No. 11 Syracuse rides strong 1st half to 5-2 win over Fairfield
Syracuse earned a 5-2 win over Fairfield on Sunday, getting another hat trick from Bo van Kempen while using effective ball movement. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor
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It’s been almost 24 years since Syracuse and Fairfield met on the astroturf.
The last contest between the two programs was back on Oct. 10, 2001, when the Orange easily defeated the Stags 5-0 in Fairfield. The two schools played each other for the first time a year earlier, with Syracuse winning a narrow 2-1 contest on their home turf.
With nearly a quarter of a century in between their last matchup, and Syracuse’s roster littered with freshmen after losing three of their top scorers from last season, the Stags returned to Syracuse on Sunday with a chance to earn their first win over the Orange in program history.
But just one period in, it was clear that an upset was firmly off the table. Fairfield was no match for the Orange.
On Sunday afternoon, No. 11 Syracuse (2-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) held off Fairfield (0-2, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic) in a 5-2 win, fueled by a hat trick from Bo van Kempen just two days after the graduate student scored a program-record six goals in a 15-0 win over Lock Haven. The Orange relied on strong ball movement to break through Fairfield’s defense, generating 12 penalty corners and 19 shots — 11 of which were on target.
“It’s pretty when it all comes together,” head coach Lynn Farquhar said. “It just requires off-ball work that puts you in a good position to then do what’s next. It’s a true team sport, and you can see that.”
It wasn’t the same flying start that saw Syracuse open the scoring just 17 seconds into its matchup against Lock Haven, but the Orange were in sync from the opening whistle. Fairfield could only push Syracuse back as the Orange retained possession, moving the ball around and searching for an opening.
Less than three minutes into the game, Hattie Madden found the opening she was looking for when she chipped the ball across the goal to Liz Stange, who tapped it in for an open-play goal to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead.
“The last game on Friday, we came off strong, like we scored right after 17 seconds,” SU forward Pati Strunk said. “Obviously we wanted to do the same today, but the opponent was trying hard on us, so it was a little harder.”
The Orange continued to retain possession, earning a penalty corner where van Kempen had a shot on goal blocked by Fairfield goalie Payton Rahn.
Just seconds later, the Orange won another penalty corner, inserted by Strunk. Strunk passed it to Stange, who trapped it for van Kempen to fire a rocket into the bottom left corner. That score — her seventh of the season — extended Syracuse’s lead to two goals.
The second period started the same as the first, with Syracuse controlling possession early. The Orange continued to work the ball around, and their pressure seemed to wear down the Stags’ defense.
Leegangers capitalized with a shot from outside the circle that deflected off Rahn into the back of the goal, giving Syracuse a 3-0 lead less than two minutes into the second period.
After a pristine Fairfield chance was deflected wide by Syracuse goalie Tane King, the Orange immediately countered. Syracuse marched down the field and earned a penalty stroke, which van Kempen blasted past Rahn for her second goal of the day, giving the Orange a 4-0 lead.
With Fairfield seemingly dead in the water, the Stags found life to begin the third period with back-to-back penalty corners. The Orange snuffed out the first attempt, but conceded their first goal of the season as Kaelyn Fogleson scored to cut the Stags’ deficit to 4-1.
Minutes later, Syracuse fought back with a penalty corner of their own, going from Stange to Strunk to van Kempen again. The grad student delivered a powerful strike to secure a hat trick and restore the four-goal advantage for the Orange.
Returning the favor, Fairfield again found success off of penalty corners. Off the insert, Pilar Mengotti cut into Syracuse’s lead with a goal that made it 5-2 to the Orange.
“Obviously, we have some improvement to do, like having three corners against us and two goals,” Stange said. “We huddled together and tried to focus on moving on.”
From there, the two teams scrapped back and forth as the game ground to a halt. Despite quality chances for both sides, neither team was able to score in the period’s final five minutes.
“Every day, we want to improve a little bit, so there was some good defensive step up,” Farquhar said. “However, I’d say we want to be even sharper in that area, especially in the defensive 25.”
The win continued to ease any concerns about Syracuse replacing the production of its top three scorers from last season. But as the Orange look ahead to Power Four competition, it remains to be seen if they can maintain that momentum against tougher opponents.
“It’s doing the simple and doing it well, we have to move off-ball — that’s going to make or break us,” Farquhar said. “The speed is going to be similar to us, and the pressure is going to be right there on us, so we gotta do the work.”
