Junior forward Lauren Brooks fired both the opening strike and the final dagger for No. 3 Syracuse (14-2, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) this weekend.

On Saturday, Brooks opened the scoring in the 12th minute and sparked the Orange to a 5-2 victory over No. 16 Wake Forest (10-7, 0-5) in front of 404 fans at J.S. Coyne Stadium.

One day later, Brooks tallied her second overtime goal of the season to carry Syracuse to a dramatic 3-2 win past unranked Cornell (9-6, 3-2 Ivy League). It was her second score of the game and team-leading 12th goal of the season.

“I was all over the girls pretty hard this week in practice,” head coach Ange Bradley said, “and I was really happy to see Lauren respond on the weekend with a couple goals, very important goals for us. So it tells me I got to keep on her.”

Brooks put the Orange on the board only five minutes into the Cornell game when she poked home a shot by Emma Russell that Karlee Farr initially deflected in front of the cage.

Only three minutes later, forward Serra Degnan doubled the Orange lead on a penalty corner. Leonie Geyer ripped a bullet from the top of the shooting circle that was denied by goalie Carolyn Horner. However, the rebound came right to Degnan and she slapped it past Horner for her second goal of the weekend.

“We really worked in practice on cutting across and finishing at the top of the cage,” Degnan said. “Ange really pushed us this week to really have strong shots on cage.”

But after Degnan scored, the Orange offense became stagnant for the rest of the first half, and much of the second.

Syracuse struggled to muster quality shots within the circle, and turnovers often derailed any chance at a fast break toward the cage. Bradley feverishly instructed players to move toward the ball and help teammates in distress, but by the time the Orange recovered the Big Red had already mounted a comeback.

Marisa Siergiej kicked it off with her goal on a penalty corner in the 21st minute and Elly Plappert followed with 15 minutes remaining. A stunned Syracuse crowd watched in silence as she knocked home a one-timer to the right of a defenseless Jecko.

The Orange had three opportunities to retake the lead on three penalty corners during the final nine minutes, but Horner shut the door each time.

The Orange headed to overtime for the second time in three games.

“The field is your friend and your enemy, and there’s a lot of space to cover,” Bradley said. “Our kids punished ourselves today by putting us into overtime, and having to play 10 extra minutes in this kind of space really isn’t smart.”

But Sunday, Syracuse got away with it.

With six minutes remaining in the first extra session, Brooks ran onto the field as a substitute and found herself with a golden opportunity mere seconds later.

“Emma had the ball on the fast break and there was one defender and the goalkeeper,” Brooks said. “She slid a nice ball on the right-hand side and I pulled left and the goalie slid, so I put it over her.”

Although the Orange was able to escape with a win, Bradley said that the team needs to correct a lot of mistakes before next Saturday’s season finale against North Carolina.

“They killed us in the Final Four and that is very fresh in our minds. We got hammered,” Bradley said. “But we’re a different team, and we’re going to come back and fight hard.”

Published on October 28, 2013 at 12:25 am

Contact Tyler: tfpiccot@syr.edu