No. 12 Syracuse defeats No. 19 Rutgers behind strong second half

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With just over eight minutes remaining, Syracuse’s Charlotte de Vries saw midfielder Joy Haarman coming in forward joining the attack. De Vries crossed the ball, where Haarman deflected it into the net to give the Orange a 4-2 lead.

Haarman’s goal was the fourth goal in the second half for the No. 12 Orange (14-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast), helping secure a 4-3 win over No. 19 Rutgers (7-8, 3-4 Big Ten). It was a slow start for Syracuse in the first half, who turned it around in the second, generating nine shots.

“I saw space on the right. Always in my mind I hear my coaches telling me to pull right, so I just kept pulling right. Then I saw (Haarman) coming in so I just swept it across knowing someone would be there to deflect it,” de Vries said.

Syracuse had only one penalty corner and did not attempt a shot in the first quarter. Rutgers controlled the tempo and came out as the more aggressive team. The Scarlet Knights had most of the possession and put the Orange on their heels, firing five shots and forcing two penalty corners.

“In the first quarter we came out and were a little bit frantic, playing individually, forcing it, trying to dribble too much,” de Vries said.

After the first quarter, Syracuse made some changes, which helped them become more aggressive and attack Rutgers’ zone. SU infiltrated the Scarlet Knights’ side of the field and earned three penalty corners and tallied five shots in the second quarter.

“After the first quarter, we talked and (realized) we were worrying too much about (Rutgers),” de Vries said. “(We realized) we got to focus on ourselves.”

Although Syracuse looked better, the Rutgers offense still proved to be tough to slow down. In the second quarter, Rutgers brought their tally up to seven shots and converted on one of their three penalty corners to take a 1-0 lead going into the half. The goal came off a rebound tip in from Rutgers’ Iris Langejans.

“At halftime we had to make some adjustments. We had to open up the field and stretch and make some little tactical adjustments. We were holding onto the ball too long,” Bradley said.

In the third quarter, the offense functioned more efficiently and Syracuse found the back of the net twice. Off a rebound from a shot, Sabine van den Eijnden corralled the ball and finished to get the scoring going for the Orange and notching her seventh goal of the season. 

A few minutes later, it appeared that Syracuse would score again, when Eefke van den Nieuwenhof fired a shot off a penalty corner but Rutgers goalkeeper Sophia Howard made a strong save to temporarily halt the Orange’s offensive attack.

Eventually, Syracuse scored their second goal of the game on their third penalty corner of the third quarter. SJ Quigley found van den Nieuwenhof on a direct pass and shot for the score, which was confirmed after video review. 

But late in the third quarter, during Rutgers only penalty corner and shot of the quarter, the Scarlet Knights found a way to convert. Marique Dieudonne found Lucy Bannatyne on a penalty corner for a tip-in, which knotted the game at 2-2 heading into the final quarter.

To start the fourth, Syracuse answered Rutgers right back with a goal during transition when Willemijn Boogert scored from a good distance out off an assist by van den Eijnden.

Eventually at about the midway point in the fourth quarter, Haarman scored the insurance goal, getting an assist from de Vries. Syracuse limited Rutgers’ late push to only one more score, holding on to win 4-3. Even  with Quirine Comans out for the final 2 minutes with a yellow card, Orange defense stayed resilient enough to secure the victory. The win moves the Orange to 6-3 against ranked opponents on the season and completes their regular season home slate of games with a 9-0 record. 

“(I told the team) to play Syracuse field hockey and not Rutgers field hockey. (Just) keep passing the ball, moving the ball…do what we do and make that work for us” Bradley said.