Syracuse Orange fall sports are now in full swing, as the Syracuse women’s soccer team played their first two matchups of the season this past week. They opened the season with a 5-0 victory against Charleston Southern on Friday, before dropping their next match 2-1 against Niagara on Sunday.
The Orange seemed to have little trouble scoring to start the game against Charleston Southern, as they scored all five goals in the first half. They would cool down more in the second half, as they would let
some younger players get some more playing time. Syracuse would start scoring early, as within the first ten minutes of the game, a corner headed away found the feet of Ashley Rauch, and she would send a second-chance ball into the box that Anna Croyle would head past the Buccaneers’ keeper, opening the scoring for the Orange.
The play of Ashley Rauch would end up being the main story of this game, as, alongside the assist she made on the opener, Rauch would score the next two goals for the Orange as well. Around the 19th minute of the match, Rauch would catch the Charleston Southern goalkeeper sleeping and poke the ball out of her feet to score the Orange’s second goal of the match. Just around 40 seconds later, she would play a ball into Mia Klammer, who would be taken down in the box by a Buccaneer defender, resulting in a penalty. Rauch would coolly deposit the ball into the bottom right corner, giving the Orange their third goal in under 20 minutes.
Just six minutes after this, Syracuse would find itself attacking again, when Julia Arbelaez would fire a ground cross from the right side passed the keeper, directly onto the foot of Mia Klammer, who would slot away the tap-in to extend the Orange lead to four. Finally, it would be Arbelaez again who would send in a corner from the left side that would brush the glove of the Charleston Southern goalkeeper before falling to Olivia Bozzo. who, after a bit of goal-line controversy, was said to have fired in the Orange’s fifth of the day. Syracuse would hold down a defensive game in the second half and come away with the 5-0 victory.
The second game, on the other hand, was a lot more difficult for the Orange. Almost all of Syracuse’s struggles in this one occurred in the first twenty minutes, as Niagara scored twice, a lead they would never relinquish. First, at around the ten-minute mark, Purple Eagles midfielder Sarah Lucas scored off a headed ball from Izzy Schmidt. Things went from bad to worse for the Orange in this one, as just six minutes later, Orange goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch would hit a free kick away, but Mahelie Barbeau would be right there to score in the open net to put Niagara up 2-0 early in this match.
Despite the scoreline, the Orange dominated this game. They had 29 shots to Niagara’s five, with 11 of those shots being on target. Syracuse also had 15 corners in this one, with 12 coming in the second half alone. Eventually, this domination would lead to them pulling one back, as Anna Rupert would assist Mia Klammer on a goal that would make it a one-goal game; however, this was all they could muster, and the Orange fell to Niagara in a shock result.
Syracuse is coming off a 6-10-2 season that saw them go winless in conference play. The Orange will be back in action on Thursday when they host Canisius.
