Following Friday’s tie against Cornell — the third consecutive game in which Syracuse failed to score — Jackie Firenze said she hoped just one goal would revive a stagnant offense and open the floodgates.

On Sunday against Colgate, that moment came in the 53rd minute. Maya Pitts collected a pass from Alexis Koval near the top of the box, took one dribble to her left and buried a left-footed shot into the back of the net.

Pitts was swarmed by her teammates in a pile of hugs, celebrating a goal 360 minutes in the making.

“I thought that the players responded to everything that we asked them to do,” Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said, “… I thought today they came out with intensity, they came out with desire.”

With an offense kickstarted by Maya Pitts, Syracuse (3-4-1) ended its scoring drought with two second half goals to down Colgate (2-5) 2-1 Sunday at SU Soccer stadium. Pitts said that her team hadn’t been shooting a lot lately, and that the times it had, the shots hadn’t been accurate.

So when she stood at the top of the box with the ball, Pitts wanted to let it rip.

“I saw an opportunity so I took it,” she said.

The goal injected some extra bounce into SU’s step. A Syracuse team that had been dogged by missed opportunities and poor execution now looked every bit the part of a successful offense. Following Pitts’ goal, SU applied intense pressure in the middle of the field on Colgate’s back line.

Alex Lamontagne sprinted down the sideline and muscled up a Colgate defender in the 62nd minute, riding her down the field and stealing the ball away before heading to goal and uncorking a shot from 10 yards out.

Minutes later, Lamontagne again had the ball in transition when her defender fell down. She streaked toward the goal and dished out a cross to Stephanie Skilton who just narrowly missed tapping it in.

“We took this game personally I think,” Firenze said.

Wheddon said he saw was a different type of intensity from Syracuse today. The Orange brought more desire and polished up their execution. A team that Wheddon said had been “disjointed” at times moved in unison.

Syracuse had crisp runs that kept the Colgate defense off balance. And this time, when opportunities presented themselves, the Orange were able to capitalize.

In the 73rd minute, Sheridan Street threaded a ball through the defense to Koval who had looped around her defender. Moments later, it was in the back of the net. The intensity was reverberating across the field again.

“We all felt it,” Firenze said. “It was just a different feel to the game. We came out on fire and that’s why we scored goals.”

Wheddon said he was pleased with his team’s dynamic attack and their finishing around the net.
The defense was well organized too, with the lone goal coming on a penalty kick after Maddie Iozzi tripped a Colgate forward in the box with over nine minutes remaining in regulation.

He noticed the shots on goal during warmups looked exceptional on Sunday. It turned out to be exactly how the game played out.

“Everyone felt it was gonna come,” he said. “It was just a matter of when.”

Published on September 13, 2015 at 7:24 pm

Contact Matt: mralex01@syr.edu