Field Hockey Defeats Ohio 5-0

By Jonah Karp

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The No. 5 Syracuse Field Hockey team was back in action for the second day in a row, playing host to Ohio University at J.S. Coyne Stadium on Sunday. The Orange beat the Bobcats 5-0 to remain undefeated through five games.

It didn’t take long for Syracuse to break the ice, with graduate forward Elaine Carey notching her first goal of the season to give her team a 1-0 advantage less than five minutes into the game.

Nearly fifteen minutes passed before another goal was scored. Right before the 20 minute mark, Carey scored again with a diving shot in front of the net to put the Orange up 2-0. After the game, Carey admitted that going into Sunday’s matchup, her appetite for scoring was fairly high.

“It was our fifth game,” she said. “So I was pretty hungry to get some goals today, so yeah, I felt great.”

The score was 2-0 at halftime after the Orange outshot the Bobcats 13-3 in the first half.

After the break, the game turned into a defensive chess match, with neither team finding any offensive production. With just 11 minutes to go, Carolin Hoffmann tacked on some insurance to extend ‘Cuse’s lead to 3-0 over Ohio.

Carey received a green card with less than nine minutes to play. Junior forward Emma Tufts and freshman Florine Hogendoorn were also handed green cards for separate incidents.

The shutout is the fifth straight for the Orange to start the season. Even though SU has outscored opponents 16-0 to begin the season, and dominated on defense, head coach Ange Bradley suggested there is more work to be done.

“When I go home in a couple hours, I’m going to start looking at charting them and seeing who’s doing what’s expected and who’s not,” she said. “Our defense has a long way to go to being close to where we want it to be.”

Carey had a slightly different take on her team’s defensive efforts, as she said she was more than proud of how her team has fared on the defensive side of the ball.

“In fairness, [Syracuse] worked really, really hard to push people out of the circle and to not let them in, and to be low and tough,” she noted. “All I would say is that we take a lot of pride in it and it’s great so far. Borg [van der Velde] has a save percentage of 100.”

One key offensive hurdle the Orange have yet to jump over has been converting penalty corners. Syracuse is just 1-for-34 in penalty corner opportunities. However, Carey said she’s confident the solution to the struggles is very attainable.

“We just need to start getting a flow going,” Carey explained. “Once we pin down who our best, maybe, three are, we’ll just use them and we’ll be good to go.”

Syracuse doesn’t play another game at J.S. Coyne Stadium until September 16. Coach Bradley’s squad next takes the field this Friday when the team travels to Chestnut Hill for an ACC showdown against Boston College at 5 pm.