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In the 31st minute, SU freshman Vita Naihin served a corner into the box. Mercyhurst couldn’t clear the danger as the ball fell to midfielder Dalani Stephens, who slotted her shot into an opening in the net.

It was already Syracuse’s fourth goal of the game and Stephens’ second, handing it a 4-0 lead.

“It just kind of bobbled around for a second and I just tried to volley it in,” Stephens said postgame.

Syracuse hadn’t scored four goals in a game since a 4-1 win over Lafayette in 2022. Sunday, it took Syracuse (3-0-1, Atlantic Coast Conference) only 31 minutes to find the net four times, leading to a 5-0 win over Mercyhurst (0-3-0, Northeast Conference). Stephens added a second goal while Liesel Odden and Anna Rupert each added one before the end of the half. It was the first time Syracuse had scored four goals in a half since it netted four second-half strikes against Binghamton on Sept. 12, 2010.

“It’s huge, and it’s a pattern that I’ve been seeing all season long so far,” Syracuse head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams said of its fast start Sunday. “We are taking care of business in the first half.”

Through four games, early goals have been common for SU. In its season-opening 2-0 win over UMass on Aug. 15, Syracuse notched both of its goals in the first 20 minutes — a 13th-minute effort by Ava Uribe and a 20th-minute finish by Ashley Rauch. While Syracuse didn’t score in the opening 45 minutes against Siena on Thursday, it registered five shots. And Sunday, the goals came early and often for the Orange.

“Against Siena, I thought we were fine in the first half,” Adams said. “We could not get a rhythm in the final third. (We made) two adjustments at halftime, and we broke through. But being able to get that (goals) done in the first half takes a little bit of pressure off of us.”

The strategy from the outset was to attempt to have tight connections between the forwards and midfielders, Adams said. In the fifth minute, forward Erin Flurey dropped a pass to Stephens on the outside of the box. Stephens teed up a shot that whistled past Mercyhurst’s goalkeeper Kate Constantini and found the bottom corner.

“I guess it just came across, I saw the shot was open and took a chance,” Stephens said.

Syracuse midfielder Dalani Stephens celebrates with her teammates in SU’s 5-0 win over Mercyhurst. In the contest, Stephens scored her first two goals with the Orange. Joe Zhao | Video Editor

In the 19th minute, Uribe picked up a loose ball in the midfield and chipped it over the Mercyhurst back line. Odden was the first to the ball and kept her composure to place her shot in the bottom left corner to double SU’s lead.

Rupert made an instant impact off the bench for the third goal of the game in the 26th minute. Two minutes after entering the contest, a Syracuse defensive clearance trickled up to Rupert. The junior accelerated past the Mercyhurst backline and finished to cap off the move. Then Stephens made it 4-0 on a corner kick five minutes later.

The lead allowed SU to rotate heavily for the rest of the game. Adams said she played every eligible player in Sunday’s game and it allowed extra work with strategy from the training field to game action.

“I think our offense did a really good job of checking back today and showing to the ball,” Stephens said. “(It’s) something we’ve been working on in practice extensively, so it was really good to see that come out in the game.”

The Lakers are in their first season as a Division-I program, and Adams noted that SU didn’t have much scouting about its opponent entering Sunday’s match. After the 5-0 win, Adams was impressed with her team’s rapid start to the game — where SU scored four quick goals to put the game out of reach.

“In these types of games, you can either annihilate them, or you can kind of just cruise a little bit,” Adams said. “And I was really proud of the team, that they put foot on the pedal and never let up.”

Published on August 25, 2024 at 5:41 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal