Syracuse ties No. 17 Wake Forest 2-2 following 2nd half collapse
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Wake Forest midfielder Dempsey Brown fired toward goal with three seconds remaining. She was 28 yards out. The ball lofted to the goal frame where Syracuse goalie Shea Vanderbosch easily collected. The final buzzer rang.
Vanderbosch punted the ball in the air and the Orange breathed a seemingly collected sigh of relief.
Vanderbosch’s 12 save of the game secured a 2-2 tie between Syracuse (2-9-2, 0-4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) and No. 17 Wake Forest (8-1-3, 2-1-2 ACC). At halftime the Orange were up 2-0. They were in control. But, in the second half, SU surrendered 23 shots while attempting none.
SU fought through injury troubles throughout the game, starting with attacker Erin Flurey. She battled a knee injury throughout the night and exited the game 10 minutes into the second half. Though Flurey later returned, she left for good with 15 minutes left.
Despite the injury-plagued night, Flurey gave SU the lead 27 minutes in.
Pressing high, Flurey stole the ball from Wake’s Malaika Meena. Forward Hannah Pilley recovered posession and played it back to Flurey. Positioned 1-on-1 with goalie Payton Cahill, Flurey slotted into the net to give SU a 1-0 advantage.
“It was great getting the goal, and grabbing the lead,” Flurey said. “It gave us a positive mood in the first half.”
Injury woes continued when Aysia Cobb exited four minutes after Flurey did. Alyssa Abramson and Anna Rupert also went down during the second half with what seemed to be cramps. The lack of depth for the Orange wasn’t sustainable. Syracuse entered its bout with Wake Forest without many of its usual starters. Left back Kate Murphy wasn’t available for the second consecutive match while defenders Kendyl Lauher and Emma Klein continued to watch from the sidelines.
“At one point in the second half I had 12 players,” Syracuse head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams said. “Getting past 65 minutes is going to be tough for us.”
The injuries, however, did not plague SU in the first half. The Orange locked Wake Forest down defensively and capitalized on opposing mistakes by pressing high. A low-driven shot to the bottom left corner from forward Raia James made it 2-0 Syracuse in the 41st minute. But in the second half the Demon Deacons turned up the heat. Wake Forest outshot SU 23-0, forcing Vanderbosch to make 11 saves.
The visitors etched one onto the scoresheet 12 minutes into the second half. Wake midfielder Nikayla Small beat Abramson and Cobb in Syracuse territory before Zoe Van de Cloot executed a slide tackle. Somehow, Small held onto the ball and directed it to midfielder Anna Swanson who blasted a left-footed strike past Vanderbosch.
Then, at the 75 minute mark, Swanson dribbled past Abramson on the right flank and played a cross near the penalty spot. Forward Emily Murphy received and relayed a one-touch pass to Hannah Johnson positioned right in front of Vanderbosch. Johnson struck but Vanderbosch got a touch to it, slowing the shots progression. But in a desperate race between both to get to the ball, Johnson got there first, awkwardly colliding with Vanderbosch in the back of the net.
“It looked like Shea was obstructed on the ground and they wouldn’t let her up,” Adams said.
The play went to review because of the contact between Johnson and Vanderbosch. The initial decision to give Wake Forest a goal was upheld and the game was tied at 2-2-.
For the remaining 15 minutes, SU played defensively, doing anything it could to salvage a point. With personnel changes, the departure of key players and fatigue settling in, Adams abandoned the press.
“We’ll take this as a point in the ACC,” Adams said. “To get any point, especially in the situation we are in is pretty dang good.”
