Drexel’s Vanessa Kara made a diagonal run through the box as the ball snuck behind Syracuse’s back line.

She moved around Maddie Pack, and then around Courtney Brosnan, who had come charging out for the save. Kara nimbly dribbled the ball around the sliding goalkeeper and tapped it softly into the goal, tying the game at one.

“I think it was just a lack of tracking the runners and staying with our marks,” Pack said.

It was the only real breakdown on the night for the Orange. Despite the miscommunication, Syracuse’s defense held firm, limiting quality scoring chances from a potent Drexel attack. Even a late goal with eight minutes remaining on a bounce off the crossbar didn’t break the back line as Syracuse (4-4-1) defeated Drexel (6-3), 3-2, for its second win in a row on Thursday night.

Head coach Phil Wheddon said that the first goal came from a lack of challenging in the midfield. Besides that, he was pleased with the defense’s solid production, especially its passing.

In the first half, Alana O’Neill sent a crisp ball from the right side to Natasha Tcheki-Jamgotchian, who subsequently pushed the ball again to the far left.

Nearly every time the ball landed at the feet of a Syracuse defender, shouts from SU coaches on the sideline for the players to “open up” could be heard. Syracuse swung the ball around the Drexel forwards with ease, establishing tempo and opening its shape up out on the wings to create more room for passes.

“I thought our possession out of the back was fantastic,” Wheddon said.

It was a focus for the defense to increase the movement out of the back to the sides.

“If we’re playing balls long, obviously that doesn’t help us with our possession,” Brosnan said. “But if we can open up and keep the ball at our feet that’s more our style of play.”

In the second half, Drexel changed its formation, putting three forwards up top to exert extra pressure on the Syracuse back line.

Still, not much changed and the Dragons struggled to find consistent pressure. With 14 minutes remaining, Erin Simon swiftly stepped up to intercept a pass and then slid around a Drexel player to poke it out of bounds.

Just a few minutes later, a high cross landed softly in the grass in front of Pack. She gathered the ball and calmly swung it with her right foot to her left towards Simon.

“I thought they were hard, I thought they were physical, I thought they fought for the ball.” Wheddon said.

With just more than eight minutes remaining, Drexel forward Madison Dunn collected a shot that had deflected off the crossbar and grazed the fingertips of Brosnan. She fired it into the back of the net, cutting the Syracuse lead to 3-2.

It was the only other gaffe on a solid night, a small detail Wheddon said can be easily fixed by increasing attentiveness for the full 90 minutes.

“We played really well,” Pack said. “We’ve been working on a few things and I think we’re starting to implement them.”

Published on September 17, 2015 at 11:09 pm

Contact Matt: mralex01@syr.edu