Kate Hostage lone goal not enough in 2-1 loss to Kent State
Photo/Mark Nash
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As Kate Hostage attempted to regain possession at midfield near Syracuse’s bench, she felt the weight of 98 high-intensity minutes in the form of calf cramps in both her legs. She crumbled to the ground in pain.
She limped off the field with two minutes remaining in the first overtime, but soon pleaded to head coach Phil Wheddon to return.
“Give me two minutes and I’ll get you back on,” Wheddon told Hostage at the start of the second overtime. By then, it was too late.
Kent State forward Isabelle Mihail’s bar-down shot in the 103rd minute gave the Golden Flashes (4-3-1) the 2-1 lead over Syracuse (3-5) and ended the game before Hostage could check back in.
“Everyone played with a lot of heart, but the game is lost the minute you switch off,” Hostage said.
SU had the lead for almost 40 minutes. With five minutes remaining in the first half, Hostage received a pass from midfielder Laurel Ness in stride at the edge of the box, turned, and dribbled a shot into the bottom-right pocket of the net with her left foot.
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“As a forward, you’re always trying to slip in the seams behind the defenders. (Ness) played a beautiful ball, just where I wanted it. So at that point, you just gotta pick your head up and place it,” Hostage said.
The shot gave Hostage her team-leading fourth goal of the season. The sophomore scored only once last year.
One moment SU flipped the switch off was in the 79th minute, when centerback Shannon Aviza tried to tap a pass back to keeper Lysianne Proulx. Aviza did not feel the Kent State forward pressuring from behind. The mishap gave Mihail her first goal of the game and knotted the score at one.
As the team reset for the kickoff, an assistant coach yelled to Hostage, “Kate, you have 10 minutes to get something going.”
Neither Hostage nor SU manufactured a quality shot before the end of regulation. The closest chance SU had was a Georgia Allen cross that landed inches too far for striker Sydney Brackett at the six-yard line.
In her 98 minutes played, Hostage registered one other shot, a 35-yard prayer that sailed over the crossbar in the first overtime period. Brackett led SU with four shots, three of which on goal. As a team, Kent State out-shot Syracuse 26 to 10 (14 to 5 on goal).
SU has some “soul-searching” to do before playing No. 13 Duke University at home Sunday, Wheddon said.
“We’re going to put our heads down, work hard, and put this game behind us,” Hostage said.