Roos Weers executes 2 penalty corner goals en route to hat trick
The ball rolled in off the penalty corner directly to Serra Degnan, who, hunched over, quickly tapped a pass to Lies Lagerweij.
Lagerweij, seeing no angle for a shot, reversed the ball to Roos Weers. Weers squared up a one-timer and sent the ball flying past the sliding goalie to give Syracuse a 3-0 lead.
Just after the ball clanked off the inside of the goal, Lagerweij sprinted to Weers, low-fived and bumped her in celebration.
“(Weers) executed on corners today,” head coach Ange Bradley said. “She played really solid. Her dad’s in town for the weekend, so I believe that’s some inspiration.”
Weers’ father, who traveled from the Netherlands, saw his daughter score her second goal and an eventual hat trick. Though the Orange offense started slowly — the team led 1-0 at half— Weers and the defense solved Boston University’s counterattack at halftime, which led to the Orange generating more penalty corners in the game (eight) than the BU had total shots (seven). Weers led the attacking defense of No. 2 Syracuse (9-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast) with seven total points in its 5-1 victory over No. 17 Boston University (6-3, 2-0 Patriot) Sunday at J.S. Coyne Stadium.
“We practiced yesterday on execution,” Weers said of the penalty corners. “Today the finishing was great.”
On the Orange’s seventh penalty corner, a shot by Lagerweij caromed off a Terrier defender in front and squirted out to the top left of the circle. Weers was standing in the right place. By the time Weers shot hit the back wall of the goal, Terrier goalie Cammy Jensen had her arms extended, looking for an answer that didn’t come.
Weers and the defense figured out that the best way to combat Boston’s drop-back defense was to run the offense up the sidelines as opposed to in the middle of the field. Often, one of the main defenders — Weers, Lagerweij or Zoe Wilson — would “push up” and join the attack to create more offensive opportunity.
“It can be frustrating and boring (to just play the sides),” Lagerweij said. “But that’s what (Boston) wants. That’s why it was important to reverse the ball. Eventually they got tired and big balls opened up.”
Three minutes prior to Weers’ goal off the deflection, she took the ball off a reversal and pushed up the left sideline.
“I saw space and I saw Emma (Russell) running so I played it there,” Weers said. “And then the goal was even better.”
Russell’s shot deflected off the top bar and down into the goal.
The pass by Weers skidded past three Boston defenders in the area, but found Russell’s stick. It was on theme for the style that Weers played all day. Twice in the first half Weers played long balls which hit the back of the goal, but didn’t count because Weers had shot them inside the circle.
“When I play the (long ball), we always try to get a deflection for the forwards, but obviously it’s great (if they draw a penalty corner too),” Weers said. “We want a goal, it doesn’t matter.”
About a dozen times Sunday, Weers received a pass from a back line teammate and sent a long ball. Sometimes the ball rolled through and out of bounds, other times an opponent intercepted it. But on occasion, long balls resulted in an Orange scoring opportunity or Russell standing on the endline, playing in a penalty corner.
“(Weers) has played really well the past few weeks,” Lagerweij said. “She’s…scoring goals. It’s fun.”
