As Sierra Cockerille and her Syracuse teammates walked into the locker room, the halftime disappointment was evident. With a 6-2 lead with nine a half minutes remaining in the opening half, the Orange had threatened to run away with another victory.

From her favored position in the low block, Megan Carney spotted a wide-open cutter entering the crease. But SU’s leader in assists underthrew the pass, leading to a quick Stony Brook counter-attack and free position goal for Ally Kennedy. From offensive breakdowns and blown draw controls, the Orange stumbled into the intermission tied.

“We walked into the locker room with our heads down,” Cockerille said. “You could hear (Stony Brook) screaming in the other locker room.”

No. 4 Syracuse (1-1) never recovered from its first-half collapse when No. 10 Stony Brook (1-0) opened up the second half on an 8-2 run. The Seawolves survived a late Emily Hawryschuk-led comeback and held on for a 17-16 victory over the Orange. Cockerille said SU needed to come out in the second half with a “zero-zero” mentality, but admitted they couldn’t match the Seawolves’ intensity. 

“I think that we knew that Syracuse is a great team and we knew we needed to get the energy up,” Stony Brook attack Kailyn Hart said. “But we knew we could beat them.” 

Just as they had in the first half, the Seawolves scored just over a minute in and then won the ensuing draw. Kennedy — who tormented the SU defense all game with four goals — burst through the midfield and defense to feed Jesse Arline for a simple finish. The goals were separated by just 43 seconds. 

Although Syracuse was able to level the score at nine shortly after with goals from Ella Simkins and Meaghan Tyrrell, the Orange never regained the lead. Possessions continued to break down, and when they didn’t, shots often went straight at Stony Brook goalie Kameron Halsall. 

Those saves in turn initiated Stony Brook transition opportunities. Wave after wave of counter-attacks wore the Syracuse midfield out and on one occasion, Cockerille made a desperate attempt to dispossess a Stony Brook midfielder but wildly crashed into her — knocking her goggles off in the process. Stony Brook fans screamed for Cockerille to be ejected, but she was just shown a yellow card. 

The knockout blow came with just under 12 minutes to go. As Stony Brook began to dominate possession, Kennedy swung the ball to Hart on the right wing. With her back to goal, Hart, a freshman playing in her first game, took a quick glance over her shoulder, before turning back towards Kennedy as she swung her stick behind her back, beating an unsuspecting Asa Goldstock at her near post. 

“It was just in the flow of the game and came to me so naturally,” Hart said. “You’ll see after I dropped my stick my face was just like, ‘Wow, what happened.” 

Hart’s highlight reel extended Stony Brook’s lead to five goals and head coach Gary Gait knew something had to change. He substituted Goldstock, who slammed her stick on the sideline after walking off, for junior goalie Hannah Van Middelem. 

“It’s what we needed,” Gait said. “We got a spark, it may not have been from that but it comes from the most random thing that you do and all of a sudden the switch goes and you start putting the ball away.”

Still, Van Middelem and Syracuse let in two more goals, meaning an Orange surge in the last 10 minutes came up short. As Syracuse players slowly walked to the sideline to complete their post-game stretches, Stony Brook players mobbed the field, screaming in elation as they surrounded Halsall. 

“It’s like going fishing and catching a 50-pound bass on your first cast,” Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina said. “It’s special, this is one of the top one or two wins we’ve had in our program’s history.”

Published on February 10, 2020 at 10:18 pm

Contact Alex: athamer@syr.edu