Megan Carney leads No. 3 Syracuse in points in 12-11 win over No. 4 Stony Brook
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Within a two-minute span in the third quarter, Stony Brook had taken the lead back from Syracuse by scoring three goals. The Orange held onto their first quarter lead but trailed midway through the third. Emily Hawryschuk won the ensuing draw control and gave SU a chance to tie the game. As the ball moved around the opponent’s zone, Haley Dillon was called for a foul, and the Orange now had their first free-position attempt of the second half.
Megan Carney took the free-position shot, setting up at the top-left of the 8-meter. Carney dashed toward the net, cradling the ball and within seconds had Stony Brook’s Clare Levy and Charlotte Verhulst pressuring her. The senior lifted the stick up and shot the ball on the ground under pressure. Carney’s shot bounced between Seawolves goalkeeper Charlie Campbell’s legs and into the net for the attacker’s third and final goal of the game. Carney’s goal started a 4-0 SU run that helped it finish with 12 goals.
Carney led all Syracuse scorers, finishing with seven points in No. 3 Syracuse’s (3-0) 12-11 win over No. 4 Stony Brook (0-1) on Sunday. Carney’s hat trick and four assists helped spark solid stretches of play in the Orange’s back-and-forth game against the Seawolves.
Two minutes after Carney’s free-position goal, she went back to her normal spot behind the net. A Seawolves turnover gave her and the Orange another opportunity to add to their lead. Katie Goodale sent a long pass to Carney, who was already positioned behind the left side of the goal. The senior slowly trotted to the net with the ball with Stony Brook’s Dillon and Lindsay Rongo trying to block any passing lanes.
Simultaneously, freshman Olivia Adamson moved away from her defender and was now wide open in the 8-meter. Carney sent a pinpoint pass between Dillon and Rongo to the open Adamson, who fired a hard shot into the net to regain Syracuse’s lead.
“If you need that relief, you know (Adamson) can put the ball in the back of the net,” Carney said. “That connection will build over time and throughout the season.”
Carney’s connection with her fellow senior and fifth-year teammates is something that has already been established. Last week against the Bearcats, Carney and fellow senior Meaghan Tyrrell combined for nine goals in the 23-6 win. But Carney’s chemistry with fifth-year senior Hawryschuk is also something that, similar to Tyrrell, has been built up over three years at Syracuse. And the passing connection between Carney and Hawryschuk was on display against Stony Brook.
Less than a minute into the second quarter, Carney, after rushing to get into the formation, moved the ball around the Seawolves’ zone. Eventually, Tyrrell sent the ball back to Carney on the right side of the attack. As she received the pass, Hawryschuk lifted up her stick in the 8-meter with no defenders on her.
But before Carney could pass or move to the front of the net, she stopped and ran to the other side of the goal. This drew Rongo to come to defend her, leaving Hawryschuk unguarded for a shot. Carney sent the ball to Hawryschuk, who scored the goal on a bounce shot.
“The chemistry is something that you try to develop on the field, but a lot of that comes off the field,” Hawryschuk said. “It has been great, and I have loved that.”
While Carney started SU’s scoring in the third quarter, she either scored or assisted on all of its first four goals of the quarter. And she also assisted on the last two of SU’s four-goal run in the first half. But on top of that, the senior helped continue the solid stretches of play after the scoring streaks had ended. Late in the first half, the Seawolves scored back-to-back goals to make the score 5-4, ending the Orange’s first four-goal run.
With just over three minutes remaining, Adamson ran toward the 12-meter before seeing Hawryschuk quickly cut into the 8-meter. Hawryschuk’s cut drew two Seawolves to her, leaving Carney unopposed. Despite the pressure, Hawryschuk found the open Carney, who now had a one-on-one matchup with Campbell. Carney beat Campbell with a hard shot into the bottom right corner of the goal to increase Syracuse’s lead to two. Carney scored again to start the second half to increase the lead, taking advantage of the holes in Stony Brook’s defense.
“When a team plays a zone against us, she’s able to see a lot, and she’s really like having a coach out on the field,” head coach Kayla Treanor said. “So she had a great day today.”
