Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange suffocated by BC, 7-4, as Eagles continue domination

In the first half, ‘Cuse turned it over more times than they took shots. In the second half, they did make an attempt to move the ball a little more, but to no difference in results. SU scored a single goal in each quarter on the night.

The defense did their job in holding down BC’s offense to just seven goals. The Eagles committed 16 turnovers, well over their season average for the normally sure-handed team, and scored well under their season average.

But the Orange once again got handled on draw controls, getting doubled up, 8-4. On the two draws ‘Cuse won in the first quarter, they quickly turned it over so never actually gained the possession from their draw win. They once again had to play too much defense in a game in which they could barely muster anything on the scoreboard.

BC scored on their opening possession and then added a second one in transition after a turnover that happened after Alexa Vogelman passed up a decent look in the middle of the eight-meter and then lost the ball.

Caroline Trinkaus actually scored ‘Cuse’s first goal on a woman-down scenario in which her defender, as well as the extra defender playing behind her, both overcommitted on Trinkaus’ dodge up top before Caroline stopped on a dime and cut back towards the goal with a head of steam to fire one past Dolce for the goal.

But the Eagles answered almost immediately with a backhanded twister of a bounce shot just over 30 seconds later to make it 3-1 with two minutes left in the first quarter.

The Orange held possession going into the second, and scored almost immediately when Mackenzie Rich dodged from below GLE on the right side, pulled a nice juke move and got topside on her defender before finishing out in front of goal to make it 3-2 BC just 13 seconds into the second.

Just like Trinkaus before her, Rich’s goal was the result of a very well-executed individual dodge. But those happened so rarely, and when they weren’t working, ‘Cuse’s offense went cold quickly trying to find other ways to score.

That would be there last tally of the first half, as BC added another on a free position to go up 4-2 at the halftime break.

In the second half, SU got another singular moment of dodging that helped create a goal when Emma Muchnick pulled a beautiful crossover move on the left wing that left her defender in the dust. Her shot was saved by Shea Dolce, but the rebound dropped loose on the far side where Molly Guzik scooped it up for a garbage goal and a 4-3 BC lead two minutes into the third.

Once again, that would be ‘Cuse’s last goal of the quarter in the early moments of the frame. The Eagles re-extended their lead to two after Dan Guyette, who finished with six saves on the night, made a nice stop on a free position attempt. The problem was she couldn’t secure it and gave up a rebound, which BC would turn into a goal late on in the same possession.

The Eagles took a 5-3 lead into the final 15 minutes. For the third quarter in a row, SU did their lone damage early on in the quarter. Just like in the second, they started the quarter with the ball and a short shot clock. Bri Peters surprised the defense with an immediate face dodge on the left wing. After getting underneath her defender, she finished right on the crease before the slide could get to her.

It was SU’s fourth goal of the game, all of which were scored directly off the work of individual dodges.

They would get other chances, but Shea Dolce stone-walled them multiple times on free positions. Four minutes into the fourth, Emma Muchnick passed to Caroline Trinkaus cutting in from the opposite hash-mark, but her shot went straight into Dolce. A couple minutes later, Gracie Britton attempted a set shot on a free-position that was no problem for Dolce to gobble up.

About midway through the quarter, the Orange had a woman-up in which they ended up turning the ball over after Trinkaus was somehow swarmed by three defenders right in the middle of the eight-meter, even though SU had an extra player on the field.

Perhaps no moment was more appropriate in describing the game and the last five years of this series than five minutes left in the game. Regy Thorpe had just called timeout because Izzy Lahah was having trouble finding an offensive player to pass the ball to in the offensive zone.

They were already down by three at this point, and they needed to draw something up to get themselves within two with the clock winding down. Out of the timeout, Bri Peters threw a pass to Annie Parker that went too high over her head for a turnover mere seconds after emerging from the timeout.

Nobody throws a gut punch to the Orange quite like BC. And last night, they managed to end ‘Cuse’s 12-game winning streak, adding insult to injury with the loss dropping SU from the three down to the four-seed for the ACC Tournament, moving them to North Carolina’s side of the bracket.

The four-seed Orange will take on the five-seed Virginia Cavaliers on Wednesday at 2 PM down in Charlotte.