It’s the story of David and Goliath – except in this tale, David doesn’t have a slingshot.

The Syracuse women’s lacrosse team has dominated its Big East rival Boston College. The Orangewomen are 7-0 against the Eagles since the program’s inception in 1998. After Sunday’s 14-10 win at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Mass., SU has beaten BC by almost nine goals a game under SU head coach Lisa Miller.

The No. 13 Orangewomen (8-3, 4-1 Big East) won because of a strong first half. After trailing 2-1 early in the first half, they scored eight straight goals in a 15 minute span. A second-half comeback was not enough for the Eagles (5-9, 0-6) as senior Leigh-Ann Zimmer and junior Caitlyn Dragon closed the door with late goals.

‘(BC) is not a bad team,’ Miller said. ‘They struggle in spurts. We jumped on them and they just couldn’t come back.’

Freshman Ashley Pike, who has started all 11 games for SU, scored her first-career goal to start the 8-0 run. Zimmer picked up one of her four assists on the goal, tying her career best and moving her into a tie for second on the Orangewomen’s career assists list with Katrina Hable. Both have 56.

‘We started to push Ashley and Stephanie Walker a little more on offense,’ Miller said. ‘We really dominated time of possession in the first half and they couldn’t come back.’

Walker, a sophomore midfielder, and Dragon had two goals each, both personal bests. Dragon missed all of last season after suffering a preseason knee injury. She has played in six games this season.

‘I’m pleased with our attacking unit right now,’ Miller said. ‘We’ve got so many people contributing. We have a pretty high-scoring, high-powered offense when we move.’

The Orangewomen finished the first half with a 9-4 lead. They were outscored 5-3 over the next 10 minutes. Syracuse also went 15 minutes without a goal. Zimmer and Dragon’s tallies put the Eagles away as SU went up by five. BC senior Meggie O’Neill scored on a free-position shot with 1:20 remaining in the game to finish the scoring.

‘It was a little bumpy in the second half,’ Miller said. ‘But they couldn’t take advantage.’

SU won 11 of 20 draw controls in the game, which helped the Orangewomen control the tempo for much of the first half, Miller said.

‘Our opponents won draw controls consistently from game to game (last year),’ Miller said. ‘We are much improved in that area.’

SU is cruising into the end of the season, having won seven of its last eight games. Miller said her team still needs to work in practice with four games remaining on its schedule.

‘Three of them will be tough,’ she said. ‘We sort of have to gauge where we are. And we have to defend a lot better.’

Published on April 19, 2004 at 12:00 pm