The scouting report for the East Carolina women’s soccer team described them as ‘physical, strong, big and physical.’ It was no copy error that ‘physical’ was in there twice.

The Syracuse women’s soccer team felt the aggressiveness of East Carolina and fought back on Friday night to a 0-0 tie after double overtime at the Syracuse Soccer Stadium in front of 310 fans.

The SU women’s soccer team also played to a scoreless tie against No. 8 Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Sunday.

Against East Carolina, the score did not go anywhere, but the game itself was rough.

Throughout the night, elbows were thrown, and several players were pushed to the ground. Many of the athletes had to take several minutes to get up, but no cards were issued. Two players were taken from the field due to injury during the game, including SU captain Jen Taormina, who left early in the second half and never returned.

‘When Jen got hurt, it was a big blow to our offense,’ Syracuse freshman Megan Bellingham said. ‘She’s our captain, our leader; she’s always running around all over the place and is where a lot of our energy on offense comes from. When she left the game, our level of play suffered, but I think we got it together and our other leaders stepped up.’

SU junior captain Karrah Benson led the defense to its second shutout of the year. In the first half, Syracuse (2-2-2) held East Carolina (3-1-1) to only two shots, but in the second half, they had seven shots. SU goalkeeper Eliza Bennett-Hattan made fives saves. In the first half Syracuse outshot the Pirates, 5-2, but in the second half, ECU outshot Syracuse, 7-6.

‘We gave up some shots on the outside that we didn’t mind as much,’ Benson said. ‘We were trying to gauge how they would play, if they’d move the ball more direct. The game was a physical battle, but I think we responded well.’

The wind was gusting the entire game, but during the second half it began to rain, which cleared out many fans in the stadium. The rain continued through the two overtime periods, which some players said may have affected the bounces of the ball. The muddy play also could have hindered some shots toward the end of the game.

Benson and her teammates knew before the game that East Carolina would be physical, and that the weather conditions would have to make them increase their intensity.

SU head coach Pat Farmer changed up the defensive line for the game, hoping to stop a bigger East Carolina team, putting Benson in the center (she usually lines up at right defender) and swapped the positions of defenders Sarah VanSickle and Danielle Jordan.

‘This was the most I’ve ever changed up my defense line up,’ Farmer said. ‘I was very happy with their performances. I told the defense team that this was probably the best they played as a unit all year.’

Bellingham seemed to spark the offense whenever she entered the game, despite sitting out the first part of the second half, and was a solid replacement for Taormina. She only had one shot on goal, but also took on several defenders near the goal, attempted a shot but failed to score. Farmer sat Bellingham the beginning of the second half because her fitness level is not at the capacity for 90 minutes of playing.

‘Megan is very dangerous on the field,’ Farmer said. ‘Her fitness isn’t there yet, so it’s important to keep her for important parts of the game.’

Syracuse kept its level of intensity high throughout the game, despite increasingly poor weather conditions, but could not mange to score during the two 10-minute overtime periods.

‘When we took a look at the scouting report for East Carolina, physical was in there twice,’ Farmer said. ‘We saw how the last two games we played were very tactical and we weren’t as hard as we need to be, and I think that improved in this game.’

Published on September 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm