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With just 34.9 seconds remaining in a 1-1 game, Taja Gans stood at the backline stretched out, ready to pass the ball in. Bo van Kempen crouched at the top of the striking circle with a late opportunity to put Syracuse ahead.

With an accurate insert by Gans and a soft touch by Annabelle Vossenaar, van Kempen slotted the ball through the left side, straight past Lafayette goalkeeper Raffi Fragomeni.

“It felt like a really big relief. It’s an amazing feeling,” van Kempen said postgame.

The last-minute penalty corner shot was all the difference as No. 14 Syracuse (4-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated Lafayette (4-2, 0-0 Patriot League) 2-1 Sunday for SU’s second win of the weekend.

All game long, Syracuse and Lafayette played an even contest. The Leopards continuously pushed the ball down to Syracuse’s defending half, but constant defensive stands kept the Orange in control.

“You saw our defensive penalty unit stay strong over and over again,” SU head coach Lynn Farquhar said. “We cycled some people in and they came out with fire.”

The scoring got started nine minutes into the first quarter when Bo Madden delivered a goal on a penalty stroke. Madden struck it in the upper left corner for her first goal of the season, allowing Syracuse to gain the edge early.

While Madden’s goal kept the Orange ahead for the majority of the matchup, SU’s defense dealt with pressure throughout. Lafayette had a season-best 16 penalty corners and 16 shots, eight of which were on goal.

Syracuse goalkeeper Vera Hekkenberg made six saves on 13 shots faced just in the second half. Both statistics marked the most in a game in Hekkenberg’s young SU career. Besides Hekkenberg, Berber Bakermans and Lieke Leeggangers kept Syracuse’s defense in control, picking up crucial blocks on Lafayette’s corner chances.

Syracuse had more opportunities to extend its lead, once with a Willemijn Boogert fast break and again with a pass over the middle by Vivian Rowan, which couldn’t be finished by Leeggangers. SU finished the game with 11 shots, with 10 of them on goal.

“(Lafayette) played some solid defense. We had some hard falls. They came strong and played their game and we needed to do the same,” Farquhar said.

One of Lafayette’s keys to staying in the game was penalty corners. The Leopards received five penalty corner attempts in the final six and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, forcing Syracuse to stay in a defensive position.

“We just need to focus more and protect our feet. The referee was giving away a lot of penalty corners because it touched our feet,” van Kempen said. “We need to have patience and be stronger in the circle.”

India Ralph created the Leopards’ best chance, as Ralph found Stella Malinowski who fired a shot. Hekkenberg stretched her right leg out to deflect it and maintain the SU lead.

Even though Lafayette had opportunities, the Orange’s defense prevailed, allowing their only goal of the game with three and a half minutes remaining. Lineke Spaans was the beneficiary of the Leopards’ only successful corner attempt of the day, tying the game 1-1 late.

“We are just really brave, to be honest, in the DPC. We had a really great goalie who was making really good saves. Besides that, our first runner also caught a lot of balls,” van Kempen said. “We analyzed them, we knew what they were doing and we just did our job.”

As overtime loomed, Syracuse pushed the ball down the field, entering the shooting circle, where the ball touched a Lafayette defender. When the referee made the penalty corner call, Syracuse was given a chance to end the game in regulation.

Although it took until the last 40 seconds, Farquhar never doubted the team’s ability to end the game in regulation.

“To me, we were going to find a way through it. We showed up. It was here, and we need that to keep happening,” Farquhar said.

Published on September 15, 2024 at 6:24 pm

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