As Syracuse and Colgate prepared for the opening faceoff, the Republica song ‘Ready to Go’ blared through the Carrier Dome sound system.

Unfortunately for the sake of competition, only one team followed the message.

The No. 8 Orangewomen (5-2, 1-1 Big East), facing a Colgate team that seemed ready to leave, overpowered the Raiders yesterday with six goals in the first 17 minutes en route to a 16-8 blowout win.

‘We did a great job of setting the tone of the game,’ head coach Lisa Miller said.

While in the locker room before gametime, Miller set a different kind of tone. She told senior midfielder Carrie Soults, who leads the team with 19 goals, to record a hat trick in the game’s first 15 minutes.

Although the Big East first-teamer didn’t notch her third until the 25-minute mark, Soults finished with four first-half goals, leading a speedy offense that opened an 11-3 halftime lead and outshot its opponent, 30-22.

“It just proves that Carrie can score almost any time she wants,” teammate Ellen Rust said. “She could have had as many goals as she wanted.’

When the second half began Miller inserted numerous freshmen — among them Monica Joines, who recorded her first two career goals — to replace the stars of the first half.

With players such as Soults and Kim Wayne on the bench, Colgate stayed even with SU in the second half.

‘Maybe some of that had to do with the fact that we were up and kind of had a cushion,’ attacker Erin MacDonald said. ‘But these are the types of games where you have to keep your discipline. You can’t let teams like that come back into the game. We knew that we were better than them.’

Syracuse proved its point before anyone had time to dispute it. Soults opened the barrage with a sneaky shot to the left of Raider goalkeeper Jane Murray just 27 seconds into the game.

Barely a minute later, Wayne slipped to the right of the Colgate cage and pushed a pass to Danielle Lillis, who released a quick shot from five yards away. Lillis was one of 10 Orangewomen to score, helping the team to its highest output of the season.

While the SU attack unit fired on 10 cylinders, the Colgate offense looked for a mechanic.

On a free-position play in the first half, SU keeper Carla Gigon was whistled for a check while out of the goal crease. On the restart the Raiders earned a wide-open opportunity but failed to convert when Samantha Didrikson let a pass roll out of her web.

Later, when asked if Colgate was severely overmatched, Miller simply responded: ‘Apparently.’

‘We knew this was a team we should dominate against,’ said MacDonald, who finished with two goals. ‘But we knew that we couldn’t come out and think, ‘Oh, they’re not good.’ ”

Syracuse lost its shutout less than ten minutes before halftime, when Rebecca Sandler flashed in front of Gigon and ripped a high shot from 10 yards away.

But the Orangewomen responded less than a minute later when MacDonald rushed up the field, outracing two Colgate defenders, and threw in a quick goal to restore the six-point SU lead. The overwhelming advantage in speed, Miller said, was a key to the attack’s success.

‘If we can stretch you out and turn the corner on you, yeah that helps us,’ Miller said. ‘If we’re more athletic than you are, we’ll try to take advantage of that.’

Although Gigon saw more action in the second half, the outcome had already been decided. Colgate attacker Caitlin Houck tallied her third goal of the game and cut SU’s lead to 14-8. Yet the Orangewomen never allowed Colgate to encroach on the six-goal deficit it faced well before halftime.

‘Yeah, I was very pleased with our first-half effort,’ Miller said. ‘I don’t know that you can recover from that kind of lead.’

Published on March 27, 2002 at 12:00 pm