No. 11 Syracuse gets 5th consecutive win with 5-0 defeat of Cornell
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Just over five minutes into the game, Joy Haarman brought the ball into the 15-meter zone, but was briefly stopped. Haarman passed the ball to Sabine van den Eijnden, who opened up the scoring for Syracuse with a shot to the lower right corner past the Cornell goaltender.
In No. 11 Syracuse’s (12-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) 5-0 win over Cornell (6-5, 1-1 Ivy League), the Orange’s offense dominated throughout the game and tallied 13 shots to beat fellow New York state rival, Cornell. Syracuse had its ninth shutout of the season and won its fifth-straight game.
Syracuse began the day controlling the possession against Cornell, creating opportunities in the offensive zone to make plays. It’s been a point of emphasis for head coach Ange Bradley all season as Syracuse tried to get two goals within the first five minutes.
Syracuse opened up the scoring just over five minutes in with van den Eijnden’s first goal. The Orange focused on making passes to the open play, and with Cornell playing a different style of defense than Boston College and Hofstra, it allowed Syracuse to work the ball up the field at their own pace. Ultimately, this gave Syracuse three high-quality shots within the first quarter.
Syracuse added another goal to their tally on a penalty corner as Charlotte De Vries assisted Willemijn Boogert to give Syracuse a 2-0 lead to end the first quarter. Syracuse dominated the first half by controlling the possession for the vast majority of the half, leading to zero Cornell shots.
“It’s nice to have a fast start, if you can get something in the first five minutes, first ten minutes that’s awesome,” Bradley said.
At the opening of the second quarter, Quirine Comans scored a breakaway goal giving Syracuse a 3-0 lead. With this goal, Comans became the team leader in goals, passing DeVries by one goal.
Syracuse continued to apply the pressure as DeVries, Comans and the other forwards continually kept the pressure on Cornell defenders. Van den Eijnden scored her second goal of the day midway through the second quarter. While Syracuse didn’t rack up shots throughout the first two quarters, it made each of them count. Of Syracuse’s five shots in the first half, four resulted in goals.
The Orange transitioned from defense to offense very quickly at times, especially off of an intercepted pass. Late in the first half, Syracuse worked the ball into the offensive half and found DeVries. DeVries put a shot on goal that ultimately missed its mark.
Contrary to past weeks where Bradley made changes during the game to adjust to its opponents, Cornell made most of the changes to adjust to Syracuse’s style of play.
The Big Red began the second half playing higher up on the field than in the first, which represented a clear adjustment to the clean and easy passing they allowed to Syracuse for the first half.
However, Syracuse broke down its formation, and Cornell quickly found themselves out of position. This almost led to Syracuse’s second penalty corner of the day, however, after a video review, it was overruled. Shortly after, Syracuse worked the ball into the offensive zone repeatedly.
“We set goals each week,” Van den Eijnden said. “I think for each week, new goals, and we just have to look for it.”
The third quarter was more contested than the first as the action went up and down the field compared to Syracuse dominating possession in the first half. Eventually, Syracuse developed more opportunities including two penalty corners in a row.
The up-and-down nature of the third quarter made the game much more fast paced and gave players like Comans multiple opportunities to shoot or pass the ball to her teammates within the 15-meter circle. Possession in the offensive half did not lead to any goals throughout the entire third quarter, and while the Orange did have three penalty corner, they didn’t get the ball into the goal on any of them.
“We really just try and stick with passing the ball and reshaping and creating different entry angles to move forward,” Bradley said.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Syracuse made some changes and Van den Eijnden took the ball down the field herself, nutmegged a goaltender and scored her third goal of the day, earning a hat trick.
Syracuse kept up the pressure, earning its fifth penalty corner of the afternoon and racked up 10 total shots through the first 50 minutes of the game.
DeVries had a strong shot on goal that was just pushed aside by the Cornell goaltender. Syracuse earned its fifth corner and added their twelfth shot on goal with five minutes to go.
“Just super happy to score three goals in a match and obviously happy with the win,” Van den Eijnden said.
