No. 5 Syracuse Wins Home Opener 2-1 Against Albany

No. 5 Syracuse Wins Home Opener 2-1

Against Albany

By: Robin Deehan

It was better late than never for the Syracuse field hockey team today. 

In the last ten minutes of play, SU rallied from a one-nothing deficit with a pair of goals to beat Albany 2-1. 

“It’s always great to have a good contest that you’re battling back and forth, and you really have to dig deep, and find out what’s inside, and can you get it done when your backs to the wall,” head coach Ange Bradley said.

After controlling possession in the first half and outshooting SU 6-4, Albany finally got on the board  with a goal from Liza Morgan in the 48th minute.

“Albany is an outstanding defensive team, they’re a very good team and they created challenges for us,” Bradley said.

It took 60 minutes of play for SU to finally settle and turn the game around when senior Jordan Page scored her fifth goal of the season off a feed from freshman Lieke Visser to even the score 1-1. 

“That was totally the momentum changer, they haven’t been scored on this season so that was totally what put the momentum in our favor,” Page said.

Six minutes later, Visser helped out with the scoring again when she found senior Lauren Brooks at the top of the circle. 

Brooks ripped a reverse chip shot to the top right corner of the cage to give the Orange its first lead of the game.

“In the first half we came out strong and then there was a little lull, but we figured out how to move it around their defense instead of trying to jam it through them,” Brooks said.

SU held on to that 2-1 lead in the final minutes and improved its record to 5-0 while Albany dropped to 3-1.

SU is in the hunt for another win at home Sunday against Ball State at 1pm.