‘One more to go’: SU advances past Northwestern to 1st title game in 7 years

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TOWSON, Md. — It took 54 minutes for the celebration to begin, for Northwestern’s final attempt at erasing an early eight-goal deficit to falter, for Syracuse’s second-half sloppiness to be rendered inconsequential because of three final daggers. It took 54 minutes before head coach Gary Gait bumped fists with an SU assistant coach as the sideline erupted after a Meaghan Tyrrell insurance goal, and erupted again for two others. And it took six more minutes until Emma Ward raced upfield cradling the final clear attempt before she turned and chucked the ball toward the opposite end near her mobbing teammates, ending her program’s seven-year championship game drought.

An Asa Goldstock save started the initial transition opportunity, feeding the clear that finished when Ella Simkins found Meaghan Tyrrell cutting toward the right post. Two-straight draw control wins sparked two more tallies from Emily Ehle and Sam Swart, countering a late spurt from Northwestern that cut its lead to as few as three points in the final 10 minutes and allowing the Orange to wind down the rest of the clock.

“Once we were able to lock back in and be like, ‘OK, we have to finish this game,’ that’s when the turn came for us,” Meaghan Tyrrell said.

Syracuse’s defense held Northwestern — the country’s top offense — to just 13 goals. The Orange’s offense produced a season-high 21, and together they built a foundation that withstood the seven-minute span in the second half when Northwestern made its run. In a season where preseason expectations and a smooth start destined for championship weekend were threatened by injuries to two top players and then followed by five wins in six games, the latest sample in the collection — a 21-13 win over Northwestern (15-1, 11-0 Big Ten) in the national semifinals — extended SU’s (17-3, 8-2 Atlantic Coast) postseason run two more days to the championship on Sunday against Boston College.

“We were thrilled with that defense leading the way,” Gait said, “and our offense did what we had to do … and we’ve got one more to go.”

The 5-0 run after Northwestern scored the opening goal created Syracuse’s lead, and then the second set of five straight extended it even further. Emma Ward hit Meaghan Tyrrell off a free position, with the Syracuse junior cutting toward the right post and depositing the pass into the open net. She scored again 40 seconds later and converted a pair of Northwestern yellow cards into the Orange’s first two goals.

When Northwestern goalie Madison Doucette crept too far out of the cage, Syracuse created open-net opportunities for Ward and Jenny Markey — releasing the shot before Doucette’s outstretched stick could create a disruption. Gait said postgame that Syracuse was “prepared” to face and attack Northwestern’s 12-woman ride, using long outlet passes on clears to eliminate the defenders and create rushes with just Doucette to beat. The Orange also turned 49 Wildcat fouls and seven yellow cards into free-position opportunities and additional possessions.

“We had defense making awesome stops, creating turnovers for us, which was so huge,” Meaghan Tyrrell said. “It definitely changed the momentum.”

Meaghan Tyrrell notched five goals in Syracuse’s win over Northwestern. Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA TODAY Sports

What resulted after the first half’s opening 10 minutes and continued throughout the following 50 was a balanced offensive attack by Syracuse, with four players scoring four goals in the opening frame. This half resembled the one the Orange manufactured last February against Northwestern, when they turned a one-goal deficit at halftime into a five-goal victory. That game on Feb. 22 lifted the Orange to a 4-1 record that would keep growing until COVID-19 shut down the season less than a month later. It lifted the Orange past the opponent that had stopped its 2019 season before championship weekend and prevented it from being a “power-four team.”

The season’s final result carried over into the 2021 season, headlined by Emily Hawryschuk, but her ACL injury after the opener presented the Orange’s first obstacle. Megan Carney’s ACL injury against Boston College two months later was the second. But Syracuse’s offense filled the roles with the Tyrrells, Ward and others, guiding the Orange into the ACC title game and through the NCAA Tournament’s first two rounds — and, on Friday, a third.

Meaghan Tyrrell, the offense’s new focal point, secured a hat-trick off a free position to open the second half, and Syracuse’s defense forced another Wildcat turnover via a high pass. Then Bianca Chevarie charged in on a free position and scored to make it 12-5, and back-to-back goals from Meaghan and Emma Tyrrell built Syracuse’s lead back up to eight. 

Izzy Scane and Jane Hansen connected for a pair of tallies on either end of the final media timeout — the second coming via a spin right, a fake back to the left, a low shot that bounced between Goldstock’s legs — but Syracuse responded with a late run of its own scored, capped by its final one with 37 seconds left in the game.

“With the way we were moving the ball, it created a lot of opportunity for us to slip through and make those cuts which was huge for us to keep our feet moving, make those passes crisp,” Meaghan Tyrrell said.

And when the two halves bookended together, SU etched a spot in a game that it hadn’t reached before Gait took over the program in 2007, and one it has appeared in three times since. Back in February, before the season-opener against Loyola and the 18 games that followed, Syracuse’s season was supposed to be defined by a trip to Johnny Unitas Stadium tucked inside Towson University, to championship weekend, to the field that meant the Orange was one step closer to an elusive national championship. Four weeks after the opener, when Hawryschuk and Carney went down, their season’s trajectory was altered to one potentially defined by the two ACL tears.

But instead, the Orange morphed those preseason expectations and in-season injuries into a balanced attack that sparked a tournament run anyway. And it took six more minutes until Emma Ward raced upfield cradling the final clear attempt before she turned and chucked the ball — and her program’s seven-year championship game drought — toward the opposite end near her mobbing teammates.