WSOC | As Farmer asks for pressure, Orange ties West Virginia

By: George Williams

Posted: 10/1/07

Pat Farmer was clearly frustrated. As was typical, the Syracuse women's soccer head coach spent the entire first half of Sunday's home game against West Virginia seated in his chair adjacent to the player bench. But just moments into the second period, Farmer was up and shouting so loudly that his comments could be heard from the other side of the field.

"Play the ball forward," Farmer screamed from the sideline. "Attack the ball."

SU was leading the No. 22 team in the nation, West Virginia, 1-0, and Farmer knew there was no sense in playing to protect the lead. His message to his players was clear: play to win the game.

The possibility of an upset remained intact throughout the match, even after the Mountaineers capitalized with the game-tying goal in the 77th minute.

After two overtimes and 110 grueling minutes of play, SU (4-4-3, 0-2-1 Big East) came away with a 1-1 tie at Syracuse Soccer Stadium Sunday afternoon. On Friday, the Orange opened up its stretch of 10 straight Big East games with a 2-1 defeat at Pittsburgh (6-3-0, 1-1-0).

The draw marks the second time this season the Orange has tied a top 25-ranked opponent. SU played then-No. 8 Boston College to a 0-0 stalemate on Sept. 16.

"(Farmer) was trying to help us if we make a mistake," SU forward Lauren Jentzen said. "He's just trying to get in our face and tell us what to do next, and trying to make us better so next time we don't do it."

Farmer said he felt like the team came out flat in the second half. At halftime, he stressed the need for more pressure and aggression on the offensive side of the ball.

SU gained just one shot-on-goal the entire second half. By the end of regulation, WVU had the clear advantage offensively, out-shooting the Orange 19-4.

"West Virginia is a heck of a team," Farmer said. "They are a better team overall than we are and…I think they dominated. I think the pace was in their favor, and I still think that we managed to get out of it with a draw."

Despite a lack of aggression in the second half, Farmer said his players delivered in the two 10-minute overtime periods.

In overtime, Syracuse had four shots-on-goal, which equaled its total for all of regulation. A shift of the formation by Farmer to a 4-5-1 with a five midfielder set allowed SU to get into more of an attack mode, Farmer said.

"I'm not very afraid to lose," Farmer said. "So it's like we're going to go for this in the overtimes. You're trying to upset a top 25 (team). You're not trying to sit in."

The Orange gained its early lead in much the same fashion that nearly produced a victory in the overtime periods. After a disappointing loss to Pittsburgh on Friday night in which Farmer said the team got "outplayed" for the first time all season, the focus before the West Virginia game was to establish an early tempo.

SU defender Sarah VanSickle did just that. Just two minutes into the game, Chelsea Berry passed the ball into the middle of the field where VanSickle stood ready to hammer her first goal of the season into the lower right corner of the net.

For the rest of regulation, SU did little on the offensive side of the ball. The pressure switched to the back four defenders and SU goalkeeper Eliza Bennett-Hattan. Bennett-Hattan was tested often and managed to make to nine saves.

"West Virginia's a great team," VanSickle said. "They like to possess the ball, so we knew that was going to be most of the game. We just knew we had to defend hard and maybe even knock them down just a few times just to tell them we're here, we're not going to let you do this."

SU knew the Mountaineers' strength was in its quickness and ability to showcase a number of offensive weapons. Thus, Farmer said flexibility and problem solving were absolute essentials in defending the WVU players.

"You get tired, but you don't think about it because the game's still on the line," VanSickle said. "It's 1-1 against West Virginia, a ranked team. You don't think about getting tired."