Not even two minutes into the second overtime of Sunday’s game against Penn, Syracuse found itself at a disadvantage.

SU’s Laura Graziosi sent a shot wide right when freshman Kira Wimbert fell. She took a Penn player down with her at the top of the circle. She was called for a yellow card. Almost instantly, captain Claire Webb found herself in a similar situation as Wimbert, ending on the ground near the midline with a Penn player next to her. She was issued a green card. Syracuse had to play the next two minutes of sudden death overtime down two players.

In the last four games, Syracuse (6-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) received 10 of its 14 green cards and three of its four yellow cards. Last season, SU saw its highest green cards per game average (1.7) in the Ange Bradley-era, but this season isn’t far off. Despite the defense being down a player, Bradley pointed out it hasn’t let a goal in yet.

The 1.5 green cards per game (2.5 per contest in its past four games) rank the second most in Bradley’s 12 seasons. If SU keeps the pace it’s currently at, the Orange will finish the season with 24 green cards and seven yellow. Twenty-four green cards would tie for fifth-highest green card total in 12 seasons.

“You’re playing 35 minutes down,” Bradley said. “It affects you a lot. It’s extra work on everybody else’s part.”

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Against Bucknell, the Orange had four green cards and a yellow card — its most this season. Bradley said “not so smart” decisions led to the cards. The five cards given led to 12 minutes of man-down play. During those times when SU only had nine players and a goalie, it limited Bucknell to two shots and no goals.

Against Duke, the Orange allowed only one of the Blue Devils’ 21 shots to score despite the 10 minutes of man-down play due to two green cards and a yellow. In the past four games, SU faced 45 shots, and only five of those came while the defense was down a player.

Redshirt junior Jamie Martin and sophomore Chiara Gutsche both cited the youth of the team as part of the reason SU has a recent influx of cards.

“It takes a lot of knowledge of how to play the game to not get carded,” Martin said. “It’s something we’re working on.”

In the second overtime against Penn on Sunday, Syracuse had four on the field to the Quakers’ six. Within seconds of the Orange receiving a green and a yellow card, Penn was able to utilize its extra players to get a shot off. SU goalie Borg van der Velde kept Penn from ending the game, right then and there, with a save. The four SU players on the field would not allow a shot for the rest of the disadvantage.

“The mistakes did to get those cards were not very smart,” Gutsche said. “So we can learn from it and hopefully we won’t increase them.”

For now, it hasn’t caught up to the SU defense.

Published on September 26, 2018 at 10:18 pm

Contact Kaci: klwasile@syr.edu