Six minutes into the second half, Zoe Wilson threaded a pass up field through a crowd of orange and white jerseys until the ball bounced onto Alma Fenne’s stick.

Fenne looked up, handled the ball around the nearest defender at the top right of the circle and saw forward Emma Russell break past her defender. Fenne’s pass, fed between the two Massachusetts defenders, found Russell suddenly alone just inside the top left of the circle.

“Alma and I had a give-and-go on the inside,” Russell said. “Then I opened up and took the shot.”

Russell’s blast past a sprawling goalie’s stick side opened the second-half scoring for the Orange and increased the lead to 2-0.

Russell’s goal, and Wilson’s aggressive push, represented a breakthrough for an Orange offense that struggled in the first half to finish chances and execute plays. No. 4 Syracuse (4-0) won its home opener at J.S. Coyne Field Sunday, 4-0, as it battled No. 18 Massachusetts (2-2) as well as the heat. It was 90 degrees at game time and multiple Syracuse players came off the field in search of a water bottle or ice towel. One halftime adjustment in strategy, and another in mindset, led the Orange’s second-half charge and brought them the win.

“If you go, you go hard,” Fenne said. “If you’re tired, you go off for a few minutes and then go back on the field. The heat was immense, but if you go hard for seven minutes and go off for one minute, it really helps. That was the main difference.”

During much of the first half, Syracuse tentatively passed the ball around in a triangle rather than attack Massachusetts’s defense. Head coach Ange Bradley freely substituted in the second half as well, using 17 of a possible 18 players.

Fresh legs showed. From the first half to the second, the Orange nearly doubled its shot opportunities (seven to 13), drew more penalty corners (one to four) and scored more goals (one to three).

Not even two minutes after Russell’s goal, Fenne herself scored. Minutes later, Roos Weers gained position off a penalty corner set piece and went cross-crease for a goal.

“I think we were able to re-group at halftime,” Russell said. “Just re-focus and come out and step up and get those shots and get better positioning in the circle.”

Bradley recognized the defense Massachusetts was playing. It was a drop-back, half-court press — the same defense Connecticut used to slow down and beat Syracuse in the 2014 National Championship, 1-0.

“(The adjustment was) being patient,” Bradley said. “We keep moving the ball. The more the ball moves, the more their defensive set had to move and that allowed us to open up the field. They got tired.”

Syracuse also opened up a passing option on the outside for its backs, Laura Hurff said, by positioning forwards and sending them on runs, or “hard leads.”

Once Russell scored the first goal of the second half to give Syracuse a small cushion, the Orange could afford to be more selective on when to attack, Russell said. The team worked the ball around and often backs would send forwards with passes up the field — just like Wilson sent Fenne before Russell’s goal.

“(The drop-back, half-court press) is something we’ve made a focus to be able to learn and be able to play against that type of defense to find a way to win,” Bradley said. “I’m quite pleased we were able to put up four goals.”

Published on September 6, 2015 at 5:00 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR