When Erin Fitzgerald rolled around Jill Cammett to find the back of the net just more than one minute into overtime, Syracuse needed to answer.

But the Orange never found the equalizer. Nearly two minutes later, NU attack Shannon Smith wrapped around the net for a tight-angle goal to give the Wildcats a two-goal lead, ending the SU’s chances of upsetting the No. 1 team in the nation.

‘I had Casey (Bocklet) sitting on the crease,’ Smith said, ‘and actually someone on my team was like, ‘You have seven seconds left,’ so I went in and luckily it went in.’

After Smith’s fifth and final goal in overtime, No. 1 Northwestern (3-0) ran out the clock to secure an 11-9 overtime victory over the No. 11 Orange (1-2) in front of 877 in the Carrier Dome. Smith and Bocklet gave the Syracuse defense trouble most of Wednesday night, combining for six goals — five for Smith — and two assists. The Wildcats used a pick-heavy offense to score just enough to escape the Orange’s upset bid.

Syracuse raced out to an early 6-3 lead and kept the duo in check through the first half. Smith was held to just one goal in the half and that came on a free-position shot.

But once Bocklet used a Smith screen on Cammett to open the period’s scoring at the 24:30 mark of the second half, Northwestern had found an offensive game plan to spark its comeback.

‘We were able to make some adjustments at halftime,’ Northwestern head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. ‘I think the girls came out of the locker room after half mentally, physically to be able to compete.’

The Wildcats went scoreless for about the next four minutes until Smith scored again, the first of four goals in four minutes.

Smith’s goal was another tight-angle shot that the Syracuse defense never managed to respond to.

‘She’s really good in those tough situations,’ Hiller said. ‘She puts her shots away.’

Northwestern midfielder Beatrice Conley scored about 1:30 later to tie the game at 6 before back-to-back goals by Smith in a minute span gave the Wildcats their first lead since the 29:02 mark of the first half.

Once again, Smith’s goals came with the help of Bocklet.

The first goal of that stretch came when Smith set a pick letting Bocklet come around the net. The freshman lofted a pass over a pair of Orange defenders to find Smith for her third goal of the game.

‘We just needed to communicate,’ SU defender Janelle Stegeland said. ‘They were setting picks on top of the crease. We had to communicate, we had to set a switch … but where we made our mistakes was we just had to get around the crease quicker and make our slides.’

Smith’s next goal was on another tight-angle shot.

The senior once again took advantage of Syracuse’s focus on stopping Bocklet’s pick-and-roll tactics to make just the amount of space she needed to squeeze one past SU goaltender Kelsey Richardson and give Northwestern an 8-6 lead.

‘They started working the crease, and they found some success there and doing that three, four, five times in a row,’ Syracuse head coach Gary Gait said, ‘and we needed to make an adjustment when we did.’

The Wildcats eventually went away from the pick-and-roll tactics and got one more goal to stretch the lead to 9-6.

Syracuse scored three unanswered goals to force overtime. But with Northwestern holding a one-goal lead in the extra period, the Wildcats went back to their old tactics to ice the game.

Smith held the ball behind the net for Northwestern for nearly an entire minute as the first of two three-minute overtime periods wound down. Bocklet stood in the crease setting picks and trying to get open, and Smith, for the fifth time on the day, was able to put one home.

‘Kelly really trusts us with it,’ Smith said, ‘and I think we worked really well around the crease setting picks for one another and being patient enough and waiting for the right opportunity for that opening.’

dbwilson@syr.edu