Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFH | Freshmen Puggi, Sacré lead SU despite scoring woes
By Zach Zagger
Posted: 9/17/07, 1:02 AM EST Section: Sports
Despite bad passes and missed opportunities to score, the Syracuse field hockey team picked up two more wins over the weekend and moved to the top of the Big East standings, with the help of two freshmen making their first starts of the season.
SU offensive struggles carried over from the previous week in which the Orange failed to score in its loss to Temple. But this weekend, freshmen Christina Puggi and Lelia Sacré helped Syracuse come away with two wins, including a win in its conference opener against Rutgers (4-3, 0-1 Big East).
The Orange (7-1, 1-0 Big East) beat Rutgers, 2-1, on Friday night and won again on Sunday, beating Hofstra also by a score of 2-1.
Puggi started in the cage for the first time this season on Friday against Rutgers, filling in for the injured junior goalkeeper, Heather Hess. Puggi also started against Hofstra, playing most of the game. Sacré, who was injured for the beginning of the season, also played in her first game this season on Friday and started against Hofstra (3-4).
"It was exciting," Sacré said, "but I was a little nervous."
Even with Sunday's win SU head coach Ange Bradley was visibly upset with her team's performance, yelling at her players to hurry off the field into the meeting room after the game.
"We need to just get better," Bradley said.
Both games this weekend were remarkably similar, as the Orange came out flat and struggled to score, while allowing the other team to keep constant pressure in the offensive zone. On Friday, SU allowed eight shots on cage and three corner opportunities to the Scarlet Knights in the first half, while only recording five shots and two corner opportunities of its own. When Syracuse forward Gloria Nantulya scored a goal with under a minute left in the first half, Rutgers answered quickly after halftime.
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