Courtney Brosnan laid still on the field with her head down. She was in complete disbelief. Maddie Dano had curved in her corner kick toward the right back post. Brosnan positioned herself perfectly, yet the ball sailed over her outstretched hands.

When Brosnan stood back up, she glanced at the scoreboard. Bucknell, a pre-game underdog, took a 2-0 lead over the undefeated Orange.

“The wind took it a little bit,” Brosnan said. “I thought I was under it but I just couldn’t get there. We don’t want to be giving balls off of corners.”

The Orange’s defense deflected five shots in the first half and prevented Bucknell from shooting on net except for once. Within a five-minute span, the Bison scored twice.

Syracuse was not ready to let its undefeated season disappear. Senior Stephanie Skilton rushed back to midfield to put the ball back in play. One minute later, Eva Gordon quickly dribbled the ball deep into Bucknell territory. She came to a halt, switched the ball to her right foot, and rocketed it toward the goal from about 25 yards out. It curved immediately to the right and flew over goalie Jessica Ratner.

However, the comeback was short-lived. Despite a few other opportunities in the last 10 minutes, SU (3-1-1) came up short against Bucknell (4-0) to end its undefeated start with a 2-1 loss at home on Thursday afternoon. Bucknell remained undefeated by capitalizing on chances in the box.

“We didn’t play as a team today,” head coach Phil Wheddon said. “Our passing was off. We had three or four players that played well. You can’t survive at this level if only a few play to their potential.”

The Orange had dominated possession and outshot the Bison, 6-2, by the end of the first half. Two near-goals that touched the goal-line were called off. In the 17th minute, Carolin Bader lasered a shot over the top of Ratner. It hit off the top of the post and bounced right on the goal line before being caught by Ratner.

Syracuse trotted back to midfield, celebrating the goal. However, when the Orange turned around, Ratner had thrown the ball right back into the play. The referee ruled no goal.

“I thought it was in,” Wheddon said. “Our players thought it was in. But you can’t control that, it’s the referee’s call.”

Ratner was spectacular for the Bison. She faced a herd of attacks from the quick-starting Orange offense early on. Ratner came up with four big saves during the first half to keep the game tied entering halftime.

The tide changed to Bucknell’s favor at the start of the second half. After failing to seriously test Brosnan in the first half, the Bison started to create more opportunities.

In the 68th minute, a Bucknell midfielder passed the ball through two Syracuse defenders. Junior Kendall Ham burst ahead, settled the ball, and found herself one on one against Brosnan. Ham calmly kicked the ball past her to end Brosnan’s three-game shutout streak.

“Some of these teams are opportunistic with passing long balls forward,” Wheddon said. “They can get in behind you.”

After last Sunday’s win over Albany, Wheddon told reporters that he thought his team needed to do a better job at playing a full 90 minutes. When asked if they improved on that this game, Wheddon gave a firm no.

“For some of the first half we connected passes,” Wheddon said. “When we did that, it was very difficult for Bucknell to play with us. But in the second half we struggled to get it going. We had opportunities that may have gone in but you can’t rely on chance.”

Syracuse outshot Bucknell 11-7 but was unable to finish off its four-game homestand with a perfect record.

“We just have to keep improving,” Brosnan said. “We’ve had a lot of focus on keeping the ball at the back so we can build up to our attack. We didn’t do that enough today.”

Published on September 1, 2016 at 9:42 pm

Contact Byron: brtollef@syr.edu