Syracuse dominates Sacred Heart in a 5-0 win to start the season

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Syracuse opened its 2022 season with a resounding 5-0 win over Sacred Heart. The game itself was scoreless throughout the first half, leading into the final 30 minutes where Charlotte De Vries scored the game’s opening goal. It was DeVries’ 27th goal of her career with the Orange. This came after an opening half where SU couldn’t find the back of the net. 

Syracuse was held scoreless through the first two quarters even though the Orange racked up 20 total shots with 15 of them being on target. Both teams had chances in the second quarter as Syracuse and Sacred Heart were both awarded a penalty corner which neither team ended up converting on. SU only managed one penalty corner to Sacred Heart’s one. In the second half, the Orange had seven penalty corners while the Pioneers tallied zero.

But SU’s offense finally surged in the second half by not only tallying more total shots, but higher quality shots which allowed them to put the ball past Sacred Heart goaltender Samantha Maresca. Syracuse recorded 12 of its 20 shots in the second half, with seven of those 12 coming in the third quarter alone. It was in the third quarter where freshman Lieke Leeggangers scored her first career goal on an assist from Lana Hamilton. 

After the Orange’s shot-filled start to the second half, they didn’t look back, scoring once more in the third quarter by Quirine Comans. This was Syracuse’s third goal in the past five minutes of game time. In the fourth quarter, Sabine van den Eijnden and Sam Swart put the game away, each scoring once to cement the 5-0 victory. Uniquely for Syracuse, it had five different scorers on all five goals. Additionally, of the five scorers for Syracuse, four of them put up their first career points for the Orange. Syracuse moved to 15-1 in season openers under Ange Bradley today and remain undefeated against Sacred Heart.