Kate Hostage found herself on the ground in the box after a hard slide tackle in the 26th minute. When the referee signaled a penalty kick, the sophomore forward looked around. She needed to take it. Meredith Reinhardt, St. John’s goalie, guessed correctly on the shot but it didn’t matter. Hostage curled the ball into the top right corner untouched.

That would be the difference as Syracuse held on to win 1-0 over the St. John’s Red Storm on Thursday night at SU Soccer Stadium. It was the second time in as many games that Hostage came off the bench to score the match-winning goal.

“I feel like every minute you have on the field you just have to take advantage of,” Hostage said. “It doesn’t matter whether your starting or you’re the sub, you’re playing minutes for your team and that’s all that matters you just have to do your best.”

SU head coach Phil Wheddon said the team always assumes Hostage will score when attempting a penalty. However, he knows in the first game of the season the goal keeper guessed right on a Taylor Bennett penalty miss. In Hostage’s case, she put it right where she had to, regardless.

Wheddon didn’t recall if Hostage was even the one fouled on the play. Knowing Hostage as a leader and one of the team’s best penalty kickers, he assumed she had stepped up for someone else.

“One of the best things about it was the penalty kick was called, and she’s the one that steps up and says, ‘I want to take it’ and has the confidence to do so,” Wheddon said.“That tells me a lot about Kate’s character.”

Despite SU outscoring St. John’s, the Red Storm created more chances, outshooting Syracuse nine shots to four. St. John’s seemed to always have possession of the ball for the longer period of time, as well. Some of that can be attributed to the two teams’ formations.

To start the second half, St. John’s began with a 4-4-2 formation which was countered by Wheddon’s 4-2-4 attack. After the Red Storm found their rhythm again, Wheddon dropped his team back into a 4-5-1 to keep the shutout on tack. In an extremely defensive game, Wheddon emphasizes maximizing chances with free kicks, corner kicks and other earned opportunities such as Hostage’s penalty.

“We set ourselves some goals about how we’re going to score goals and one of them is definitely set pieces,” Wheddon said. “They decide games time and time again … It’s something that we work on, it’s something we’ll continue to work on and it’s going to be a major part of our game.”

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With less than 2 minutes left, St. John’s Christina Bellero broke free for one final chance to even the score. Out of nowhere from the middle of the box, SU defender Clarke Brown completed a slide tackle to take that opportunity away.

With pressure from the backline and goalkeeper Jordan Harris’ six saves, that’s the way it went for St. John’s all match long. With Hostage’s fresh legs off the bench, the team capitalized on it.

Willing to play whatever role is best for the team, the reoccurring narrative may continue for the young forward.

Said Hostage: “As many minutes as I can get on the field, I’m just going to do my job and put my best effort out there.”

Published on August 23, 2018 at 10:35 pm

Contact Eric: estorms@syr.edu