Inefficient offense holds Syracuse to 1-1 draw at Quinnipiac
Although Syracuse outshot Quinnipiac 12-10, it couldn’t capitalize on its first-half offensive chances, ultimately resulting in a 1-1 draw. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer
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The Orange have only played six games in their nascent 2025 season, but they’ve already grown far too accustomed to playing against the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
SU hosted Niagara in its second game of the season, where a dismal first-half offensive display sank any potential comeback efforts in a 2-1 loss to the Purple Eagles. One game later, Syracuse hosted another MAAC opponent in Canisius, securing a 4-0 victory and looking like an entirely different team than the one that faltered four days prior.
On Thursday, Syracuse took on a third MAAC foe in its fifth game of the season, taking a trip up to Hamden, Connecticut, to face a Quinnipiac squad that hadn’t secured a win in 2025.
Against MAAC opposition, it’s been a tale of two teams for Syracuse thus far. Would the squad that instantly suffocated Canisius show up? Or would the iteration of SU that floundered against Niagara for a lion’s share of 90 minutes creep back into existence?
As it turns out, the answer was neither. It was a weird amalgamation of both, where SU’s defense mostly remained stout — like it did against Canisius — while the attack failed to generate early offense — as seen against Niagara. Syracuse (3-1-1, 0-0-0 Atlantic Coast) was held scoreless in the first half of its 1-1 draw to Quinnipiac (0-2-1, 0-0-0 MAAC), having to claw back into the game to salvage a tie despite outshooting the Bobcats 12-10.
It wasn’t for a lack of opportunity.
Nine minutes into the game, Mia Klammer was fed a through-ball in space, seeing nothing ahead but green grass and Quinnipiac defender Mollie Andrews. Typically, giving Klammer — who entered the game ranked second on SU with three goals — a one-on-one opportunity yields productive outcomes for the Orange attack.
Not this time. As she approached the goal, Andrews tackled Klammer, preventing Syracuse’s most potent attacker from getting a shot off against Bobcats goalkeeper Gwen Hoyt.
Ten minutes later, Klammer had an opportunity through a throw-in. She tossed the ball to Maya McDermott, who found Ashley Rauch crashing into the box past the Bobcats’ defense. Rauch collected the ball and calmly slotted her shot past Hoyt to give Syracuse a 1-0 lead.
That lead lasted no more than five seconds. Before Rauch could even celebrate, the referee had emphatically thrown his flag into the air, annulling the score with an offside ruling.
Rauch’s next shot — coming roughly 23 minutes into the game — was off-target. Syracuse wouldn’t produce a shot on net until the 41st minute, when Julia Arbelaez capped off a Klammer to Rauch sequence with a mis-hit knuckler that didn’t even come close to threatening Hoyt.
But SU wasn’t alone when it came to wasting its first-half chances. Quinnipiac matched it the entire way through.
Around the 12th minute, Bobcats’ defender Mellina Branco was given the ball in the box with space to fire a shot. She controlled the ball, struck it with her foot and watched as it sailed out of play past the outstretched arms of SU goalkeeper Shea Vanderbosch.
Vanderbosch was sprung back into action roughly 20 minutes later. In the 33rd minute, Andrews fired a shot that rolled across the ground toward the net, forcing the Orange goalkeeper to make a save to preserve the shutout.
After halftime, where players ostensibly received tactical instruction and time to recover, things didn’t improve much for either side.
Rauch started the half hot, driving into the box and crossing to Arbelaez in the 46th minute of the contest. But just like her previous shot, it was too weak to trouble Hoyt, as the Bobcats goalkeeper watched Arbelaez’s offering dribble harmlessly out of play.
SU’s next chance came in the 67th minute. Receiving the ball in space, Syracuse midfielder Gabby Wisbeck fired a shot on target directly at Hoyt’s mitts, who deflected the ball out to Klammer as she crashed the near post.
Instead of letting the ball settle, Klammer decided to head it off the volley. Her shot bounced off the crossbar, and Bobcats defender Bianca D’Onofrio subsequently cleared it out of harm’s way.
In the 77th minute, when it appeared neither team was going to break the deadlock, both sides’ offensive efforts came to life. First, Madison Alves put Quinnipiac up 1-0 with a header goal off a corner kick. Less than a minute later, Klammer knocked in an Ashley Rauch cross with her head to keep the game tied 1-1.
With seconds left to play, SU was awarded three consecutive corner kicks, hoping to find a last-gasp effort to break the deadlock. As time expired, the Orange managed to knock a header into the net, presumably giving them a game-winning goal.
The referee threw his flag into the air. The score was ruled offside, and SU proceeded to begin its handshake lines as head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams desperately protested the decision.
Syracuse no longer has to deal with the troubles of MAAC play. After their matchup against Quinnipiac, the Orange will close out their nonconference slate against Princeton, Binghamton and Cornell.
But after those three contests, the perils of ACC play await SU. And if the Orange can’t assert their dominance over MAAC opponents, it’s increasingly difficult to imagine a scenario where they can secure their first ACC win since 2022.
