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A couple hundred feet away from SU Soccer Stadium, nestled underneath the shade of a few trees, Matt Croyle works magic on a portable grill. He places down a slice of ham and cracks an egg. When it’s time, he’ll top it off with a slice of cheese, place everything between two slices of bread and drench it with hot sauce. He’s making a pork roll.

“You have to have one,” Amy Magnotta says, walking alongside Matt’s wife, Trish Croyle.

They’ve finally returned to the tailgate. Matt has mastered this. It’s a skill he picked up at Susquehanna University football games, where one of his sons, Bobby Croyle, was a quarterback.

Jokes fly between parents, and at some point, someone commits the grave affront of erroneously calling the sandwich a Taylor ham, an alternative term mostly preferred by New Jersey natives.

Rookie mistake. It’s a pork roll. Don’t forget it.

“I always say,” Matt begins, gesturing with his grill scraper. “Me and my wife only argue about two things: the temperature of the house, and whether it’s a pork roll or a Taylor ham.”

Hearty laughs ring out. This season, as the Croyles befriended the Magnottas, these tailgates have become a staple. But the families’ bond truly began when their daughters — SU defenders Anna Croyle and Natalie Magnotta — first crossed paths two years ago.

The pair first met when they played in the 2023 High School All-American Game in Charleston, South Carolina but went their separate ways. The following year, Anna became a starter at Syracuse while Natalie redshirted at Penn State. Once Natalie decided to transfer, Anna helped lead her to the Orange, where they’ve started every game together for SU this season.

Anna grew up in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, just 30 miles away from Natalie’s hometown of Berwyn. Both became center backs because of their height and were four-year varsity starters. They also captained their respective Elite Clubs National League squads and capped off their high school careers with state championships and All-American selections.

“We’re not too far from each other back at home,” Matt said. “But their paths have brought them together at Syracuse, which is pretty cool.”

Anna Croyle (left) poses with Natalie Magnotta after the 2023 High School All-American Game. Both Croyle and Magnotta claimed Pennsylvania state championships at their respective high schools. Courtesy of Trish Croyle

They were familiar with each other well before they formally met in Charleston. The pair faced each other in AAU basketball. They were both shooting guards.

On the pitch, the two matched up regularly in ECNL play. Anna anchored FC Bucks’ defense for most of her adolescence, and Natalie did the same for Penn Fusion. Eric Crawford — a Philadelphia-based sports videographer — became well-acquainted with the pair. He was often tasked with filming their matchups.

Before their recruitments ramped up, Crawford put together highlight reels for each of them to send to coaches. He saw Anna lead Pennridge High School to two state championships and watched as Natalie willed Episcopal Academy to its own.

As he watched each of them play, Crawford quickly came to a realization. He shared it with both of their mothers constantly.

“Man, if (Anna and Natalie) played together on the same club team,” Crawford would tell them. “That would be a dream pair.”

The pair had plenty of coaches to send those reels to. Syracuse head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams was one of them.

Adams heavily recruited both out of high school, but only Anna committed. The Magnottas were far too entrenched in Penn State culture for Natalie to go anywhere else.

Her father, Andrew Magnotta, grew up in a family of PSU fanatics. His father has held Nittany Lions football season tickets for 60 years, and he would take his sons to nearly every home game. Andrew passed that tradition to his family. At least once a year, he took Amy, Natalie and his youngest daughter, Audrey Magnotta, to Beaver Stadium to watch the Nittany Lions.

That familiarity initially drove Natalie away from PSU. She fought against the fandom that was forced upon her as a child. Her mission was to get as far away from home as possible.

“I initially rebelled against the idea of going to Penn State,” Natalie said. “I never even emailed them at all.”

But Penn State was inevitable. After Natalie went to an ECNL National Training Camp in the summer before her junior year, PSU’s coaches began to reach out. Despite her initial aversion to the Nittany Lions, she had always respected their soccer program. She said refusing to visit would’ve been shortsighted.

