AMHERST, Mass. — Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon let out an excited “Ohhh!” as he stared onto the field. Sophomore forward Sheridan Street had just uncorked a shot from 20 yards out on the left wing that sailed into the top right corner of the net, extending Syracuse’s lead over Massachusetts to 3-0.

Street’s teammates quickly rushed toward her and tapped her on the head in congratulations before trotting back to the circle at midfield.

“Obviously it’s great to open the season with a victory, and a convincing one at that,” Wheddon said. “… I’m proud of the ladies. Some of the goals were absolutely spectacular.”

With a flurry of offensive firepower and a controlled, possession-oriented tempo Syracuse dictated from the beginning of the match, SU (1-0) rode to a season-opening 6-0 victory over Massachusetts (0-1) at Rudd Field on Friday evening.

Wheddon said the Minutemen didn’t test his team much defensively, but was very pleased with Syracuse’s offensive production. The Orange outshot its opposition 16-9 and finished with 10 corner kicks to Massachusetts’ zero.

“I think we’ve focused a lot of our time in preseason on being dynamic in attack,” Wheddon said. “We got multiple goal scorers there, today a lot of people had multiple chances which is what we’re looking for.”

Ten minutes in, forward Alexis Koval scored on an empty net after a cross from the wing landed in the box. Just two minutes later, Stephanie Skilton took a pass from Erin Simon on the right wing and dribbled around the Massachusetts goalkeeper to extend the lead to two.

“We’re trying to build it from the back to go wide to get (the ball to the) endline, and then get that way through to the box,” forward Alex Lamontagne said.

After Street’s goal 23 minutes in, Syracuse continued to work the ball from side to side, looking for open passing lanes and forcing Massachusetts to chase the ball around the field.

Wheddon said he likes his team to dictate the pace of play depending on the opponent, and because Massachusetts typically had its defense stacked in front of the ball, Syracuse often took its time building up its attack.

“UMass was a very direct team so they played a lot of long balls forward,” Wheddon said. “We had to be ready for that.”

Senior forward Maya Pitts sent a ball through the box in the 58th minute from the left wing to Lamontagne, who took one dribble before firing it into the net for a 4-0 lead.

Wheddon sprung from his seat and clapped in approval.

“Our game plan was just come in hard, show them that we wanted to set the pace and we wanted to come out being the team that dominated,” Lamontagne said.

Ten minutes later, Koval scored her second goal on a penalty kick, and Pitts added SU’s final goal with eight minutes remaining after Koval sent in a cross from the right side that was redirected by Lamontagne.

Pitts finished with a goal and two assists, and is looking to build off a 2014 season in which she only tallied three goals.

“I think I’ve just gotten a lot more confident in myself and grown as a player and as a person and I think you see it on the field,” Pitts said.

After blitzing the scoreboard, Wheddon could be heard telling his team to “manage the game” as Syracuse controlled the pace and tried to milk down the rest of the clock.

Said Wheddon: “We wanted a shutout, and we’ve talked about how to manage a game, so I’m pleased with the way they did that.”

Published on August 21, 2015 at 8:23 pm

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