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Charlotte de Vries corralled the ball deep on the right side of Wagner’s goal. Seeing an opening, she weaved her way through five defenders, and fired a back-handed shot past goalie Sam Black.

“I kept seeing spaces open up so I was just going with what my gut told me to do. Then I saw a place to shoot so I just set one on cage,” de Vries said.

The score by de Vries was her first of three and put the Orange up 2-1 with seven minutes until halftime. The shot was one of 11 by SU in the second quarter, the most in a single frame this season.

Using a 3-goal second quarter, No. 6 Syracuse (6-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated Wagner (0-5, 0-0 Northeast Conference) 5-1. The Orange outshot the Seahawks 28-6 in the contest, including 16 shots on goal.

Syracuse mostly controlled the pace, but the Seahawks were the first team to get on the scoreboard. At the 5:42 mark of the first quarter, Shaelyn Kobrynich passed the ball into Emma Lofstedt on a penalty corner, who sent a quick touch pass to Rebecca Desiderio. With no hesitation, Desiderio fired through a sea of SU defenders and past goalkeeper Brooke Borzymowski to give Wagner a 1-0 lead.

“We didn’t keep good possession of the ball and we had to defend,” SU head coach Lynn Farquhar said. “We gave an opportunity (to Wagner) and we learned from it.”

Syracuse huddled up after the goal and the offense slowly picked up. A minute later, Syracuse earned its first penalty corner but Eefke van den Nieuwenhof had her shot stopped by Black.

The Orange kept pushing, earning their second penalty corner. This time it was Pieke van de Pas who received the ball from Lieke Leeggangers. Her shot attempt was deflected away from goal.

At the 11:23 mark of the quarter, Wagner’s Matilda Heisel received a yellow card for a stick penalty. While a player up, Syracuse pressed more on offense, firing two shots within 10 seconds of each other. The first from Vivian Rowan came in open space but was saved by Black. Off the rebound, Hattie Madden had an opportunity to break the scoring open for the Orange but her shot was just wide right.

The first quarter ended with Wagner leading 1-0, despite Syracuse leading in shots 4-1 and penalty corners 2-1.

SU began the second quarter with a penalty corner just over two minutes in. This time de Vries shot was saved again by Black, who recorded a career-high 11 saves.

A minute later the Orange set up their fourth penalty corner. Cato Schreinemacher passed the ball directly to Sienna Pegram, who used a soft touch to set up van den Niewenhof. Van den Nieuwenhof fired past Black, tying the game with 11:45 left to go in the quarter. The goal was van den Nieuwenhof’s eighth of the season, tying Duke’s Alaina McVeigh for the ACC lead.

Three minutes later, Bo Madden sent a back-handed shot of her own towards Black, but she kicked the ball away. De Vries was first to the rebound and fired a shot past Black, extending the SU’s lead to 3-1. SU recorded 11 shots in the second quarter, taking its two goal cushion into halftime.

Neither team generated good looks nine minutes into the second half. Leading a break, Schreinemacher dribbled up the middle of the field with two defenders chasing from behind. She looked up and found de Vries, who received the ball and scooped it past Black for the 4-1 lead.

“We talk a lot about (attacking center midfielder) and (defensive center midfielder) working off one another,” de Vries said. “I saw (Schreinemacher) drifting towards the right so I drifted towards the left and I saw exactly what she wanted to do. We just read off each other very well.”

The third goal of the day for de Vries helped her become third all time in goals in SU history with 46, passing Roos Weers.

At the 11:40 mark of the quarter, Syracuse added another goal. Van den Nieuwenhof received a pass on a penalty corner from Schreinemacher, opting to pass to Madden instead of shooting. Madden tipped the ball into the net, putting the Orange up 5-1.

For the second straight quarter, the Seahawks did not register any shots. But they kept applying pressure with five shots in the fourth. The Orange’s 28 shots were the most they had since recording 31 shots against Sacred Heart in their season-opener on Aug. 26.

“That’s all you can do as an offense is get balls on goal and have people in on rebounds,” de Vries said. “We would’ve liked to have more goals but (the 28 shots) is a step in the right direction.”

Published on September 17, 2023 at 5:53 pm

Contact Timmy at: tswilcox@syr.edu | @TimmyWilcox32