn’s (4-3-1, 0-1) streak of dominance in the teams last regular-season matchup as Big East opponents Thursday, defeating the Huskies 3-2 at SU Soccer Stadium.

“It just shows that you can play with anyone,” SU head coach Phil Wheddon said.

Freshman midfielder Jackie Firenze’s goal in the final minute lifted SU to the upset. The Orange fell behind in the opening moments of the game, but dominated possession the rest of the half, outshooting the Huskies 12-7. Syracuse trailed by one goal at halftime before breaking out for three scores to earn the historic win over the Huskies in the conference opener.

Syracuse’s last goal against UConn came in a 3-1 loss on Oct. 5, 2001. Over a decade later in SU’s final season in the Big East before leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Orange finally came out on top.

The Huskies were picked to finish second in their division in the conference and returned eight starters from a year ago. But SU proved to be the better team Thursday.

“I challenged our team this morning to outwork them, and I thought we did that,” Wheddon said.

The Huskies scored just seconds after the whistle blew when Danielle Schulmann chipped the ball over SU goalkeeper Brittany Anghel.

SU took control of the possession battle from there before play was stopped just as the Orange began to find its groove. The game was delayed 25 minutes after UConn goalkeeper Allison Saucier collided with Syracuse forward Alexis Koval in the 17th minute.

“I just kept plugging away in their mind and saying focus on what we were doing,” Wheddon said. “At the time of the injury we were all over them a little bit so I’m proud of their efforts.”

The Orange outplayed the Huskies for the first 60 minutes, and Alyscha Mottershead headed in a beautiful ball from Erin Simon to tie the game at 1-1 in the 63rd minute.

But within 18 seconds of Mottershead’s goal, UConn found the net to take the lead 2-1.

The Orange continued to attack, and with 11 minutes left on the clock Rosina Callisto took a booming shot from outside the box to even the score again.

Overtime looked inevitable, but Firenze took a shot that slipped through UConn goalkeeper Leigh-Ann Jaggon’s fingertips with 30 seconds remaining.

It sealed arguably the biggest win for the Orange under Wheddon.

“This means a lot to the senior class,” Callisto said. “We came in as freshman and with Phil Wheddon we really changed the program around.”

For Firenze, the win was set up by the team’s seven previous games.

“Our team has been playing some good competition outside of the Big East and that’s just prepared us for this game here, and we’ve had some valleys here and we’re trying to make our peak,” she said.

The Orange defeated the Huskies with skill, constructing plays off of beautifully played passes and deft touches. Meanwhile, UConn could only hope to for a goal by playing through balls over the heads of the SU defense.

Despite outshooting opponents almost two-to-one this season, the Orange had not been able to capitalize on its opportunities.

This week in practice the team knew it had to finish to beat UConn. And Firenze’s game-winning goal made all the work worth it on Thursday.

“I guess that focus during the week showed in the game today,” Callisto said. “I think that we need to work on that more and more to get a result that we want.”

Published on September 14, 2012 at 1:03 am

Contact Jack: jstruitt@syr.edu