As the first half ended, Stony Brook rushed off the field, cheering and high-fiving each other.

Amber Kupres had just connected on a free-position shot to give the Seawolves a nine-goal lead at the intermission, and Towson had yet to score.

So the Tigers trudged off after a lifeless first half.

“I thought we were patient, I thought we were deliberate offensively in the first half,” Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina said. “We kind of kept the throttle down.”

But as the horn sounded to close out the game, the expressions of joy turned into relief as the Seawolves closed out a harder-than-expected 10-8 win over Towson in front of 175 fans at SU Soccer Stadium on Friday afternoon. They will now face No. 2-seed Syracuse there on Sunday at 3 p.m in the the second round of the NCAA tournament.

After leading 9-0 at halftime, Stony Brook allowed the Tigers to go on an 8-1 run to close out the game.

But that wasn’t enough to erase the first-quarter deficit, and the Seawolves held on.

“I thought we kind of eased up a little bit,” Spallina said. “We shouldn’t have. We spoke about it at halftime and we lost a little bit of our killer instinct.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be an 18-0 game.”

Stony Brook couldn’t miss in the first half. It converted on nine of its 10 shots, including 3-of-3 from the free position.

Leading 3-0, the Seawolves had the ball behind the goal. Spallina was on the sideline directing the offense. With each pass around the outside of the zone he shouted, “Not this time.”

But when Dorrien Van Dyke took a pass in front of the net he shouted, “Now.”

And like clockwork the ball found the back of the cage.

“I think the pace of the ball was fast and we made good decisions,” said Kupres, who finished with a team-high three goals. “And we were able to execute well.”

But after halftime the execution was no longer there. It took just 15 seconds for Towson’s Taylor Moore to connect and cut into the lead.

The same Tigers’ fans that had gone dormant late in the first half started a “T-U” chant again. Nineteen seconds later, Breanna Hamm caused the chant to grow louder when she made it 9-2.

Towson would cut the lead to 10-8 with 53 seconds left. The Tigers controlled the draw and raced it up the field. But as she had done all afternoon, Stony Brook goalie Frankie Caridi made a save, her seventh on the game.

Then Stony Brook ran out the clock.

And despite losing its grasp on a game that had appeared out of reach, the Seawolves are just thankful to move on.

“This time of the year is about survive and advance,” Spallina said. “And we survived, and we advance. And now we get to go play Syracuse.”

Published on May 9, 2014 at 7:16 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3