As Natalie walked through a campus she’d visited dozens — if not hundreds — of times before, something clicked. She realized having her parents just a few hours away wasn’t a bad thing, and she viewed her family’s ties to the school as a positive.

She committed in September 2022, opting not to visit any other schools. It was a little over a year before her path finally crossed with Anna’s again.

“From our family’s perspective, from the location perspective, from a program perspective, we didn’t think there was a better option (than Penn State),” Andrew said.

After their senior seasons, Anna and Natalie shipped off to Charleston for the High School All-American Game. They immediately bonded on the East Team, having known of each other through mutual friends and their ECNL matchups.

While Bill Pfeifer — the East Team head coach — rotated the lineup so everyone could have their chance to shine, the two rotated in at center back. They kept a clean sheet until the final minute, helping the East to a multi-goal victory.

“I mean, defensively, (they were) just so good,” Pfeifer said. “Anna and Natalie, their last — if you want to say — high school game, they walked off the field winners.”

With Natalie committed to Penn State and Anna locked in at Syracuse, they thought they’d never get a chance to share a backline again.

But there was nothing stopping them from being friends. They exchanged numbers, posed for a postgame photo and, with the boys’ All-American Game on deck, settled into the stands to spend one last afternoon watching soccer together before they went their separate ways.

“(We) kind of just attached at the hip,” Anna said. “We weren’t like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be teammates,’ or anything, but it was still a really fun experience.”

Months passed, and the pair fell out of touch as they settled into their respective colleges. Since Syracuse lost both of its starting center backs from 2023 — Grace Gillard and Zoe Van de Cloot — Anna made an immediate impact, starting all 18 of SU’s contests in 2024.

Natalie wasn’t afforded that same opportunity. With three senior center backs ahead of her in the Nittany Lions’ pecking order, she decided to redshirt. After starting every game of her high school career, she was finally forced to take a seat.

After Anna Croyle scored her first career collegiate goal in SU’s season-opening win over Charleston Southern, she shared a celebratory embrace with Natalie Magnotta. Courtesy of SU Athletics

“(Not playing) was definitely really hard,” Natalie said. “But there were a lot of girls on my team who were in the same position, so it wasn’t like I was really going through it alone.”

Once PSU’s season concluded, she entered the transfer portal. She didn’t want to guess if she would play.

Adams immediately re-entered the picture. Since Adams had already recruited Natalie in high school, she wasn’t forced to scramble to find practice film. They quickly set up a visit, upon which Natalie briefly mentioned that she already knew someone on SU’s roster.

Anna — who had Natalie’s contact listed as “Natalie All-American” — led her through the visit alongside assistant coach Brandon DeNoyer. She showed off her apartment, hit all the main points on campus and capped the visit with a trip to Varsity Pizza.

“When Anna found out (Natalie) was coming here, she was so excited,” Trish said. “She called me, and she’s like, ‘Mom, Natalie just visited. I really hope she comes.’”

Over the following days, Anna told Natalie she could make an immediate impact with the Orange, and that the coaching staff was changing the program’s culture. That transparency was all she needed to hear. Natalie quickly committed. After SU’s first spring game, the pair texted Crawford a picture of them, his years-old dream finally being realized.

The two now live in adjacent South Campus apartments. After each match, they go on frozen yogurt runs and review the game’s film in Natalie’s apartment, making each other laugh with funny quips while being brutally honest to improve. It’s a level of trust only certain relationships carry.

In Syracuse’s season-opener — a 5-0 thrashing of Charleston Southern — Anna opened the scoring with a header into the back of the net, the first goal of her collegiate career. She dove forward, connecting with Ashley Rauch’s cross, and watched as it entered the goal.

Anna popped up, scanning the field for one particular person. She ran toward her teammate, meeting her in the middle of Charleston Southern’s box before the two wrapped their arms around each other in a moment of unadulterated jubilation.

You just knew she was looking for Natalie.

Published on September 24, 2025 at 10:16 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO