Women’s Soccer Upset by Colgate 1-0 Thursday Night

By Luke McGrath

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Women’s soccer team entered Thursday night’s contest with a 4-1-1 record and what looked like an easy fifth win to come facing a 1-4 Colgate squad.

But in reality, an easy win was far from the case. The Raiders played the Orange closely all game and came out victorious, capitalizing on a long strike to cap off a 1-0 game.

In the 20th minute, Colgate got the ball to the foot of Mara Cosentino, who made a hard cut inside from just outside the box and curled one far post that bounced just over the hands of SU goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan.

Brosnan said the long strike is a known strength of the Raiders, something SU prepared to focus on heading into the game, but were unable to execute.

“I think that the defense did a good job putting pressure on their forwards all the time, but I think we just got cut a little bit there and then [Cosentino] just buried it into the corner,” Brosnan said. ” So I did my best to get there, but it didn’t happen.”

Head coach Phil Wheddon said the long shot was the Raider’s path to victory.

“We knew that they were dangerous on long range shots and we allowed them a long range shot,” Wheddon said. “That was really the only threat I feel like they had throughout the whole game.”

Otherwise, the Orange dominated possession and racked up six corner kicks, but were unable to capitalize, something they had been able to do in the previous two contests.

The SU offense was a little stagnant following back-to-back three goal performances, managing six shots on goal but never really challenging Colgate goalkeeper Kelly Chiavaro to make a solid save.

The Orange entered the game averaging over two goals per contest, but Coach Wheddon said tonight was just an off night for his squad.

“I didn’t think we were as technically sharp as we have been throughout the rest of the season, we were trying to force passes at times when it wasn’t on, we gave up possession of the ball fairly easily,” Wheddon said. “They came in with a physical presence in the first half and we didn’t necessarily match that.”

To make matters worth for SU, freshman forward Kate Hostage had to leave the game late after taking a knee to the face going for a ball in the box, and ending up with what appeared to be a bleeding nose.

Syracuse has one last chance to tune things up before ACC play begins, hosting Harvard Sunday at 1 p.m.