Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon has been telling his players all season they wanted to be top five in the Big East this season. So when Rosina Callisto found herself one-on-one with St. John’s goalkeeper Kristin Russell 16 minutes into SU’s Big East opener, she made sure the Orange got off to a good start on that ambition.

After Russell turned the ball directly over to Callisto, the sophomore midfielder took four strides to her left and delivered a strike right through to the back of the net.

With Callisto’s goal, SU (4-3-3, 1-0 Big East) would go on to defeat St. John’s (3-4-1, 0-1) 1-0 in its Big East opener in front of 337 at the SU Soccer Stadium on Friday night, inching the Orange closer to their coach’s mission.

Back on the road Sunday, Syracuse tied Yale 1-1 in New Haven, Conn. The Orange is unbeaten in its last four games.

‘Our goal is to be in the top five in the Big East, so that’s one step closer to being in the top five,’ Wheddon said. ‘We’ve talked about it, and there are certain things we need to do to be in the top five. Tonight, I thought our execution all over the field was very good.’

The Orange has opened the Big East portion of its schedule against St. John’s in each of the last seven seasons. The last victory against the Red Storm came in 2005.

But SU would eliminate its struggles in conference openers on Friday. The Callisto goal would be the difference maker in a tightly contested affair.

‘It feels good to win the first Big East game,’ freshman defender Kayla Afonso said. ‘We’ve been working really hard to win all these games, and we’re just coming out strong this year.’

The Orange would jump out to an early lead, but St. John’s nearly responded. After SU goalkeeper Brittany Anghel aggressively pursued a volley in front of goal, the ball was knocked over her head. Orange defender Casey Ramirez was able to head the ball away, saving a potential game-tying goal.

Anghel credited her defense with being able to get back during those sporadic chances. The strength in numbers on defense enabled Anghel to smother any chances in front of goal.

‘We try to keep possession, keep it moving, keep it flowing and throw numbers forward when necessary and get numbers behind the ball when we want to play defense,’ Anghel said. ‘I think that really helped us tonight. We really followed through with our plan.’

With time winding down in the second half, Anghel was faced with a breakaway after St. John’s forward Jen Leaverton corralled a tricky ball past a Syracuse defender. Anghel charged the ball and was able to make a sprawling save.

In the past the Orange let in similar chances. Those were the types of chances that went against them when facing St. John’s the past four years. This time, SU converted its chances and walked away with a victory.

‘In previous years these games have gone against us, we’ve lost 1-0 or 2-1 or sometimes it’s been a little bit worse,’ Wheddon said. ‘Tonight, I was preaching to them about discipline and stay tight into our game plan, and to the players’ credit, they did that. I’m very, very proud of their effort.’

Syracuse stuck to its game plan and moved one step closer to its goal: top five in the Big East.

The Orange proved it can hang around and defeat quality opponents. Propelled by Callisto’s goal, the win gives the Orange confidence heading into the meat of its Big East schedule, something it has not had much of recently.

‘This is really big, it’s great for all of us because we know that we can stay in this conference and we can go far in the tournament with the Big East and everything,’ Callisto said. ‘Winning this first game is awesome because not only is it the first Big East game, it’s also against St. John’s, (who) was nationally ranked last year.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on September 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm